{"id":7294,"date":"2017-12-01T10:21:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T15:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?page_id=7294"},"modified":"2024-08-20T13:58:02","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T17:58:02","slug":"nc-marine-fisheries-fellows-where-are-they-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/nc-marine-fisheries-fellows-where-are-they-now\/","title":{"rendered":"NC MARINE FISHERIES FELLOWS: Where Are They Now?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
Bringing cutting-edge data analysis and collection techniques to the attention of resource managers is a key strategy in planning for sustainable fisheries. Exposing recent graduates to the ins and outs of a resource agency\u2019s protocols while doing so? That\u2019s a strategy for a sustainable fellowship.<\/p>\n
Those were the goals when North Carolina Sea Grant<\/a>\u2019s former executive director Ronald Hodson joined Preston Pate, then director of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries<\/a>, to inaugurate the Marine Fisheries Fellowship in 2002.<\/p>\n From the start, the fellowship program has been valuable and successful, says Michelle Duval, a DMF official who leads the state\u2019s interactions with fishery management councils. \u201cIt\u2019s a great way to ensure we\u2019re fully utilizing existing datasets \u2014 and fellows have the opportunity to see their work directly impact resource-management questions.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the last 15 years, the 11 fellows have helped answer critical questions regarding resources and management specific to the agency\u2019s needs, and directly relevant to the state\u2019s important fisheries.<\/p>\n Dexterity with the \u201clatest and greatest\u201d in data visualization software is among the valuable skills that fellows can bring, notes Jeffrey Buckel, a fisheries biologist at North Carolina State University\u2019s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology<\/a>. \u201cFor some of the fellows, it\u2019s the technical stock-assessment approaches to analyze fish population dynamics, or the latest statistical analyses that may yield less biased results,\u201d adds Buckel, who also serves as their academic mentor.<\/p>\n Sea Grant Executive Director Susan White<\/a> agrees. \u201cThis program helps develop future leaders by giving scientists early, real-world experience considering complex issues,\u201d she explains. \u201cIn turn, they bring new tools for fisheries management.\u201d<\/p>\n The fellowship is open to graduate students from Maryland to Texas. Meet four former fellows, all continuing research from here in North Carolina, to the continental shelf of Florida, and even the coast of Oregon.<\/p>\n As the first N.C. marine fisheries fellow, Nathan Bacheler<\/strong> would not have guessed that 22 scientific publications, 15 conference presentations and numerous research grants later, he would go to Washington, D.C., in 2016 to be recognized by former President Barack Obama as an exceptional scientist.<\/p>\n \u201cMy fellowship on striped mullet was my first foray into marine fish ecology and management \u2014 and I\u2019ve been hooked on marine fish ever since,\u201d he recalls. As a fisheries biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s National Marine Fisheries Service<\/a> in Beaufort, North Carolina, Bacheler coordinates the Southeast Fishery-Independent Survey<\/a>, a monitoring and research program targeting reef fish in U.S. continental shelf waters between North Carolina and Florida.<\/p>\nSURVEYING THE SOUTHEAST SEAS<\/h2>\n