Dr Mark Camara

Biography

For his PhD, Mark studied the genetic "arms race" between toxic plants, herbivorous insects, and the predators and parasites on those insects. For his MSc., he studied the recruitment dynamics of Eastern oysters in the Albermarle and Pamlico sounds of North Carolina at Duke University and the potential for Queen Conch aquaculture in the Turks and Caicos.  His BSc studies in ecology and evolutionary biology included research projects on the territorial behaviour of dragon flies and neurobiology of leeches.

Post PhD, Mark continued his studies of herbivorous insects as a Fulbright Scholar in Helsinki Finland, transitioned to more basic studies of plant genetics as a National Science Foundation Fellow at the University of Tennessee, and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  He then settled for good on applied genetics and breeding of aquatic species as the Breeding Research Manager for the Aquaculture Genetics and Breeding Technology Center within the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. He was the first Program leader for the USDA Agricultural Research Service's Shellfish Genetics Program in Newport Oregon before joining the Cawthron Institute where he designed and implemented selective breeding programs for Pacific oysters and Greenshell Mussels.  He has worked as a Senior Geneticist at New Zealand Animal Evaluation Ltd., which manages the national-scale genetic evaluation for dairy cattle and a Senior Researcher at Wageningen Livestock Research in the Netherlands where he developed and managed breeding programs for Tilapia in Indonesia and Kenya, European Seabass and Seabream in Greece, and Yellowtail Kingfish via a collaboration wit NIWA.   

Marked joined the NIWA Aquaculture team in Bream Bay in 2023 where he continues working on Kingfish and Hapuka breeding and is actively developing additional fish and shellfish genetic research programmes.