The Fisheries Podcast

This week, Preston chats with Corey Oakley and Ben Ricks from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC). They are the duo that hosts NCWRC's Better Fishing With 2 Bald Biologists monthly podcast. Corey and Ben discuss their career journeys before diving into the story of the podcast. They also highlight some favorite episodes and provide some tips for any other state agency staff th...

This week Jason Granberg from the Wisconsin DNR joins Brendan to talk about the use of artificial intelligence tools in ecology and conservation.  They cover the basics of the new AI tools that are popping up in an everywhere near you, their pros, cons, and opportunities, and advice for how to use these tools.  Brendan would like to apologize in advance for making too many Dune references. If you...

This week, Elise chats with Naya O'Reilly, a current PhD student at UC Boulder studying fisheries bycatch and marine mammal entanglement in Hawaii. They talk through Naya's wide array of research experiences in LA, Madagascar, and more, as well as Naya's unique graduate school journey which has led to them completing their Master's and PhD at the same time. Elise and Naya also discuss their shared...

This week Kadie chats with Hannah Stapleton, a masters student in the Montana Cooperative Fisheries Research Unit at Montana State University. Listen in to hear about Hannah's wide reaching career path from work in Alaska to Thailand to Washington State, including her most recent stint working on an age-structured population model for brown trout and rainbow trout in a popular catch and release fi...

This week, Preston chats with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources' Ellen Waldrop. They cover Ellen's journey from ponds in New Jersey to her current role in Charleston, SC, with stops in the Seychelles and Hawaii along the way. They take a deep dive into the diadromous fishes of South Carolina, and the numerous methods SCDNR employs to monitor the status of those populations. They w...

This week Paige Kowal from Ducks Unlimited Canada joins Brendan to talk about Delta Marsh, an over 18,000 hectare freshwater coastal wetland in Manitoba.  Delta Marsh is important habitat to migratory birds, native fishes, and has been impacted by the introduced Common carp. Not only that, Delta Marsh has important cultural and economic connections to the region.  Over the last 50 years Ducks Unli...

This week, Elise (IG @elisemobranchii) sits down - in person! - with Jake Jerome who holds many roles including Lecturer at the University of Miami, Intern Coordinator for UM's Shark Research and Conservation Lab, and Assistant Director of Program Development at Field School. They discuss these roles and others, his MS research on shark stress physiology, his love of teaching and blobfish, and mor...

This week Kadie chats with T. David (Dave) Ritter, a fisheries biologist, artist, and one of the members of the California White Shark Project. Throughout this episode we chat about Dave's career path, including his Master's research on fish movement in a remote tributary of the Smith River in Montana, how he and his wife (a non-game biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks) have approache...

This week, Preston chats with Coastal Carolina University's Dr. Derek Crane. They discuss Derek's background and career journey from Pennsylvania to South Carolina. They also spend a good bit of time covering Derek's recent research projects dealing with catch and release mortality of muskies and striped bass, age estimation validation, and the endemic and threatened Sandhills Chub. We hope that y...

Ceci Weibert from Michigan's Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) joins Brendan to talk about her work with the Great Lakes Commission on coordinating work between multiple agencies, her new job with Michigan's EGLE where she is the AIS coordinator, and some of the interesting things Michigan is currently working on.  This includes a cross-border Hydrilla response in Ontario, Red Swamp Cray...

This week, Elise (IG: @elisemobranchii) chats with Dr. Keiko Nomura, a current post doc in the Environmental Data Science Innovation and Inclusion Lab at CU Boulder! Broadly, her research has focused on studying fisheries social-ecological systems with network analyses and geospatial tools to inform marine resource management questions. In this interview, we touch on Keiko's experience in marine c...

This week Kadie chats with Dr. Mairin Deith primarily about the ins and outs of simulation models and their applications to ecological questions, but we also cover her career path, current work, and more!    Mairin is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia, Canada, working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assess the impacts of dam operations and hatchery practices...

Can you believe it has been over five years since we have heard from the amazing Rene Martin? In this episode we catch up with this former guest (Episode 28) to hear about her time wrapping up her PhD at the University of Kansas, her very exclusive Kansas work experience (she worked alongside Nick for a summer), a post-doctoral research experience at the American Museum of Natural History, and mos...

This week, Preston chats with Gene Gilliland. Gene is a retired biologist from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and has been the National Conservation Director for the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.) for 13 years. They discuss some of Gene's black bass research projects in Oklahoma and his passion as an avid recreational and competitive bass angler. Next, Gene talks about...

This week Brendan is joined by Shona Derlukewich of "School of Fish" - https://www.schooloffishid.com/ to learn some tips and tricks in identifying small bodied and large bodied fish.  Shona shares her story of how she started her small business and developed her expertise in the fishes of Alberta and Saskatchewan, who attends these classes, how technology has impacted fish identification, and why...

On this week's episode, Elise (IG: @elisemobranchii) chats with Jasmine "Jaz" Nyce (IG: @thenycephotos), a current PhD student in the Movement Ecology lab at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi. They chat about Jasmine's undergraduate research in Maine, her three years at the Bimini Biological Field Station where she studied bull sharks for her Master's at University of Alaska Fairbanks, her...

This week Kadie catches up with Bridgette Nicolosi, a master's student at Georgia Southern University. Bridgette's research focuses primarily on larval fish ecology—an often overlooked yet critical area of fisheries research. She has experience across diverse ecosystems, from the cold mountain streams of the West to the Piedmont of the Carolinas and now the coastal plains of the Southeast, she is...

This week, Preston chats with Dr. Mike Bednarski, who is the Chief of Fisheries for the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (VDWR). Mike compares and contrasts the infamous "big three" invasive freshwater fishes that are hot topics of conversation in Virginia. They also discuss Mike's career arc, as well as some of the threats facing the future of fishing and fisheries management and a few r...

This week Kadie chats with Lauren Diaz, a Ph. D. candidate at Oregon State University studying steelhead life history diversity and population dynamics. Listen in to hear about how snorkel surveys and a larval hellbender salamander project got Lauren hooked on stream ecology, why she values education so much, and all about the complex life history strategies of O. mykiss (steelhead/rainbow trout)....

This week, Elise (IG: @elisemobranchii) chats with Tidal Black Bass Manager, Maryland native, and longtime Fisheries Podcast listener Ryan Gary to discuss his career in fisheries research and management (which began very early in his childhood)! They cover Ryan's MSc research on paddlefish in Oklahoma and current work with black bass in Maryland, his passion for forming connections within communit...

Brook Schryer from the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters joins Brendan on this weeks episode to talk about aquatic invasive species in Ontario and his last 9 years with the Invading Species Awareness Program (ISAP)!  From the origins of the ISAP as a Zebra Mussel reporting hotline to removing over a million mystery snails they cover topics in the realm of AIS outreach, early detection, res...

This week, Preston chats with Dr. Eric Hallerman. Eric retired earlier this year following a 34 year career as a faculty member of Virginia Tech's Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation. They discuss Eric's career path and how he has been keeping busy after retirement. They also take a deep dive into the fisheries genetics realm and discuss numerous genetics research projects that Eric compl...

Dr. Caleb Hasler joins Brendan to talk about his work on catch and release angling, some new techniques using genetic expression to look at stress in fish, and his work on two American Fisheries Society Books, available now!  He's also looking for a new curling team, if you're in Winnipeg hit him up.  The title image in today's episode is a picture of Caleb's first fish.  Check out the post on soc...

This week, Elise (IG: @elise_the_mermaid) chats with Puerto Rican marine scientist and educator Wanda Ortiz Baez (IG: @sharkchicapr). Wanda holds bachelors degrees in Biology and Industrial Microbiology, as well as a Master's in Marine Science from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. In this episode, we discuss Wanda's passion for sharing sharky knowledge with her fellow Boricuas, the many...

This week Kadie chats with Dr. Joey Bernhardt ( @JoeyBernhardt ) an integrative ecologist and an Assistant Professor at the University of Guelph. Joey's research, much of which has been centered around global change, seafood and human nutrition, aims to deepen our fundamental understanding of the drivers of biodiversity change and the implications of these changes for human well-being. She also se...