Steven Campana

Steven E. Campana is a Canadian fisheries scientist, academic and author. He is a professor of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Iceland.

Campana is most known for his work on fisheries, otoliths and sharks. His publications include more than 200 journal articles along with six books including Otolith Microstructure Examination and Analysis and Photographic atlas of fish otoliths of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. He is the recipient of several best paper awards, a Lifetime Achievement award in Otolith Science in 2004, and was inducted into the Legends of Canadian Fisheries Science and Management by the Canadian Aquatic Resources Section in 2016.

Education
Campana earned a BSc in Biology and Chemistry from Dalhousie University in 1977, followed by a PhD in Zoology from the University of British Columbia in 1983.

Career
Between 1983 and 2015, Campana took on various roles as a federal scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, first as a Research Scientist, then as the Head of the Growth and Production Section and later as a Senior Scientist in the Population Ecology Division. He created and led both the Otolith Research Laboratory (1983–2015) and the Canadian Shark Research Laboratory (1998–2015). Concurrently, he was appointed as an adjunct professor at Dalhousie University in 1986 and at the University of Windsor in 2007. He has been a member of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group since 2003, and has taught and done research as a professor in the Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Iceland since 2015.

Research
Campana's research on otolith structure, chemistry and age and growth has contributed to fisheries science, offering insights into population demographics and movements through techniques such as daily increments, shape analysis, elemental composition and bomb radiocarbon validation. He has conducted research on shark movements using satellite tags and contributed to development of more accurate age and growth methods.

Works
Campana has authored and edited multiple books on fish otoliths. With David K. Stevenson, he summarized techniques and procedures for otolith microstructure research, covering sample collection, data analysis, and various applications in fisheries biology in Otolith Microstructure Examination and Analysis, which was called "well written and organized" by Marine Biologist Erlend Moksness. In addition, he co-edited Recent Developments in Fish Otolith Research with David H. Secor and John M. Dean, presenting papers from the First International Symposium on Fish Otoliths, discussing techniques and applications of otolith analysis for understanding fish life histories. In a review for Ichthyology & Herpetology, George W. Boehlert commented, "Overall, I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in otolith research and the myriad information that can be retrieved from otoliths."

Campana published Photographic Atlas of Fish Otoliths of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, a photographic atlas showcasing light and scanning electron micrographs of sagittal otoliths from the northwest Atlantic. Later, in 2014, he wrote Age Determination of Elasmobranchs, with Special Reference to Mediterranean Species: A Technical Manual, which served as a guide to age determination methods for elasmobranchs, focusing on vertebral sections and image analysis techniques for sharks, skates, and rays in the Mediterranean Sea.

Fish populations and growth
Campana has researched various characteristics of fish populations throughout his career. In a highly cited study, he evaluated methods for accurately and precisely determining the age of fish and sharks, emphasizing validation and highlighting progress and challenges in age validation efforts. Alongside John D. Neilson, he challenged assumptions about age inference from otolith microstructure, proposing a hypothesis on increment formation influenced by circadian rhythms and environmental cues. He also addressed bias in otolith-based growth back-calculations, proposing a biological intercept method to improve accuracy and mitigate Lee's phenomenon.

In a joint research paper that received the 2020 Norwegian Institute of Marine Research Best Paper Award, Campana analyzed century-scale growth variations in Northeast Arctic cod using otolith increments, revealing insights into factors shaping cod growth such as climate, population dynamics, and fishing pressure.

Otolith geochemistry
Campana's work on otolith composition and chemistry has focused on otolith microchemistry and its ecological applications. He explored using otolith chemistry as a natural tag for fish stocks, aiming to enhance fisheries management and understanding of fish populations as a complement to genetic studies. In a collaborative study with Gotje von Leesen, he used otolith oxygen isotopes to reconstruct the temperature history of Atlantic cod populations over the past century, highlighting the link between temperature and stock abundance and its implications for fisheries management. Furthermore, he examined the growing use of fish otoliths as environmental recorders, discussing applications and questioning assumptions, revealing uses alongside areas needing further investigation. Using radioactive traces from 1960s-era nuclear weapons tests as a dated marker, he confirmed the formation of calcified growth bands as valid age indicators in fishes, sharks, bivalves and whales.

Sharks
As Chief Scientist of the Canadian Shark Research Laboratory, Campana led Canadian contributions to international shark population assessments, migrations, environmental influences and fisheries. His research with satellite tags uncovered the high mortality rates of several shark species caught as bycatch in commercial fisheries. Moreover, he highlighted the challenges in managing shortfin mako, porbeagle, and blue sharks due to extensive high-seas range, urging immediate action to prevent further decline.

Selected books

 * Otolith Microstructure Examination and Analysis (1992) ISBN 978-0660147475
 * Recent Developments in Fish Otolith Research (1995) ISBN 978-1570030116
 * Photographic Atlas of Fish Otoliths of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean (2004) ISBN 978-0660191089
 * Fish Otolith Research and Applications Special Issue (2005)
 * Age Determination of Elasmobranchs, with Special Reference to Mediterranean Species: A Technical Manual (2014) ISBN 978-9251083208

Selected articles

 * Campana, S.E., & Neilson, J.D. (1985). Microstructure of fish otoliths. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 42 (5), 1014–1032.
 * Campana, S. E. (1990). How reliable are growth back-calculations based on otoliths?. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 47(11), 2219–2227.
 * Campana, S. E. (1999). Chemistry and composition of fish otoliths: pathways, mechanisms and applications. Marine ecology progress series, 188, 263–297.
 * Campana, S. E. (2001). Accuracy, precision and quality control in age determination, including a review of the use and abuse of age validation methods. Journal of fish biology, 59(2), 197–242.
 * Campana, S. E., & Thorrold, S. R. (2001). Otoliths, increments, and elements: keys to a comprehensive understanding of fish populations?. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 58(1), 30–38.
 * Mattína, H., Campana, S. E., & Jakobsdóttir, K. (2024). Environmental preferences and critical habitat for the velvet belly lanternshark (Etmopterus spinax) in Icelandic waters. Plos one, 19(3), e0299544.