Crater Lake National Park, Oregon – Summer 2006

After years of living a rather nomadic existence traveling and working all over the United States and the world I have finally settled down with my lovely wife Rika to work as a research assistant for the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. I work for Dr. Bruce Mate, who is world famous for his work tracking large whales using satellite tags. I work photographing our tagging efforts and managing our media library of photos and videos. I also have a chance to do lots of other interesting jobs such as working on our research boats and building satellite tags.

I graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle with a degree in zoology in 1982. My first job as a biologist was doing field work collecting plants in Somalia. I did this for 4 months in 1983 during the year I spent traveling around Africa. Before my current job most of my work as a biologist was as an observer on fishing boats like this Japanese driftnetter I spent 4 months on in the summer of 1991. I was doing research on marine mammals and other animals they caught in the net while they were fishing for squid. Later I worked on American factory trawlers in the Bering Sea and more recently on swordfish boats off of California.

I was born in Vancouver, Washington (not the Canadian one), but mostly grew up in the small town of Kalama along the Columbia River.

While in High School and while I attended University I worked on a fishing boat every summer off Kodiak Island, Alaska catching salmon. This was a great job that paid me enough to pay for all my education and I even had enough left over after 7 years of working to travel around the world for 3 years after I graduated from the UW.

Over the years I have also worked during winters and summers for my friends who own some great hotels at Crystal Mountain Ski Resort. 

Most of all I like to travel because I am most happy when I am learning new things and meeting new people, so while traveling I do that every day.

Driving the tagging boat off of California in the summer of 2005	Gerlache Straights, Antarctica February 2007

  
 

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