Quantfish Workshop Series - Fay Lab - March 19, 2026 - Improving understanding of salmon marine spatial ecology, bycatch risk, and future abundance using fishery-independent and dependent observations" by: Curry Cunningham

Thursday, March 19, 2026 at 3:30pm to 4:30pm

The Fay Laboratory research focuses on developing interdisciplinary modelling approaches to extend the scope of applications for fisheries and ecosystem assessment methods, and testing the performance of decision support tools for living marine resource management. Please join the Fay lab for the first session in their Quantfish workshop series.

Improving understanding of salmon marine spatial ecology, bycatch risk, and future abundance using fishery-independent and dependent observations 

Curry Cunningham
Associate Professor of Fisheries
College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Thursday March 19, 2026
3:30pm
Via Zoom

Abstract:

Anadromous Pacific salmon traverse freshwater and marine environments, with the majority of lifetime variation in their survival and growth regulated by marine processes. Despite their significant social, ecological, and economic importance, and the widely accepted critical role of marine dynamics, our knowledge of the marine phase of the salmon life cycle remains limited. Spatial catch rate data from fishery-independent surveys and fishery-dependent catch monitoring programs can provide insights into species’ abundance and distribution. However, spatial imbalance in observations due to variation in sample design and sampling effort, as well as preferential sampling by harvesters, pose challenges for applied inference. Utilizing several applied case studies focused on the analysis of salmon abundance observations in the ocean, I will highlight considerations among candidate spatiotemporal analysis methods, and describe novel insights into salmon marine spatial ecology, bycatch risk, and return abundance forecast potential.

Join Meeting

https://umassd.zoom.us/j/96561540063

Note: Meeting ID and password required. Please email contact to obtain.

For questions or to obtain the zoom meeting ID and password,  please contact Garrett Klee at gklee@umassd.edu

Online via Zoom : Meeting ID and passcode required- please email contact to obtain
Garrett Klee
gklee@umassd.edu
https://umassd.zoom.us/j/96561540063