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My research experiences to this point have been quite varied, through mostly REUs and a stint at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, but a common theme is slowly emerging. I am most interested in research relating to population assessments and life-history characterizations of commercially-viable fish species. One of my eventual goals, in the grand scheme, is to assist in providing tools and information needed for more effective fisheries management policies. Living on the Oregon coast, where salmon rules all, my position at ODFW was with the shellfish program, performing surveys and calculating CPUEs for the recreational component of the Dungeness crab fishery. Dungeness crab is currently one of the most fiscally important fisheries in Oregon, and in the past five years, it has yielded banner seasons. However, there are no current stock assessments of any kind for this species. I hope to provide managers with information critical to establishment and reassessment of quotas (updates in biomass and availability calculations, for example) at a point before overfishing and population crash occurs. Here in coastal North Carolina, blue crabs are quite appealing to me as a species to focus my research on. Growing up on the Chesapeake Bay, they have always been an important part of my life. In childhood, we went crabbing every weekend, as I’m sure is true for many people in the area. Blue crab are of huge economic and ecological importance in local NC estuaries, and their life-histories keep them mostly nearshore, hopefully increasing their ability to be assessed and monitored. I feel it is within our reach to attain information about the stock status of the blue crab that will positively influence management decisions to promote longevity and sustainability of the stock. More than that right now, I’ll have to get back to you on. This is my second semester at NCSU, so I am busy taking classes, teaching lab, and getting acclimated to graduate school. After I manage my own life to promote sustainability (in school that is), I will do more to help out the shellfish!
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