About Holden Harris
For over 15 years, my livelihood has been based on the ocean. As a dive instructor, scientist, and commercial fisherman, I’ve developed a deep and complex relationship with marine life. I see the ocean as an awe-inspiring bioenergetic system, a wilderness I hope to preserve for future generations, and a resource – a means from which I and many others support our families. While these worldviews could appear to contradict each other, they in fact share the same long-term goal: a robust, sustainable ecosystem. My career aims to advance this common goal, using cooperative research and education to guide science-based use and conservation of marine and coastal environments.
Broadly, I’m interested in applied research that guides natural resource management. My work currently focuses on innovative fisheries gear, including deepwater lionfish traps and self-releasing fish hooks; commercialized invasive species harvest and the developing lionfish fishery; and applying ecosystem models to understand and forecast the effects of land-use and climate changes to coastal ecosystems and economies.
