Bird expert and ecologist Dr. Eric Anderson has joined SeaDoc's Science Advisors, replacing bird expert David Nysewander, who served as an advisor since 2005.
The SeaDoc Society’s Science Advisors provide counsel on research priorities and scientific issues relating to the health of marine wildlife and the marine ecosystem in the Pacific Northwest and North American Pacific Ocean. They also provide critical review of proposals submitted to the SeaDoc Society Competitive Grants program. Members are appointed in recognition of the prominence they have achieved in their careers, and for their efforts on behalf of ecosystem health in the Salish Sea region
Dr. Anderson comes to the position with not only a strong background in science, but also with prior SeaDoc experience: through our competitive grants program SeaDoc helped support Eric's PhD research on scoters.
Anderson currently teaches at the BC Institute of Technology and is a research scientist at Friday Harbor Laboratories.
Some of Anderson's SeaDoc-supported work in the Salish Sea includes:
- how gray whales create foraging opportunities for sea ducks like scoters by disturbing the sea bottom
- how the size of prey animals like mussels influences where predators like scoters spend their foraging time
- and understanding how herring spawning events help sea ducks fatten up in the spring
Anderson received his undergraduate degree at the University of Puget Sound and his MS and PhD at the University of Wyoming. He is a passionate outdoor explorer who has kayaked around the Hornstrandir peninsula of Iceland, canoed the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, and mountain-biked the Kokopelli Trail from Fruita, CO to Moab, UT. Welcome, Eric!
Outgoing SeaDoc Science Advisor David Nysewander is a retired marine bird biologist who spent his career working on marine birds in Alaska (with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) and in Washington (with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife).
Thank you, Dave, for a decade of helping guide the SeaDoc Society's scientific efforts.
For a complete list of SeaDoc's Science Advisors, visit our Team page.