Minorities in the Aquatic Sciences

I am currently examining the abundance and distribution of Coastal Pelagic Species (CPS) of fishes off Oregon and Washington, particularly the northern anchovy, Engraulis mordax. I became an employee for NOAA Fisheries at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, located in Newport, Oregon in June, 2005. As a Biological technician, I collect data on survey trawls along the Oregon and Washington Coasts, aboard commercial and research vessels. I will be pursuing a Master's degree in Fisheries from Oregon State University over the next few years. I am interested in the population dynamics of the northern anchovy, their spawning behavior and their response to environmental forcings, like El Nino, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and Coastal upwelling, and how well they respond to predation as a migratory species in the California Current System. I was awarded a BS, magna cum laude, in Marine Biology from the University of Maine in May 2005, where I conducted extensive fieldwork on salmonids in Maine lakes and rivers as a Biological/Field Research Assistant. I also conducted experimental physiological research on marine copepods, during which I quantified their escape responses using high-speed video. I have been involved with Turtle tagging research in the Hawaiian Islands for NMFS and enjoy surfing and travel. I hope to pursue and PhD in Fisheries Science in the future and enjoy collaboarative research projects on land and at sea, and hope to become more adept at modeling to examine community structure among marine populations of fish.