about the birdfish lab

Currently home to 4 visiting scholars, 1 postdoc, 5 graduate students, 3 research staff/technicians, and a host of undergraduates, our lab is involved in a wide range of research, outreach, and education primarily concerned with aquatic organisms. Most of the research and outreach we do is focused on marine birds, including basic life history and demography, predator-prey interactions, conservation, and population restoration. Although we don't really have a favorite, the majority of our field work has been on Common Murres (Uria aalge) and has been conducted at sites in Oregon and Washington.

An important focus for much of our work is marine conservation. Across the lab, and together with partners from state, federal and international agencies, tribes, and non-governmental organizations, we work on:

• Seabird bycatch in fisheries – which species, which fisheries, whether the interaction affects population growth, and what can be done to alleviate or even reverse negative trends.
• Citizen science – getting people directly involved in collecting high quality data on seabirds as a first step towards both understanding more about how the system works (that is, the science) and putting that information back in the hands of people, from citizen volunteers to government scientists to state and federal legislators.
• Beached birds.