Marine Scotland Science: directory

Finlay Burns

Fishing Technology Group

Fisheries Data Programme

Senior Fisheries Biologist

E-mail: Finlay.Burns@gov.scot

Marine Scotland, Marine Laboratory, 375 Victoria Road, Aberdeen, AB11 9DB, Scotland, UK

Pronouns: he/him/his

Details of specialism

I am a fisheries survey biologist specialising in trawling and icthyoplankton surveys, with particular focus on International Bottom Trawl Surveys (IBTS), MSS Deepwater Slope trawl survey and also mackerel and horse mackerel egg surveys (MEGS). Within Marine Scotland Science (MSS) I have overall responsibility for coordination and delivery of these survey programmes as well as the biological data they collect. My main interest is in fish and icthyoplankton distribution patterns and these are reported together with abundance indices through ICES expert group reports as well as via peer-reviewed publications and Scottish Government commissioned reports.

Within the broad topic area my particular focuses currently include:

• group leader for the fishing technology group at MSS
• co-ordinating mackerel and horse mackerel egg surveys undertaken within MSS
• trawl survey and trawl survey data coordinator within MSS
• survey derived data and survey derived data products such as abundance indices which are used during the assessment process for many commercially important fish species

Main policy links

• sea fisheries
• marine planning and policy

External committees and responsibilities

• member of the ICES International Bottom Trawl Surveys Working Group
• member of and ex co - chair of the ICES Working Group on Mackerel and Horse Mackerel Egg Surveys
• member of the ICES Working Group on DATRAS Governance
• member of the ICES Working Group on Widely Distributed Stocks
• member of the ICES Working Group on Atlantic Fish Larvae and Eggs Surveys
• member of the ICES Workshop on Mackerel, Horse Mackerel and Hake Eggs Identification and Staging
• Aberdeen University – guest lecturer for Icthyoplankton Survey and Benthic Fish lectures as part of the MSc course in Applied marine and Fisheries Ecology

Papers of relevance

Anna Rindorf , Henrik Gislason, Finlay Burns, Jim R. Ellis, David Reid.

Are fish sensitive to trawling recovering in the Northeast Atlantic? Journal of Applied Ecology: 7 June 2020

Imants G. Priede*, Rhoderick W. Burgass, Manolis Mandalakis, Apostolos Spyros, Petros Gikas, Finlay Burns and Jim Drewery. Near-equal compressibility of liver oil and seawater minimises buoyancy changes in deep-sea sharks and chimaeras. April 2020, Journal of Experimental Biology 223(Pt 9):jeb.222943, DOI: 10.1242/jeb.222943

Dafne Eerkes-Medrano, Jim Drewery, Finlay Burns, Paco Cárdenas, Morag Taite, David W. McKay, David Stirling, Francis Neat. A community assessment of the demersal fish and benthic invertebrates of the Rosemary Bank Seamount marine protected area (NE Atlantic). November 2019, Deep Sea Research Part I Oceanographic Research Papers 156:103180, DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr.2019.103180

Details of linked research pages

Finlay Burns ResearchGate profile