After graduating in 2009, she finally fulfilled that
dream by working as a fisheries observer onboard fishing
boats in the Bering Sea for 3 ½ years.
During that time, she became fascinated by the influence
of seabirds on fisheries management and began pursuing
bird jobs. She spent a season blinging out (banding)
passerines in Indiana, another stalking (monitoring)
tundra-nesting birds on Alaska’s North Slope,
and two more mothering (monitoring and managing) a suite
of waterbirds on Outer Green Island in the Gulf on Maine.
Despite her love for grubbing guillemot chicks and
fending off tern attacks, she found her niche in surveying
seabirds at sea. In 2011, she boarded the Bering-Aleutian
Salmon International Survey (BASIS) research cruise
as a USFWS seabird observer. She went on to survey
seabirds aboard the 2012 and 2013 Arctic Ecosystem Integrated
Survey (Arctic EIS) research cruises, and the data from
those cruises are now the basis of her master’s
research at HPU.
Catherine will focus on quantifying the spatiotemporal
dynamics between seabirds, their prey, and oceanography
in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas. The goal
of this research is to inform the development of ecosystem
models and management plans for the northern Bering
and Chukchi seas.
She is particularly interested in the use of marine
spatial planning as a management tool in arctic marine
ecosystems, and hopes to continue conducting integrated
research that will inform planning decisions.
Catherine participated in an arctic research cruise
in summer 2015. You can view her blog postings here:
http://seabirdyouth.org/seabirds-at-sea/
Catherine defended her thesis on September 14, 2016:
And will start a short-term position with the
Western Pacific
Regional Fishery Management Council
in Honolulu, in January 2017.