September 22, 2017

Members of the 2017 class of Marc Hershman Marine Policy, Knauss Marine Policy and the Sea Grant – National Marine Fisheries Service fellowships programs met today for an orientation, followed by lunch and a tour of Seattle’s Fishermen’s Terminal.

This year’s class of fellows include:

• The Marc Hershman Marine Policy Fellows spend a year working with government or NGO host offices in Washington. This year’s four fellows are Haley Kennard, a University of Washington School of Marine and Environmental Affairs (SMEA) graduate who will work with the Makah Office of Tribal Affairs; Marisa Nixon, a SMEA graduate who will work in the Department of Health; Sara Brostrom, a SMEA graduate who will work with the Department of Ecology; and Jackson Blalock a University of Washington Program in Landscape Architecture graduate who will work with the Nature Conservancy.

• This year’s Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship finalists are Grace Ferrera, James Kralij and Carrie Schmaus of University of Washington’s School of Marine and Environmental Affairs and Laura Koehn of University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. Finalists will interview to be placed for a one-year appointment in an executive or legislative office in Washington, D.C. later this year, where they will learn about and work on national policy and its multifaceted relationship with marine resources.

• This week the National Sea Grant Office announced that three students from the University of Washington’s School of Fisheries Sciences have been selected for the Sea Grant/NOAA Fisheries Graduate Fellowships in Population and Ecosystem Dynamics, in which students spend time at sea learning about sampling techniques and gathering data, and work closely with a mentor from NOAA Fisheries on their theses. Elizabeth Ng will study whether predation improves stock assessment, Caitlin Allen-Akselrud will study lowering the risks of overfishing while increasing profits for California’s market squid fishery and Natalie Lowell will study the genetic risk assessment of native shellfish aquaculture.

• In addition, Adam Hayes of the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Affairs was selected for the Sea Grant/NOAA Fisheries Graduate Fellowship in Marine Resource Economics. He will receive funding and mentorship from NOAA Fisheries to pursue his thesis entitled “Network Analysis of a Quota Share Market.”

At the orientation, the fellows had a chance to meet and learn about each other’s work over lunch at Chinook’s at Salmon Bay. Afterward, the fellows learned about the local maritime industry as they were led on a tour through the heart of it—Fisherman’s Terminal—by Harbor Master Ray Giometti and Mark Gleason, Director at Washington Maritime Federation and a 2009 Knauss Fellow. “This is a unique place,” Gleason said. “The maritime industry is a big industry in Seattle that is hidden in plain sight.”

“Fishermen’s Terminal is a microcosm of the science, the industry, and the socioeconomic factors related to marine policy,” Hershman fellow Haley Kennard said. “With the fellowship, I’m excited to take the academic foundation I got from SMEA and learn how to apply it to the real world.”

Congratulations to our fellows!

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