Responsibilities

  • Responsible for conducting the skipjack tuna stock assessment.
  • Improving the tuna catch and size composition estimates of the purse seine fishery using spatial-temporal models.

Education

  • Ph.D. Fisheries Science, Virginia Tech, USA, 2020.
  • M.Sc. Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at Galveston, USA, 2016.
  • B.A. Marine Ecology, Ocean University of China, China, 2012.

Biography

Dr. Rujia Bi joined the Stock Assessment Program in 2024. She is the stock assessment scientist responsible for conducting the stock assessment of skipjack tuna in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Rujia is an interdisciplinary scholar with training in fisheries science, quantitative science, computing, and marine ecology, dedicated to addressing questions related to sustainability and conservation. Her research explores how environmental, anthropogenic factors, and climate changes influence the spatiotemporal dynamics of fish populations and aims at improving pragmatic management strategies to sustain these populations. As a part of her Ph.D. research at Virginia Tech, Rujia improved the current stock assessment of yellow perch in Lake Erie by incorporating the inherent spatial structure of the population and discussing the implications of such a change on management. For her postdoctoral research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Limnology, Rujia conducted an analysis of stock assessment model performance to understand how climate change may be altering the quality of scientific advice used to guide fishery management.

Other publications

Bi, R., Collier, C., Mann, R., Mills, K., Saba, V., Wiedenmann, J., Jensen, O.P. 2022. How consistent is the advice from stock assessments? Empirical estimates of inter-assessment bias and uncertainty for marine fish and invertebrate stocks. Fish and Fisheries 10.1111/faf.12714

i, R., Jiao, Y., Browder, J.A. 2021. Climate driven spatiotemporal variations in seabird bycatch hotspots and implications for seabird bycatch mitigation. Scientific Reports 10.1038/s41598-021-00078-z

Bi, R., Jiao, Y., Weaver, L.A., Greenlee, B., McClair, G., Kipp, J., Wilke, K., Haas, C., Smith, E. 2021. Environmental and anthropogenic influence on spatiotemporal dynamics of Alosa in Chesapeake Bay tributaries. Ecosphere 10.1002/ecs2.3544

Bi, R., Zhou, C., Jiao, Y. 2020. Detection of fish movement patterns across management unit boundaries using age-structured Bayesian hierarchical models with tag-recovery data. PLoS ONE 10.1371/journal.pone.0243423

Bi, R., Jiao, Y., Bakka, H., Browder, J.A. 2020. Long-term climate ocean oscillations inform seabird bycatch from pelagic longline fishery. ICES Journal of Marine Science 10.1093/icesjms/fsz255

Li, M., Jiao, Y., Bi, R., Ren, Y. 2020. Population status and distribution of whitespotted conger (Conger myriaster) in Yellow Sea: an important migratory species along coastal China with limited data. Fisheries Oceanography 10.1111/fog.12444

Bi, R., Jiao, Y., Zhou, C., Hallerman, E. 2019. A Bayesian spatiotemporal approach to inform management unit appropriateness. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 10.1139/cjfas-2017-0526

Bi, R., Liu, H. 2017. Effects of variability among individuals on zooplankton population dynamics under environmental conditions. Marine Ecology Progress Series 10.3354/meps11967