Current Research Topics

For a full list of my publications and grants see my Curriculum Vitae or Google Scholar page. Below I summarize projects that are currently taking up most of my research time.

Salmon Recovery

Migratory anadromous salmon and steelhead native to the Pacific Northwest (Oncorhynchus spp.) rely on access to streams throughout their spawning and rearing phases of their complex life cycles. Barriers to fish passage, e.g., poorly-designed culverts at road crossings, prevent fish from accessing potential habitat, negatively impacting salmon populations and violating tribal treaty rights.

Over the next decade, massive investments in fish passage improvements will be made in the Pacific Northwest. Despite this, however, available financial resources fall extremely short of what would be needed to remove all blockages to fish passage. Thus, designing cost-effective culvert restoration plans is critical to salmon recovery efforts.

Harmful Algal Blooms

In the 2015/2016 fishing season, managers shut down the California Dungeness crab fishery in response to an unprescendented harmful algal bloom (HABs) event. Impacts include reduced harvest, reduced ex-vessel prices, shifts in the distribution of fishing revenue towards large vessels, shifts in fishing portfolios, and disruptions to community traditions. As climate change is expected to increase the occurence of HAB events, it is important to explore policies that can mitigate the impacts from HABs.