Email: zzemah@univ.haifa.ac.il
Mobile Tel.: +972-52-9431158
Dr. Ziv Zemah-Shamir
Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Manager and a Research Fellow at Morris Kahn Marine Research Station (MKMRS)
Ziv holds a B.Sc. degree in Biology, an M.A. in Environmental and Natural Resources Management, and a Ph.D. in Marine Biology.
Prior to his academic endeavors, Ziv served in the Israeli Navy (IDF) for many years, fulfilling roles as a diver and field commander officer. During breaks in his military service, he taught at Mevo’ot Yam – a high school with departments focused on Aquaculture and Marine Environmental Science. In this capacity, he served as both a teacher and educator, specializing in life sciences and marine sciences. Ziv also provided training, supervision, and examination of the school’s final thesis, focusing on biotopes and ecotypes.
Since 2016, Ziv has been a research fellow at the Morris Kahn Marine Research Station in Sdot-Yam. In 2020, he completed his Ph.D. thesis titled “The Human-Wildlife Conflict as a Global Challenge: Anthropogenic Factors Affecting Shark Behavior and Physiology – Winter Aggregation of Sharks at Hadera as a Case Study.” During his post-doctoral position at the Morris Kahn Marine Research Station, he worked under the guidance of Prof. Dan Tchernov.
As of March 2023, Ziv has taken on the role of Long-Term Ecological Research Manager at the Morris Kahn Marine Research Station.
- BS.c – Biology, and a teaching certificate by the ministry of education for science in secondary school The University of Haifa, Faculty of Natural Sciences at Oranim, Israel (1996-2000).
- M.A – Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Haifa, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management (2000-2002).
- Ph.D – Marine Biology, University of Haifa, Israel (2016-2020).
His main interest is in top predators due to their important role as bioindicators on the health of the marine environment. Sharks are positioned at the top of the ocean’s food web and regulate marine populations by remove sick and weak fish and increasing biodiversity. His research focuses on various biological and behavioral aspects of marine animals, in particular sharks, guitar fish and marine mammals. He is currently investigating the long-term impacts of climate change and other anthropogenic stressors on distribution, abundance, and movement patterns of aquatic animals (mostly sharks, dolphins, and other top predators in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea).
To conduct this research, he applies active and passive monitoring acoustic telemetry, drone, and diving surveys. This allows him to identify the relevant ecological and anthropogenic functions connecting communities and the ecosystems and to focus on characterizing the main pathways and the relevant fields’ research, upon which he started assessing the effect of cumulative human pressures on functional connectivity. Subsequently, this impact will help contribute to the better management of the multidimensional complexity of our marine ecosystems.
Over the past 4 years, he has been investigating top-predators movement, distribution and behavior under climate change, ocean acidification and human-wildlife conflicts. As part of his research, he is in constant contact with the Municipality of Hadera, Nature Parks Authority and Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as policymakers and Ashdod marine culture farm as stakeholder, in order to develop ecosystem-based management. Especially about the top predator of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
- Morick, D., Levy, Y., Davidovich, N., Wosnick, N., Zemah‐Shamir, Z., Tchernov, D., & Aizenberg, I. (2023). Pneumocoelom and secondary lung collapse treatment in a stranded loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, Israel. Veterinary Record Case Reports, e665.
- Morick, D., Davidovich, N., Zemah-Shamir, Z., Kroin, Y., Bigal, E., Sierra, E., … & Scheinin, A. P. (2023). The first description of a Gammaherpesvirus in a common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Veterinary Research Communications, 1-6.
- Zemah-Shamir, S., Zemah-Shamir, Z., Peled, Y., Sørensen, O. J. R., Belkin, I. S., & Portman, M. E. (2023). Comparing spatial management tools to protect highly migratory shark species in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea hot spots. Journal of Environmental Management, 337, 117691.
- Barash, A., Scheinin, A., Bigal, E., Zemah Shamir,, Martinez, S., & Tchernov, D. (2023). Depth Partitioning and Diel Movement of Two Large Carcharhinid Sharks in Extremely Shallow Waters. Fishes, 8(2), 85. https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes8020085
- Bergman G, Lalzar M, Livne L, Bigal E, Zemah-Shamir Z, Morick D, Tchernov D, Scheinin A, Meron D. (2023) Preliminary study of shark microbiota at a unique mix-species shark aggregation site in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Frontiers in Microbiology.;14:190.
- Morick, Danny, Yuval Maron, Nadav Davidovich, Ziv Zemah-Shamir, Yaarit Nachum-Biala, Peleg Itay, Natascha Wosnick, Dan Tchernov, and Shimon Harrus (2023) “Molecular Identification of Photobacterium damselaein Wild Marine Fish from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea” Fishes 8, no. 2: 60. https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes8020060
- Morick, D., Blum, S. E., Davidovich, N., Zemah-Shamir, Z., Bigal, E., Itay, P., … & Scheinin, A. P. (2023). Photobacterium damselae subspecies damselae Pneumonia in Dead, Stranded Bottlenose Dolphin, Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 29(1), 179-183.https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2901.221345
- Morick, D., Davidovich, N., Zemah-Shamir, Z., Bigal, E., Rokney, A., Rov, M., Blum, S., Fleker, M., Soto, E., Heckman, T. and Lau, S.C.K., 2022. First Isolation and Characterization of Streptococcus agalactiae From a Stranded Wild Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis). Frontiers in Marine Science. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.824071
- Nurit Carmi, Nir Becker, Salay Cohen, Ziv Zemah-Shamir & Shiri Zemah-Shamir (2022) Shattering negative stigmas and creating empathy and willingness to advocate for unpopular endangered species: evidence from shark watching in Israel, Annals of Leisure Research, https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2022.2145977
- Krom, M. D., Tsemel, A., Scheinin, A., Morick, D., Meron, D., Bigal, E. Shemesh, E. Azrieli, B. Aharonovich, D., Zuriel, Nativ, H., Y., Livne, Zemah-Shamir Z., L., Einbinder, S., Tchernov, D. 2022. “Morris Kahn Marine Research Station Report for Activity Years 2015-2021 | Seasons 1-10.” Sdot-Yam.
- Zemah-Shamir, Z., Mourier, J., Ilany, A., Bigal, E., Scheinin, A., & Tchernov, D. (2022). Preliminary insights of a mixed-species shark aggregation: a case study of two carcharhinids from the Mediterranean Sea. Environmental Biology of Fishes, 1-12. IF 1.798
- Zemah-Shamir, Z., Zemah-Shamir, S., Scheinin, A., Tchernov, D., Lazebnik, T., & Gal, G. (2022). A Systematic Review of the Behavioural Changes and Physiological Adjustments of Elasmobranchs and Teleost’s to Ocean Acidification with a Focus on Sharks. Fishes, 7(2), 56. IF 3.170
- Morick, D., Davidovich, N., Zemah-Shamir, Z., Bigal, E., Rokney, A., Rov, M., … & Scheinin, A. (2022). First Isolation and Characterization of Streptococcus agalactiae From a Stranded Wild Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis). Frontiers in Marine Science. 9, p.824071. IF 5.247
- Zemah-Shamir, S., Zemah-Shamir, Z., Tchetchik, A., Haim, A., Tchernov, D., & Israel, Á. (2021). Cultivating marine macroalgae in CO2-enriched seawater: A bio-economic approach. Aquaculture, 737042. IF 5.135
- Zemah Shamir, Z., Zemah Shamir, S., Becker, N., Scheinin, A., & Tchernov, D. (2019). Evidence of the impacts of emerging shark tourism in the Mediterranean. Ocean & Coastal Management, 178, 104847. IF 3.284
- Zemah Samir, Z., Zemah Shamir, S., Tchernov, D., Scheinin, A., & Becker, N. (2019). Shark aggregation and tourism: Opportunities and challenges of an emerging phenomenon. international Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 26(5), 406-414. IF 3.716
- Becker, N., Shamir, S.Z. and Zemah-Shamir, Z., A travel cost model to estimate positive and negative impacts of shark watching tourism along the Israeli coastline.
- Alexandri, Talmon, Ziv Zemah Shamir, Eyal Bigal, Aviad Scheinin, Dan Tchernov, and Roee Diamant. “Localization of acoustically tagged marine animals in under-ranked conditions.” IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing20, no. 3 (2019): 1126-1137. IF 5.577
- Zemah Shamir Ziv. (2020). Sharks in Hadera – research milestones, discoveries, and a glimpse into the future, Israel Nature, and Parks Authority, https://www.parks.org.il/en/article/sharks/
- Zemah Shamir, Z. (2018). Sharks and humans–a natural conflict. In Mediterranean: Natural, Strategic, and Economic Resource” Conference(pp. 1-5).
