Student
Erin Rechisky
Name: Erin Rechisky
Email: e.rechisky@fisheries.ubc.ca
Program: Zoology, PhD
Thesis: Early Marine Survival and Migration of Endangered Pacific Salmon in the Columbia and Fraser Rivers
Supervisor: Carl Walters
Degree Held: BSc (University of North Carolina at Wilmington); MSc (University of Rhode Island)
Biography
My research interests over the past decade have been quite eclectic; from fine scale movements of sandbar sharks in Delaware Bay for my MS degree, to "spillover"of grouper and snapper in the Bahamas while working as a Research Associate at the Caribbean Marine Research Center, and presently I am working on early marine survival of juvenile salmon in the Pacific Northwest under the supervision of Carl Walters. The common thread however, is the use of acoustic telemetry methods to collect ecological data on commercially, economically and socially important marine species.
My PhD thesis focuses on estimating freshwater and early marine survival and characterizing early marine migrations of spring Chinook in the Columbia River basin as well as Cultus Lake sockeye in the Fraser River using the Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking (POST) array. By implanting transmitters into salmon smolts it is possible to track their movements and measure survival for up to thousands of kilometers. Since adult returns of both of these stocks have declined in recent years to warrant listing by the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Canada's Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), respectively, it is important to determine when and where mortality of these valued species occurs.
Selected Publications
Rechisky, E.L., D.W. Welch, A.D. Porter, M.C. Jacobs, A. Ladouceur. 2009. Experimental measurement of
Hydrosystem- induced delayed mortality in juvenile Columbia River spring Chinook salmon using a
large-scale acoustic array. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Accepted Mar 16,
2009.
Welch, D.W., M.C. Melnychuk, E.R. Rechisky, A.D. Porter, M.C. Jacobs, A. Ladouceur, R.S.
McKinley, G.D. Jackson. 2009. Freshwater and marine migration pathways and survival
of Cultus Lake sockeye salmon smolts determined using POST, a large-scale acoustic
telemetry array. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Vol. 66, pp 736-750.
Greene, C.H., B.A. Block, D. Welch, G. Jackson, G.L. Lawson, E.L. Rechisky. 2009. Advances
in conservation oceanography: New tagging and tracking technologies and their
potential for transforming the science underlying fisheries management.
Oceanography. Vol. 22, no. 1, pp 210-223.
Welch, D.W., E.L. Rechisky, M.C. Melnychuk, A.D. Porter, C.J. Walters, S. Clements, B.J.
Clemens, R.S. McKinley, C. Schreck. 2008. Survival of migrating salmon smolts in large
rivers with and without dams. PLoS Biology Vol. 6, Issue 10, pp e265. doi:10.1371/
journal.pbio.0060265.
Lindley, S. T., M. L. Moser, D. L. Erickson, M. Belchik, D. W. Welch, E. L. Rechisky, J. T. Kelly,
J. Heublein, A. P. Klimley. 2008. Marine migration of North American green sturgeon.
Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. Vol. 137, no. 1, pp. 182-194.
Rechisky, E. L. and B. M. Wetherbee. 2003. Short-term movements of juvenile and neonate
sandbar sharks, Carcharhinus plumbeus, on their nursery grounds in Delaware Bay. Environmental
Biology of Fishes. Vol. 68, no. 2, pp. 113-128.
Wetherbee, B.M., E. Rechisky, H. L. Pratt, C. T. McCandless. 2001. Use of telemetry in fisheries
management: juvenile sandbar sharks in Delaware Bay. Electronic Tagging and Tracking in
Marine Fisheries Reviews: Methods and Technologies in Fish Biology and Fisheries, Vol 1. J.
Sibert and J. Nielsen (eds.) Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
Wetherbee, B.M. , E.L. Rechisky. 1999. Short-term movement patterns of juvenile sandbar
sharks on their nursery grounds in Delaware Bay. Proceedings of the 15th International
Symposium on Biotelemetry. May 9-14, 1999. Juneau, Alaska. 6 pp.
