Rowan Haigh

I work on fisheries stock assessments (primarily groundfish), software packages for the R statistical platform, and data analysis.
Current research and/or projects
I am a member of the rockfish assessment group (Offshore Section, Aquatic Resources Research & Assessment Division, Pacific Biological Station, Nanaimo BC), which is responsible for reviewing the biology, distribution, and abundance of rockfish like Pacific Ocean Perch (Sebastes alutus) and other species of Sebastes and Sebastolobus that live on the continental shelf and slope of British Columbia.
My duties are heavily oriented to exploratory data analysis, statistical inference, and population modeling. My program also produces a variety of software packages for the R statistical platform, available on CRAN (https://cran.r-project.org/) and GitHub (https://github.com/pbs-software). These packages, designed to facilitate assessment productivity, promote the Pacific Biological Station by using the "PBS" moniker (PBSmapping, PBSmodelling, etc.) and have attracted a worldwide user community.
Professional activities / interests
- Groundfish stock assessment
- R package creation
- Harmful algal blooms
- Phytoplankton ecology and taxonomy
Education and awards
M.Sc. Biological Oceanography, University of British Columbia, 1988
B.Sc. Zoology, University of British Columbia, 1980
M.B.A., University of British Columbia, 1995
Additional links
Key publications
- Compositional analysis of catch curve data with an application to Sebastes maliger.
- Reference points and management strategies: lessons from quantum mechanics.
- A simulation model for designing groundfish trawl surveys.
- The longspine thornyhead fishery along the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada: portrait of a developing fishery.
- Spatial and temporal distributions of microplankton during the summers of 1992-93 in Barkley Sound, British Columbia, with emphasis on harmful species.
- Phytoplankton ecology of Sechelt Inlet, a fjord system on the British Columbia coast. II. Potentially harmful species.
- The ecology of fish-killing blooms of the chloromonad flagellate Heterosigma in the Strait of Georgia and adjacent waters.
- Phytoplankton ecology of Sechelt Inlet, a fjord system on the British Columbia coast. I. General features of the nano- and microplankton.
- Mosaicism of microplankton communities in the northern Strait of Georgia, British Columbia.
- The distribution of potentially harmful phytoplankton species in the northern Strait of Georgia, B.C.