ASL Hires Julek Chawarski as Biological Oceanographer

ASL brings Julek Chawarski aboard as Biological Oceanographer. Chawarski has nearly a decade of experience in fisheries science, with expertise in forage fisheries and coastal and deep ocean ecosystems. He is responsible for developing consulting services for ocean monitoring clients and developing new tools for hydroacoustic studies.

Chawarski completed a master’s degree in marine biology at the University of Maine. During his studies he designed experiments to investigate the effects of marine protected areas on the recovery of groundfish stocks in the Gulf of Maine. He trained in acoustic analysis and provided new insights into the spatial distribution of herring spawning in inshore waters of Maine. Chawarski is completing his doctorate in fisheries science at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Before joining ASL, Chawarski worked with the Fish, Food & Allied Workers Union, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the Greenland Institute for Natural Resources.

His work helped advance methods of eDNA to detect deep-sea fish and explore the mechanisms that form biogeographic boundaries for fish communities at high latitudes. In 2019, he took part in a Swedish expedition to an uncharted glacial fjord in Northwest Greenland, where the team uncovered new insights into fjord morphology and glacial melting dynamics. In 2022, he traveled by icebreaker to the North Pole to contribute his expertise in the European Fisheries Inventory of the central Arctic Ocean.

Chawarski brings a wealth of knowledge and insight to using echosounders, biological sampling, and other innovative technologies to the studies of aquatic systems and is eager to develop new tools for monitoring the ocean’s health and its resources.