After graduating from Utah State University in 1992, I began my fisheries career as a biologist with the Reservoir Research Unit of the Wyoming Game and fish Department based out of Casper, WY. I was hired to help oversee the North Platte Comprehensive Fishery Study, the largest trout stocking evaluation ever conducted by the state of Wyoming. The goal of this project was to refine stocking practices to maximize angler catches. Around 1996, we obtained funding from the United States Bureau of Reclamation - Upper North Platte River Project to purchase a scientific-grade echosounder. I used this system and an acoustic technique called side-looking to count trout in Wyoming reservoirs for a number of years.

I grew a little bored of studying trout in man-made impoundments, so in 2000 I left my Wyoming research job for the private sector where I worked as a Biologist with Northwest Marine Technology (NMT) Inc., based out of Olympia, Washington. There I helped potential customers decide which tag would work best for them based on the species and sizes of fish they hoped to tag and the objectives of their research. I liked my NMT job, but I soon learned that I'm a fisheries researcher by heart.

In 2001, I was hired by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to help evaluate if acoustic sampling could be used to enumerate lake trout in lakes in the Arrowhead region of northeast MN. Try as we might, we learned that lake trout were highly bottom oriented, spending much of their time too close to the bottom for acoustic detection.

In 2003, I landed a cool job as a Fishery Research Scientist with the United States Geological Survey. I work in the Deepwater Program of the Great Lakes Science Center, stationed at the Lake Superior Biological Station in Ashland, WI. I'm working on a number of interesting and important projects including: 1) the development of a lake-wide forage fish biomass estimate, 2) a project to understand how photoperiod and moon phase affect our ability to acoustically sample Lake Superior forage fishes, and 3) the use of acoustic techniques to map lake and river substrates. Most of my research is conducted aboard the Research Vessel (R/V) Kiyi, named after a deepwater chub found in Lake Superior. The R/V Kiyi is 105 feet long and normally operates with a crew of eight people.

My MS degree in Fisheries Management from Utah State University has served as a foundation to an interesting and rewarding career.		 dan2smaller.jpg
RVKiyismaller.jpg