Dr Kate Hutson

Biography/ Background

I was bitten by the parasite bug when I was in primary school. My Mum extracted a head louse out of my best friends hair and showed it to us underneath a microscope. 

Fishing came later on. I fished with my Pop. We caught rainbow trout in his back creek and flathead in Port Phillip Bay.

I have been hooked by Marine Parasitology ever since.

To check out some of the beasts (fish) and bugs (parasites) that I work on, see www.marineparasites.com

 

Qualifications

2007    PhD The University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

2001    BSc Hons (First Class Honours) The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Teaching Interests

Research Students

Sarah Catalano - Honours student, The University of Adelaide (2009). Project title 'Parasites of important recreational fishes in southern Australian waters'. (Co-supervised by Ian Whittington, SA Museum)

Emma Brock - Summer Research Scholarship student (2008/09). Project title 'Parasites as potential stock indicators for southern sea garfish Hyporhamphus melanochir' South Australian Research and Development Institute Aquatic Sciences scholarship. (Co-supervised by Mike Steer, SARDI)

 

Research Interests

Parasites threaten the sustainability and profitability of the finfish aquaculture industry. Mass mortalities of farmed fish are frequently associated with parasite infections, while parasite transfer from farmed to wild fish may lead to the collapse of wild fisheries. Treatment of parasite outbreaks can be difficult because parasites that infect farmed and wild fish are largely unknown.

 

My primary research areas include: 

1) parasite taxonomy: collection, identification and description

2) parasite transmission: studies of parasite life histories and wild fish movement

3) parasite risk assessment: investigating interactions between wild and aquaculture fishes

4) biological and conventional tagging: using parasites as biological tags to assess stock structure

 

My postdoctoral fellowship is funded by an Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) grant and Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) grant awarded to K.S. Hutson (Primary Investigator) and I.D. Whittington (Joint Investigator).

 

Research Funding

2007-2010 Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) (60%) / Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) Grant (40%): $333,752 to K.S. Hutson & I.D. Whittington: Metazoan parasite survey of selected macro-inshore fish of southeastern Australia, including species of commercial importance

 2007 ARC/NHMRC Research Network for Parasitology Travel Award: $6,000 to K.S.Hutson: Italy, Spain and England for research collaboration

2003-2006 Fisheries Research&Development Corportation (FRDC): $136,650 to C. Johnston, I. Ernst, I.D. Whittington, B.M. Gillanders, K.S. Hutson & C.B. Chambers: Wild kingfish populations in Spencer Gulf: potential for parasite interactions with farmed fish, discrimination of farmed and wild fish and assessment of migratory movements

2005 ARC/NHMRC Research Network for Parasitology Travel Award: K.S. Hutson: University of Queensland for research collaboration

Publications

Repulles-Albelda A., Montero F.E., Holzer A.S., Ogawa K., Hutson K.S. & Raga J.A. 2008. Speciation of Paradeontacylix spp. (Sanguinicolidae) in Seriola dumerili. Two new species of the genus Paradeontacylix from the Mediterranean, Parasitology International, 57, 405-414.

Hutson K.S., Smith, B.P., Godfrey, R.T., Whittington, I.D., Chambers, C.B., Ernst, I. & Gillanders, B.M. 2007. A tagging study on yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi) and Samson fish (S. hippos) in South Australian waters. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 131, 128-134.

Hutson K.S., Ernst I. & Whittington I.D. 2007. Risk assessment for parasites of Seriola lalandi (Carangidae) in South Australian sea-cage aquaculture. Aquaculture, 271, 85-99.

Hutson K.S. & Tang, D. 2007. Naricolax hoi n. sp. (Cyclopoida: Bomolochidae) from Arius maculatus (Siluriformes: Ariidae) off Taiwan and redescription of N. chrysophryenus (Roubal, Armitage & Rohde, 1983) from a new host, Seriola lalandi (Perciformes: Carangidae), in Australian waters. Systematic Parasitology, 68, 97-113.

Hutson K.S., Mooney A.J., Ernst I. & Whittington I.D. 2007. Metazoan parasite assemblages of wild Seriola lalandi (Perciformes: Carangidae) from eastern and southern Australia. Parasitology International. 56: 95-105.

Hutson K.S. & Whittington I.D. 2006. Paradeontacylix godfreyi n. sp. (Digenea: Sanguinicolidae) from the heart of wild Seriola lalandi (Perciformes: Carangidae) in southern Australia. Zootaxa. 1151: 55-68.

Diggles B. & Hutson K.S. 2005. Diseases of kingfish (Seriola lalandi) in Australasia. Aquaculture Health International. VIP Publications Ltd, Auckland Issue 3, Nov 2005.

Hutson K.S., Ross D.J., Day R. & Ahern J.J. 2005. Australian scallops do not recognise the introduced predatory seastar, Asterias amurensis. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 298: 305-309.

Hutson K.S., Styan C.A., Beveridge I., Keough M.J., Zhu X.Q., Abs EL-Osta Y.G. & Gasser R.B. 2004. Elucidating the ecology of bucephalid parasites using a mutation scanning approach. Molecular and Cellular Probes. 18: 139-146.

 

Professional Associations

2008-present Communications, the Royal Society of South Australia
2007-present Council Representative, the Australian Society for Parasitology
2007-2008 Councillor, the Royal Society of South Australia
2004-present Honorary member, the Adelaide Game Fishing Club
2001-present Member of the Australian Society for Parasitology
2001-present Member of the Australian Marine Science Association

Community Engagement

One of my recent projects has involved tagging wild kingfish and Samson fish to better understand their migratory movements. I have had a fantastic response to this work in the fishing community, with many recreational fishers getting involved. Although it is a small-scale tagging programme, it is the only one that has ever been done on big game fish (other than tuna) in SA waters. We have tagged nearly 400 hundred fish so far.  See www.adelaidegamefishingclub.com

Entry last updated: Wednesday, 27 May 2009