Patrick Tamkee

Zoology Aquatics Facility manager and Health and Safety chair.

I eat, sleep, and breathe fish...sometimes I actually smell like fish. Embedded in my soul is the passion for fish which includes fish husbandry, fishing, and fish research.   If I'm not found at home messing with my fish tanks or at the aquatics facility, then I'm most likely fishing. Early research included investigating the effects of priming on rainbow trout fertilization success, followed by studying population genetics and hybridization with several species of salmonids. More recently I had been working on understanding how historical and contemporary geography influenced fish movement using genetics.

I currently help run the Zoology Aquatics Facility otherwise know as InSEAS (Initiative for the study of the environment and it's aquatic systems) as well as assisting the department to become a safe workplace as the chair of the local safety team.

I am interested in almost anything fish related including keeping and breeding tropical fish and well as understanding their physiology and behaviour.  My life long passion has been trying to study the factors responsible in triggering the 'consumption' reflex in fish, particularly in salmonids and some larger marine fish species. Environmental conditions have been investigated including humidity, photoperiod, geography, and temperature. Non-environmental variables have also been studied including colour preference, organic or inorganic attractants, and speed of lure retrieval.  Rigorous research has been conducted investigating this phenomenon and many resources has been spent with some results although nothing publishable. This research is ongoing and if you would like to assist, you can visit my Go Fund me page.