Culum has made a significant contribution to the study of behavioural ecology of fishes over his research career. His research niche lies in the study of fish behaviour and its application to fisheries science with his most significant contribution being enhancing our understanding of fish cognition and behaviour.
Culum is a well-known champion of fish intelligence. All but six of his 180+ peer reviewed papers and one of his 20 book chapters have fishes as the primary focus. Collectively he has 200+ publications which have been cited over 12,650 times and he has an H-index of 59.