Steve Garner, Ph.D.

Steve Garner is a NOAA Affiliate of the Southeast Fisheries Science Center, Panama City Laboratory, through the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS, University of Miami) in the Biology and Life History Branch of the Fisheries, Assessment, Technology, and Engineering Support Division.

Steve began his career in fisheries science as an undergraduate at the University of West Florida through an internship with the National Marine Fisheries Service in the Panama City Laboratory collecting king mackerel otoliths for stock identification. He received a master's degree in Oceanography and Coastal Sciences from Louisiana State University where he studied the potential for artificial oyster reefs to enhance juvenile estuarine fish productivity. He received his Ph.D. in Marine Sciences at the University of South Alabama where he studied the potential for hook regulations to enhance capture efficiency of red snapper fishery. He then completed a postdoc at the University of Florida prior to becoming a NOAA affiliate. His research on the red snapper fishery utilized onboard observing methods, remotely operated vehicles, stereophotography, acoustic tags, and simulation modeling to answer research questions related to movement, gear bias, and selectivity to inform stock assessment.