Edward F. Melvin
Marine Fisheries Scientist
Affiliate Faculty, School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences
UW School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences
Box 355020
Seattle, WA 98105
206.543.9968
206.685.7471
emelvin@u.washington.edu
Focus Areas
- Seabird Bycatch
- Fisheries
Experience and Education
Before joining Washington Sea Grant in 1990, Ed spent 10 years with the California Sea Grant Extension Program as the Area Marine Advisor for the Monterey Bay region, based at Moss Landing Marine Labs. In that role he worked on a variety of projects, ranging from wetland restoration on the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve to developing techniques for on-board handling of troll-caught salmon and albacore. As a Marine Fisheries Scientist for Washington Sea Grant, Ed maintains an award-winning program of collaborative research blended with directed outreach education to help solve conservation-related problems in the North Pacific commercial fishing industry. For the past 12 years, he has focused on developing methods to reduce the incidental mortality of seabirds in a range of commercial fishing gear types, including drift gillnets, demersal longlines, and most recently, trawls and pelagic longlines. Ed received a bachelor’s degree in Zoology from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s in Fishery Sciences from Humboldt State University.
Current Activities
- Collaborative research with industry, developing seabird avoidance techniques for pelagic longline and Alaska trawl fisheries.
- Outreach programs to encourage the adoption of seabird avoidance technologies in worldwide fisheries.
- Participation in a variety of regional, national, and international working groups.