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James B. Wood Ph.D.

Marine Biologist
Author
Underwater Photographer
Webmaster



Education

2000 Doctor of Philosophy (Biology, Dr. Ron O'Dor Major Professor), Dalhousie University

1994 Bachelor of Science, Highest Honors (Zoology, Economics minor), University of Florida

Current Positions

Associate Director and Director of Education at the Waikiki Aquarium (starting Dec 8th)

Director of Invertebrates and founding member of MarineBio.org (2006 to present)

Previous Positions

Director of Education at the Aquarium of the Pacific (Jan. 2009 - Aug. 2010).

Assistant Research Scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (Sept. 2003 - Dec. 2008)

Adjunct professor at Duke University (2005 to 2007)

Census of Marine Life Education and Outreach Liaison (2003, one year contract)

CephBase Project Manager and Research Associate II at the University of Texas Medical Branch (2000-2003)

Field Experience

  Shipboard Experience

Research Cruises: DFO cruises in the Bay of Fundy, Canada; 3 research cruises to the Dry Tortugas, Florida, Similan Islands, Thailand; and off Bermuda

Lived aboard my 41 foot Columbia sloop, S.V. Kraken, from 2000-2003 and 2005-2008.

Captained Kraken from Galveston, Texas through the Bermuda Triangle to St. George's, Bermuda. As captain, my duties included provisions, coastal and open ocean navigation and most importantly, crew safety.

  Diving

Experienced diver (open water, advanced, nitrox, rescue diver), AAUS Scientific Diver (BIOS 2004). Dives logged include: Bermuda; Bonaire Marine Park; Florida Dry Tortugas National Park, West Palm Beach, The Florida Keys, Crystal River; Hawaii Kauai, Oahu; Micronesia; Grand Caymans; Nova Scotia, Canada; the Red Sea, Egypt; Similan Island Marine Park, Thailand, Indonesia and in various aquariums and research institutions.

  Other Field Experience

Experienced with marine animal husbandry including setting up and maintaining flow through and closed systems.

Emergency first responder, DAN oxygen and CPR training

Semi-professional underwater photographer (1995-current)

Education Experience

  Course Instructor - University Level

Courses at BIOS are hands-on field based courses consisting of equal parts of lecture, field trips and labs. These courses are taught to upper level undergraduates from Duke University and affiliated institutions in the winter, international undergraduate and graduate students as well as professional educators in the summer, and University of Rhode Island, Roger Williams and affiliated institutions in the fall. Except where otherwise noted, I was the sole instructor responsible for teaching the course as well as coordinating boats, trucks and hiring and advising teaching assistants.

Marine Invertebrate Zoology (Co-instructor fall 2003, winter 2004, fall 2004; Sole instructor winter 2005, fall 2005, winter 2006, fall 2006, winter 2007)

Sensory Physiology and Animal Behavior (Co-instructor, winter 2005)

Marine Biology and Oceanographic Research (Co-instructor , fall 2003, fall 2004, fall 2005, fall 2006)

Scientific Photography (Sole instructor 2004, 2005)

  Teaching Assistant - University Level

As a doctoral candidate at Dalhousie University, I served as a teaching assistant for: Behavioral Ecology (Spring 1997, Spring 1998, Spring 1999), Marine Diversity (Fall 1997, Fall 1998), Biology 1000 (Fall 1996) and Invertebrate Zoology (1994-1996).

  Non-Traditional Education Experience

National Ocean Science Bowl Biological Technical Advisory Panelist (Washington D.C. Nov. 2006)

National Ocean Science Bowl Question Writer (2006)

Outreach Liaison and Webmaster for the Census of Marine Life.

I taught Texas high school teachers (Eisenhower grants) marine biology. I ran laboratory tours for Junior life guards, scouts, shell clubs, elder hostels, medical students, Texas A&M students and other groups as needed. (2001-2003) Similar experience at BIOS (2003-2006)

Nature documentaries, public presentations, newspaper interviews and web pages as outlined in the multimedia outreach section.

  Students Mentored at BIOS

Pending 2 NSF-REU students, fall 2007

Dawn Formica (Galbraith Fellowship from Eckerd College, Summer 2007)
Octopus enrichment and learning

Matthew Viney (Bermuda Program, Summer 2007)
Octopus enrichment and learning

Jared Kibele (NSF-REU, Fall 2006)
Visual communication in Caribbean Reef Squid, Sepioteuthis sepioidea.

Rowena Day (CABBS, Summer and Fall 2006)
Squid tagging - temperature effects.

Blair Paul (CABBS, Summer 2006)
Squid tagging - salinity and pH.

Gabrielle Corradino and Brian Cuzzocreo (Amity High School, 1 week in 2006)
Bar Code of Life - FishBOL.

Caitlin Gregg (Princeton, Summer 2005)
Visual signaling in the Caribbean Reef Squid Sepioteuthis sepioidea in the lab.

Diana Palacios (NSF-REU, Fall 2005)
Investigating the anti-predator schooling behavior of the Caribbean Reef Squid, Sepioteuthis sepioidea in the wild.

Kim Zeeh (Galbraith Fellowship from Eckerd College, Summer 2005)
The impact of visible implant elastomer tags on the growth rate of captive Caribbean Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea).
(Zeeh and Wood publication in preparation)

Ellen Zuckerman (Princeton, Summer 2005)
A preliminary investigation of water chemistry and microbial communities in Bermuda’s anchialine caves.

Suzanne Replinger (NSF-REU, Fall 2004)
A preliminary investigation of the use of subcutaneous tagging in Caribbean reef squid Sepioteuthis sepioidea (Cephalopoda: Loliginidae).
(Publication in Fisheries Research)

Nancee Kumpfmiller (Fall 2003, 2004)
Octopus camouflage (Octopus vulgaris).

Kelsie Jackson (CephSchool Intern, summer 2004)
Wood J.B. and Jackson K.J. 2005 Bermuda's Marine Biodiversity. Published.
Cephalopod lesson plans

Grants and Awards

2002 - 2004 National Science Foundation (NSF) educational National Science grant to create CephSchool, a pedagogic portal for teaching biological principles with cephalopod mollusks ($924,000): Co-PI.

2003 Stations of the Challenger Expedition on Line: Off-campus Collaborator ($13,000).

2000 - 2002 National Oceanographic Partnership Program grant to greatly expand CephBase ($500,000): Project Manager.

1998 -1999 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant to develop a pilot online species level database CephBase: Project Developer.

1996 Chicago Field Museum scholarship to study the deep-sea octopus, Graneledone verrucosa.

1994 -1997 Izaak Killam Memorial Fellowship.

1994 Smithsonian internship studying cephalopod paralarvae.

1993 National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates at the University of Hawaii.

Publications

  Peer Reviewed

Byrne, R.A., Wood J.B., Anderson R.C. and Griebel U. 2010. Non-invasive methods of identifying and tracking wild squid. Ferrantia 59, 22-31. Get the pdf

Wood J.B., Pennoyer K.E. and Derby C. D. (In press) Ink is a conspecific alarm cue in the Caribbean reef squid, Sepioteuthis sepioidea. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology

Anderson R.A., Wood J.B., Mather J. (In press) Diet of Octopus vulgaris in the Caribbean: Variety is the spice of life. MEPS

Zeeh K.M. and Wood J.B. (In Press) Impact of Visible Implant Elastomer Tags on Growth Rates of Captive Caribbean Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea). Fisheries Research.

Replinger S.E. and Wood J.B.. (2007) A preliminary investigation of the use of subcutaneous tagging in Caribbean reef squid Sepioteuthis sepioidea (Cephalopoda: Loliginidae). Fisheries Research. Vol 84, 308-313.

Melzner F., Forsythe J.W., Lee P.G., Wood J.B., Piatkowskia U. and Clemmesena C. (2005) Estimating recent growth in the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis: Are nucleic acid based indicators for growth and condition the method of choice? JEMBE. 317: 37-51.
Get the pdf

Semmens J.M., Pecl G.T., Villanueva R., Jouffre D., Sobrino I., WoodJ.B. and P. R. Rigby. (2004) Understanding octopus growth: patterns, variability and physiology. Marine and Freshwater Research. 55, 367-377.
Get the pdf

Wood J.B. and Anderson R.A. (2004) Interspecific evaluation of octopus escape behavior. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science. 7(2), 95-106.
Get the pdf

Wood J.B., Byrne R.B. Monks N. (2003) Coleoid cephalopods through time and cyberspace: using CephBase to examine behavior and selection. Berliner Geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen. 3: 261-266.
Get the pdf

Byrne R.A., Griebel U., Wood J.B. and Mather J.A. (2003) Squid say it with skin a graphical model for skin displays in Caribbean Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea). Berliner Geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen. 3: 29-35.

Anderson R.A., Wood J.B. and Byrne R.A. (2002) Octopus senescence: the beginning of the end. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science. 5(4): 275-283.

Anderson R.A. and Wood J.B. 2001 Enrichment for giant pacific octopuses: happy as a clam? Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science. 4: 157-168.
Get the pdf

Adamo S.A., Brown W.M., King A.J., Mather J., Mather L., Shoemaker K.L., and Wood J.B. 2000 Agonistic and reproductive behaviours of the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis in a semi-natural environment. Journal of Molluscan Studies. 66: 417-419.

Wood J.B., Day C.L., Lee P.G., and O'Dor R.K. 2000. CephBase: testing ideas for cephalopod and other species-level databases. Oceanography 13(3):14-20.

Wood J.B. and O'Dor R.K. 2000. Do larger cephalopods live longer? Effects of temperature and phylogeny on interspecific comparisons of age and size at maturity. Marine Biology 136(1): 91-99.
Get the pdf

Wood J.B. 2000. The natural history of Bathypolypus arcticus (Prosch), a deep-sea octopus. PhD Thesis, Dalhousie University.
Get a pdf copy, 14.5 MB)

Wood J.B. and Wood D.A. 1999. Enrichment for an Advanced Invertebrate. The Shape of Enrichment. 8(3): 1-5.

Wood J.B., Kenchington E. and O'Dor R.K. 1998. Reproduction and embryonic development time of Bathypolypus arcticus, a deep-sea octopod (Cephalopoda: Octopoda). Malacologia 39(1-2): 11-19.

  Books

Mather J.A., Anderson R.C. and Wood J.B. 2010. Octopus: The Ocean's Intelligent Invertebrate. Timber Press. 240pp.

  Reports and book chapters

Wood J.B. and Jackson K.J. 2005 Bermuda's Marine Biodiversity. In: Caribbean Marine Biodiversity: The Known and the Unknown. Miloslavich P. and Klein E.(EDS). DEStech Publications, Inc., Lancaster, PA. 324pp.

Wood J.B., Zhang P.Y., Costello M.J. and Grassle F.J. 2005 An introduction to OBIS (www.iobis.org). In: Caribbean Marine Biodiversity: The Known and the Unknown. Miloslavich P. and Klein E. (EDS). DEStech Publications, Inc., Lancaster, PA. 324pp.

Wood J.B., O'Dor R.K. and U. Piatkowski. 2001 Introduction to CephBase www.cephbase.utmb.edu ACP-EU Fisheries Research Report No. 8, ACP-EU Fisheries Research Initiative, ISSN 1025-3971, 44-49.
Get the pdf

Piatkowski U. and Wood J.B. 2001 Cephalopods: What makes them an ideal group for an Internet database. ACP-EU Fisheries Research Report No. 8, ACP-EU Fisheries Research Initiative, ISSN 1025-3971, 39-43.
Get the pdf

  Popular

Anderson R.C. and Wood J.W. 2009. Feeding Octopuses Live Crabs is Good Enrichment. Drum and Croaker. Vol. 40, pgs 9-11.

Wood J.B. and Anderson R.C. (2009) Keeping captive cephalopods. Marine Fish and Reef USA. 11: 18-31.

Wood J.B. and Joshua Wiegert . (2008) Coral Reproduction. Marine and Reef USA

Wood J.B. and Zeeh K.M. December (2007) Fluorescence: Aquarium Glow Lights. Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine.

Wood J.B. and Zeeh K.M. March 2007. Bioluminescence: Fireworks in the Night. Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine.

Worthington R. and Wood J.B. 2003 Top 50 Signs That Your Octopus is Getting Out of Hand. Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine.

Wood J.B. 2002 What we don't know about nautilus. Tentacle, no. 10, Jan. 2002, pgs 22-23.

Wood J.B. 1999. The Importance of Stability in Aquariums. Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine. vol. 22, no. 4.

Wood J.B. and Wood D.A. 1998. James's Rearing Chambers. Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine. vol. 21, no. 12.

Wood J.B. 1998. Cuttlefish Husbandry. Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine. vol. 21, no. 7-10.
Part 1, July 1998
Part 2, Aug. 1998
Part 3, Sep. 1998 (plus cover photo)
Part 4, Oct. 1998

Wood J.B. 1995. Raising and Rearing Octopus briarieus In: The Journal of Maquaculture (The Breeder's Registry) . vol. 3, no. 2.

Wood J.B. 1994. Don't Fear the Raptor; an Octopus in the Home Aquarium. Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine. vol. 17, no. 4.

Wood J.B. 1991. Carpet Crisis. Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine. vol. 14, no. 11.

Reviewer for:

Marine Biology
Oceanography
Pacific Science
Vie et Milieu
IJCP


Meetings and Presentations

Wood J.B. 2006. Outreach needs for barcoding of marine life. DNA Barcoding for CoML Workshop. The Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences. Amsterdam, May 15-17.

Wood J.B. and Jackson K. 2004 Bermuda's Marine Biodiversity. Caribbean Marine Biodiversity: The known and the unknown Isla de Margarita, Venezuela, June 15-17.

Wood J.B., Zhang P.Y., Costello M.J. and J.F. Grassle 2004 An introduction to OBIS (www.iobis.org). Caribbean Marine Biodiversity: The known and the unknown Isla de Margarita, Venezuela, June 15-17.

Wood J.B. and Shaw C.M. 2003 Introduction to CephSchool. Joint Conference on Digital Libraries. Houston, TX May 28-31.

Wood J.B. 2003 CephSchool. Cephalopod International Advisory Council (CIAC) conference. Phuket Thailand, February 17-21, 2003.

Wood J.B., Shaw C.M. 2002 Ceph School: A pedagogic portal for teaching biological principles with cephalopod mollusks. The National Science Foundation (NSF) National Science Digital Library (NSDL) all Projects Meeting. Washington D.C., December 2-4 2002.

Wood J.B., Byrne R.A. and Monks K. 2002 Understanding the past by looking at the present; using CephBase to examine behavior and selection in coleoid cephalopods. Coleoid cephalopods through time: neontological approaches to their paleobiology in the light of the fossil record. Free University of Berlin, Germany. September 16-19, 2002.

Byrne R.A., Griebel U, Wood J.B.. and Mather J.A. 2002. Squid say it with skin; a graphical model for skin displays in Caribbean Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea). Coleoid cephalopods through time: neontological approaches to their palaeobiology in the light of the fossil record. Free University of Berlin, Germany. September 16-19, 2002.

Wood J.B. 2001. CephBase II - a new tool for quantifying, cataloging and investigating cephalopod biodiversity. World Congress of Malacology. Vienna, Austria. (August 19-25 2001).

Wood J.B. and Forsythe J.W. 2001. CephBase Image Database. 27th International Ethological Conference. Tübingen, Germany. (August 22-29, 2001). See the Online poster.

Wood J.B. and O'Dor R.K. 2000. How slow can they grow? Not all cephalopods live fast and die young. Cephalopod International Advisory Council (CIAC) conference, GIS and database workshop, Aberdeen Scotland. (July 5-7, 2000).

Wood J.B. 2000. Databases, Cephalopods and You. Cephalopod International Advisory Council (CIAC) conference, Aberdeen Scotland. (July 3-4, 2000).

Wood J.B., Day C.L. and O'Dor R.K. 1999. CephBase, OBIS and Standardization OBIS (Ocean Biogeographical Information System) Workshop. Washington D.C.

Wood J.B., Day C.L. and O'Dor R.K. 1998. What is CephBase? International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Portugal.

Wood J.B., Brown S. and O'Dor R.K. 1997. First lab rearing of Bathypolypus arcticus, a deep-sea octopus. Northeast Regional Animal Behavior Meetings, Woods Hole, Mass.

Wood J.B. and O'Dor R.K. 1996. From the tropics to the arctic (us) - the importance of temperature in testing life history hypotheses. CIAC meeting in Australia.

Wood J.B. 1996. Life history and behavior of Bathypolypus arcticus - preliminary results. Program Abstracts, 62nd Annual AMU Meeting, Chicago, Illinois.

Wood J.B., Kenchington E., and O'Dor R.K. 1996. Reproduction of Bathypolypus arcticus, a deep-sea octopod (Cephalopoda: Octopoda). Canadian Society of Zoologists. 27(2): 107. St. John, Newfoundland.

Multimedia Educational Outreach

  Nature Documentaries

Featured Scientist in "BIOS Explorer, Changing Climates, Changing Coasts" (2007)

Featured scientist, on "Watercolors" the next Liquid Motion production (In production, filmed 2006)

Featured scientist, on the award winning nature special "The Circle of Life" (2006)

Featured scientist, nature special: "Tentacles" - A Discovery Channel and National Geographic special on communication in Caribbean Reef Squid. (2004)

Consultant and Animal Handler, Discovery Channel's nature special "The Ultimate Guide: Octopus" (1998)

  Radio

Interviewed on the subject of octopuses for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) Maritime Noon show (May 27,1999)

  Major Public Presentations

Invited speaker, Aquarium of the Pacific. (2003)

Invited speaker, Animal Behavior Society Symposium on Careers in Science. Bloomington, IN (2003)

Invited speaker, Cape Cod Museum (2001)

Invited speaker, Western Marine Conference in Sacramento, California (June 23-25, 2000)

  Websites

Director of Invertebrates at MarineBio.org (2006 - present)

Census of Marine Life OBIS international committee member (2003), technical participant (2000-2003), developer (1998-2003)

Webmaster and Project Manager for CephBase (1998-2003)

Developer and moderator of the cephalopod listserv, now ceph-group (1997-present)

Webmaster for The Cephalopod Page (http://www.thecephalopodpage.org) (1995-present)


  Selected News

Underwater Intelligence by Amanda Dale, The Royal Gazette July 21 2007.

  Other

Scientific Consultant and stock photographer for various text and children's books such as Diane Swanson's children's book Welcome to the World of Octopuses and the book "Portuguese Man-of-War, Floating Stingers" by Natalie Lunis. (1998 - present)

Personal

Physically active outdoor oriented life-style including: sailing, diving, snorkeling, surfing, wakeboarding, snowboarding, photography, camping, canoeing, soccer and racquetball.

Eagle Scout and Phi Beta Kappa honors.

 

 




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The Cephalopod Page (TCP), © Copyright 1995-2024, was created and is maintained by Dr. James B. Wood, Associate Director of the Waikiki Aquarium which is part of the University of Hawaii. Please see the FAQs page for cephalopod questions, Marine Invertebrates of Bermuda for information on other invertebrates, and MarineBio.org and the Census of Marine Life for general information on marine biology.