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Sarah Borsetti

Co-PI / Fisheries Researcher

Sarah Borsetti is a Fisheries Researcher at Rutgers University's Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, where she conducts applied research to support the commercial and recreational fishing industries in New Jersey and the broader Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region. Her work focuses on understanding the interactions between fished stock population dynamics and environmental factors. As a Postdoctoral Researcher at Rutgers University, she investigated the complex relationships among commercial shellfish fisheries, offshore wind energy development, and climate change. She holds a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.

Douglas Zemeckis

Co-PI / Associate Professor, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Doug Zemeckis serves as a County Agent II (Associate Professor) with Rutgers Cooperative Extension. In this role, he conducts educational programming and applied research to address local issues related to fisheries, aquaculture, and marine resources management. His work focuses on Ocean, Atlantic, and Monmouth Counties, as well as other coastal counties in New Jersey as needed. Doug has a B.S. in Marine Sciences from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in Marine Science and Technology from the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. 

Joey O’Brien

Laboratory Researcher

Joey O'Brien is a laboratory researcher at the Haskin Shellfish Research lab where he assists in field research related to fisheries management, stock assessment, coastal ecology, aquaculture, and offshore development. After graduating from Towson University in 2017 with a Bachelor's in Biology and minors in Chemistry and Molecular Biology he went to work as a fisheries observer in the Alaska Observer program. In 2019, he left the observer program and started at the Haskin lab as a seasonal field technician helping out on a variety of projects from wild caught oyster stock assessment to shoreline restoration. After his seasonal position ended, he...

Andre Ascura

Laboratory Researcher

Andre joined the lab back in 2022 shortly after graduating from Rutgers University with a bachelor's degree in marine biology. He supports applied fisheries research and long-term monitoring projects within the lab. He is interested in the application of non-extractive optical survey methods to better compliment current fisheries monitoring efforts for the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast region. Starting Fall 2025, he will be enrolled in the Ecology and Evolution Ph.D. program with Rutgers University.