Dr. Shirley is a principal investigator researching the invertebrates
(such as crabs, clams, amphipods, brittle stars and sea cucumbers)
associated with the project's targeted shipwrecks and in parallel
habitats near the wrecks.
Since receiving his doctorate in Zoology and
Physiology from Louisiana State University in 1982, Dr. Shirley has been
conducting research and teaching graduate courses in marine biology at
the Juneau Center, School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. He has been
the principal investigator on ten manned submersible research projects,
has participated in more than forty research cruises, and has extensive
scuba and submersible experience. Dr. Shirley has more than one hundred
scientific publications; nineteen graduate students have received their
degrees with him as their advisor. Dr. Shirley has described new species
of invertebrates from three different phyla from around the world,
including the Arctic, Antarctic, Gulf of Mexico, Mediterranean,
Philippines, and Alaska.
Much of Dr. Shirley’s ongoing research addresses
the life history of commercially important crabs of Alaskan waters. He
has studied the early life history, reproductive biology and movements
of red and golden king crabs, Dungeness crabs, and snow and Tanner
crabs. Most recently Dr. Shirley has been exploring deep-water crabs,
corals and other invertebrates on previously unexplored seamounts in the
Gulf of Alaska using the DSV Alvin to depths of 3000m; he is
Chief Scientist of another Alvin cruise investigating another 5
unexplored seamounts in summer, 2004. Dr. Shirley is a boating and
fishing enthusiast, and enjoys birding, hiking and exploring the remote
wilderness of Alaska.
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