Andrew (Andy) Seitz

• Google Scholar page
• Andrew Seitz full CV

• Garrett Dunne
• Austin Flanigan
• Marcel Gietzmann-Sanders
• Kevin Siwicke
• Joseph Spencer
• Concepcion Melovidov
• Sabrina Garcia
• Mary Hostetter
• Charlotte Levy
• Andrew Rothenberger

I was raised in the wonderful town of North Yarmouth, Maine, where I developed my fascination with fish. When young, I spent innumerable hours searching for brook trout in tiny streams and chasing bluefish and striped bass in Maine’s coastal waters. During my summers in high school and college at Cornell University, I was fortunate enough to work on a charter fishing boat, from which we pursued a variety of fishes, including the mighty bluefin tuna. After graduating from college, I was able to combine my addiction for tuna fishing and my interest in biology at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where I worked at the Tuna Research and Conservation Center. My electronic tagging fieldwork skills led me to Alaska, where I helped start a halibut tagging project, which turned into my graduate school project at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. After completing my graduate degree, I worked as fisheries course instructor and now as a faculty member at UAF’s College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. When not working, I enjoy floating rivers, hiking, hunting, and raising poultry, all with my family.

• Fish behavior
• Fish migration
• Behavioral ecology
• Electronic tagging

My research focuses on several aspects of applied fish ecology and biology. Generally, my research team, collaborators, and I seek to understand the behavior, life history, migration patterns and population structure of a variety of freshwater and marine fishes, ranging from salmon smolts to large, highly mobile species such as king salmon and halibut. With this understanding, we seek to answer pressing questions related to the management and conservation of fishes that are intensively harvested, imperiled and/or subject to human-induced impacts in their environment. Studying these fishes is often challenging because of their relative inaccessibility. To overcome these challenges, I have used a variety of techniques ranging from traditional net sampling in rivers to cutting-edge technology in the oceans. The majority of the research conducted by my team involves novel applications of electronic tags and analyses of their data.

• Oceanic dispersal and behavior of Chinook salmon
• Assessing the impacts of hydrokinetic turbines on fishes
• Pacific halibut migration and behavior
• Dispersal, behavior, and life history of Dolly Varden in Arctic Alaska
• Tiger shark population structure, habitat usage, and ecological role in the waters around Bimini, Bahamas

• American Fisheries Society
• Alaska Hydrokinetic Energy Research Center
• Pacific Marine Energy Center