California Sea Grant Extension Team welcomes Devin Fitzgerald

California Sea Grant welcomes Devin Fitzgerald as a new Staff Research Associate for the Extension Team. Devin is based out of San Jose State University’s Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and focuses on developing new techniques and markets for aquaculture.

Fitzgerald has been enthusiastic about aquaculture since discovering a barramundi fish farm near his undergraduate campus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. An internship there, at Australis Aquaculture, led to a full-time position as a cultruist. Three years later, Fitzgerald shifted into aquaculture research, joining a laboratory at Dartmouth University that focused on developing novel feed for tilapia. His research team eventually relocated to the University of California, Santa Cruz.

“It was timed perfectly,” Fitzgerald notes, laughing: the move occurred during the depths of a New Hampshire winter. In his off time, he enjoys camping and hiking with his dogs, Scout and Maya. Perhaps more important, though, was that California offered an opportunity to help design the facilities at the new laboratory, which, as at Dartmouth, studied microalgal species that could serve as a replacement for fish oil in aquaculture feed. 

Once he reached the West Coast, Fitzgerald crossed paths with California Sea Grant and decided he wanted to find work that included policy and extension. Fortunately, interest and investment in the field were reaching an all-time high. “And with that comes lots of different considerations necessary for sustainable development of the sector,” says Luke Gardner, a California Sea Grant Extension Specialist based at Moss Landing. California Sea Grant created the Staff Research Associate position to help ensure that California’s communities have the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions about how to incorporate aquaculture — and Fitzgerald was a perfect fit.

Fitzgerald is especially excited about projects growing Olympia oysters that will be released as part of restoration projects, and developing methodology for raising purple urchin, which can help restore kelp forests. 

“California is such a great state for innovation,” Fitzgerald says. “I’m eager to help ensure aquaculture is a part of the path forward.”