Rate My Professor Gaya Gnanalingam

Her research interests center on fisheries restoration and management for long-term sustainability, incorporating stock enhancement, marine ecology, marine policy, fisheries regulation, indigenous knowledge, and reproductive biology. She utilizes a multidisciplinary approach, including empirical field observations, laboratory experiments, computer modeling, policy analysis, and legislative reviews. Gnanalingam is a member of the Coastal People: Southern Skies research collaboration focused on coastal ecosystem restoration and contributes to projects like Restoring kai moana. She coordinates AQFI 251: Principles of Aquaculture and teaches courses such as ECOL 111: Ecology and Conservation of Biodiversity, MARI 112: Global Marine Systems, MARI 202: Marine Invertebrates, and MARI 204: Marine Ecology and Ecosystems. She supervises several PhD and MSc students on topics including rock lobster populations, greenbone feeding ecology, kelp climate resilience, oyster aquaculture, undaria control, and pāua stress responses. Notable publications include "Integration of Indigenous practices into fisheries legislation" (Marine Policy, 2025), "Changes in fecundity and size at maturity of rock lobster Jasus edwardsii" (Fisheries Research, 2026), "Spiny rock lobster responses to marine heatwave conditions" (Marine Environmental Research, 2025), "Queen conch aquaculture remains a conservation symbol" (Oryx, 2025), "Re-assessment of a blackfoot abalone population" (New Zealand Journal of Marine & Freshwater Research, 2025), and earlier works on Caribbean spiny lobster ecology such as "Directly ageing the Caribbean spiny lobster" (2018) and "Conserving spawning stocks through harvest slot limits" (2020). She serves as an Early-Career Editorial Board Member for the New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research. Her work has garnered over 170 citations and influences marine policy and conservation in New Zealand.