In fall 2023, the School of Renewable Natural Resources hired Dr. Jeff Plumlee as fisheries faculty. He also serves as the fisheries extension specialist for the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service and Louisiana Sea Grant. Plumlee completed his undergraduate (Bachelor of Science, marine fisheries) and graduate studies (Master of Science, wildlife and fisheries sciences) at Texas A&M University in Galveston, Texas, studying feeding and community ecology on reef fishes and coastal sharks. He then completed his graduate studies (doctorate, ecology) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Plumlee’s dissertation focused on the role that habitat plays in the production of estuarine fish and invertebrates.

Before Plumlee arrived at RNR, he completed a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of South Alabama and Dauphin Island Sea Lab correlating fishery recruitment and changing environmental conditions. Plumlee’s lab focuses on topics such as fish life history, recruitment and migratory phenology, as well as essential fish habitat — all in the context of resource management. His extension programing aims to engage and educate fishery stakeholders in Louisiana and across the northern Gulf.