Projects

PRISTINE

Prehistoric Fisheries Assisting Marine Baselines

PRISTINE has been dedicated to providing reliable ecological information on fishing exploitation from a long-term perspective in the Indo-Pacific region, dating back five thousand years, through the identification and quantification of the variety of exploited fish species through palaeoproteomics.

Nayeli Jiménez Cano

Vanuatu

Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle | Paris, France

MSCA-European Comission

2022-2024

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101067179/es

THE CAUSE OF MUCH CHAGRIN

Using Marine Shagreen as a Tool for Elasmobranch Historical Ecology

This project employs non-destructive methods and archival research to learn more about the marine shagreen objects housed in the Winterthur Museum collections. Marine shagreen is a storied, luxury leather that reached its peak popularity between the 17th-19th centuries in Northwestern Europe.

Rachel M. Winter

Winterthur, Delaware, USA

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library | USA

National Endowmen for the Humanities

March – June 2025

COASTAL TALES

Telling Adaptations; Living Environmental Stories for Coastal Resilience

The project’s aim is to show how heritage stories can generate tangible local action that diverse communities can draw on and be inspired by to adapt to a changing climate sustainably. Researchers and Project Partners in Dublin (Ireland), several locations in Wales, and on Kodiak, Alaska (USA) are working with local community members, heritage entrepreneurs and NGOs to study and support the use of storytelling and other forms of heritage knowledge about coastal and nearshore marine environments to facilitate resilience of coastal communities into the future.

Steven Hartman

Pembrokeshire, Wales

Trinity St. David, Trinity College Dublin, Arizona State U., SUNY -Cortland, University of Washington

Belmont Forum

2024-2027

https://www.tcd.ie/tceh/projects/Coastaltales/

Investigating the history of Sussex kelp habitats and their impact on local communities

Madison is a CDT SuMMeR PhD student working to provide an in-depth historical baseline of kelp habitats in Sussex, by identifying past spatial extent, dynamics and changes over time, in order to inform future management efforts.

Madison Bowden-Parry

Sussex

University of Exeter | UK

NERC

2022-2026

https://experts.exeter.ac.uk/40000-madi-bowdenparry/grants

DAG

Demise of the Atlantic Grey whale

The gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) is currently confined to the North Pacific, but archaeological and palaeontological evidence revealed the species was once also present in the North Atlantic, making it the only large whale species to been extirpated from an entire ocean in historical times. By applying zooarchaeological, palaeoproteomic, stable isotope, and aDNA analysis, DAG attempts to reconstruct the historical ecology of the gray whale in European waters, assess when the species disappeared, and whether this was directly caused by anthropogenic activities.

Youri van den Hurk

Trondheim, Norway

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) | Norway

MSCA-European Comission

2021-2023

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101025598

THE PHANTOM FISH

Untangling the long co-evolution of herring and people along the Pacific Rim

With fieldwork based in Hokkaido, Japan and Sitka Sound, Alaska, this project is aimed to assess the consequences of shifting management regimes for the Pacific herring from Indigenous stewardship to industrial fishing over the past several hundred years using ancient DNA and historical ecology. This work is being conducted in partnership with local representatives in Hokkaido and the Sitka Tribe of Alaska.

Lane M. Atmore

Vancouver, BC, Canada

University of British Columbia | Canada

The National Geographic Society

2024-2026

https://explorers.nationalgeographic.org/directory/lane-atmore

CONCHA

CONCHA explored the role of Atlantic port cities in the early modern era, focusing on cultural and environmental interactions across the Atlantic world

João Paulo Oliveira e Cost

Lisbon, Portugal

 CHAM — Centro de Humanidades, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa | Portugal

EU H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017

2018-2022

https://cham.fcsh.unl.pt/CONCHA/index.html

NORFISH

NorFish focuses on the premise that a 16th century shift in marine fish pricing and supply in conjunction with the Little Ice Age and lowering of sea temperatures not only rise to the North Atlantic Fish Revolution but also forms one of the first documented examples of the disrupting effects of globalisation and climate change.

Poul Holm

Dublin, Ireland

Trinity College Dublin | Ireland

European Research Council

2016-2021

https://cehresearch.org/norfish.html

Archaeological fish in the mayan culture of Chiapas

This project seeks to study fish remains recovered in Palenque, Chiapas with the objective of understanding the effect of human activities on the diversity and genetic structure of native populations over time and to propose strategies that allow their conservation.

Carlos Varela, Alfonso González

San Cristóbal de las Casas, México

El Colegio de la Frontera Sur | México

Secretaría de Humanidades Ciencia y Tecnología

2024-2026

https://www.ecosur.mx/academico/carlos.varela?seccion=inicio

CONVEX SEASCAPE SURVEY

The coastal seas of the world’s continental shelves are the ocean’s biggest carbon store and a major driver of carbon sequestration. The Convex Seascape Survey is an ambitious research programme that will provide critical data on how a healthy ocean and seafloor can slow climate change.

Callum Roberts

Penryn, UK

University of Exeter | UK

Convex Ltd

2022-2027

https://convexseascapesurvey.com/

Mexico’s forgotten sharks: rediscovering a natural legacy

The aim of this project was to develop coastal communities’ awareness of the ecological importance of Terminos Lagoon as a habitat for elasmobranchs and recover local ecological knowledge to empower the current generation of fishers to protect local elasmobranch populations.

Ilse Martínez

Campeche, México

El Colegio de la Frontera Sur | México

Save Our Seas Foundation

2021-2023

https://saveourseas.com/project/mexicos-forgotten-sharks-rediscovering-a-natural-legacy/

Bioremediation and sediment cores from polluted coastal areas

This PhD research focuses on extracting environmental DNA and pollution data from sediment cores collected in highly polluted coastal areas in order to develop bioremediation solutions. Currently we are analyzing pollution data from Cataño, Puerto Rico, with hopes of gaining access to cores from around Pearl Harbor in order to do similar analysis

Ka’ulawena Alipio

Cataño and O’ahu, Puerto Rico and Hawai’i

University of California | San Diego, USA

Indigenous Futures Institute and Tribal Membership Initiative Fellowship

2023-Present