Amelia O'Connor

Title:                  Research Collaborator

Phone:               406.546.5797406.546.5797 
Fax:                   n/a

Email:                 [email protected]

Education:

M.S. - Marine Resource Management, Oregon State University, 2013

B.S. – Environmental Science, Linfield College, 2011

Interests: Ecology, endangered species management, natural resource conservation, habitat restoration, marine spatial planning, and ecosystem based management.

Masters program:

I started my master degree in Marine Resource Management in fall 2011. The program is through the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. It focuses on an integration of physical and biological scieces, management, and human dimentions. My advisor is Robert M Suryan and my thesis focuses on the distribution and fisheries interactions of short-tailed albatross in the North Pacific.

Thesis Summary: 

"Fisheries Interactions and Migratory Distributions of the Subadult Short-tailed Albatross in the North Pacific"

Limited data from previous studies indicates that the distribution of subadult (≤3 years), especially juvenile, short-tailed albatrosses (Phoebastria albatrus) is considerably different than adults.  Furthermore, these younger birds have a greater incidence of bycatch in commercial fisheries (eight of ten documented bycatch mortalities were subadult birds). We tracked 41 juvenile birds for up to two years post-fledging (n=41,689 locations) between 2008 and 2012.We examine travel patterns and spatial use between demographic and temporal variables. Preliminary findings show variations in travel (km/day) between first and second year birds as well as between seasons. Spatially, subadults spend much of their time in the Bering Sea concentrated around canyons, but travel as far from their source colonies in Japan as the United States west coast. High use areas occur mostly within national fisheries and less within international fisheries. Regionally, there are observed variations between bird demographics. Across sexes, canyon use and overall range are not uniform. Across source colonies, we observe some variations in the Sea of Okhotsk and eastern Pacific between hand-reared birds from Mukojima and naturally-reared birds from Torishima. Our findings demonstrate demographic, seasonal, and regional variations in the distribution of subadult short-tailed albatross in the North Pacific. These findings will help inform Alaskan fishery managers and current marine spatial planning efforts.