Ryan Fields officially joined the ODFW Marine Reserves Program in February and is one of our three ecological monitoring team members.

Ryan received a Master’s degree in 2016 in marine science at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) where his thesis work focused on changes in life-history traits of Rosy Rockfish over the past four decades. After graduating, he continued working at MLML in the Fisheries and Conservation Biology Lab assisting with several research projects including the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program, a hook-and-line fishing research program that helped inform the ODFW marine reserve hook-and-line surveys here in Oregon. Ryan also helped with developing and implementing the use of a new underwater stereo-video lander tool, dubbed the Benthic Observation Survey System (or BOSS), to survey rockfish in deep-water rocky habitats off of California.

Ryan originally hails from Kodiak Island Alaska where he spent his summers commercial fishing for salmon with his family. In his spare time, Ryan can be found outside hiking, reading a good book, or creating fish-themed artwork.