Dana Hanselman, Age: 25; Hometown: Brooklyn, Michigan; Master's degree candidate, Fisheries Biology, class of 2000; Major professor: Dr. Terrance Quinn II

Dana recently was awarded a highly competitive fellowship in fish population dynamics and economics.

"The name of my project is 'An Application of Adaptive Sampling Methods on North Pacific Rockfish.' Adaptive sampling was originally used to count rare, clustered wildlife such as the spotted owl, but it has recently been applied to fisheries that cluster as well. So far, I went on one 15-day cruise last summer where I and others did some adaptive sampling. We sampled four different strata using several adaptive sampling techniques which involve taking a set number of simple random tows followed by vigorous sampling at the top strata sites. I'll join another cruise in the summer of 1999, during which I'll incorporate lessons learned from the previous cruise. Most people believe there are a lot more fish out there than there really are. It is believed that traditional surveys don't accurately show how many fish are out there, especially for species like Pacific Ocean perch. The preliminary work that we've done so far shows that these adaptive sampling methods should give us a better idea as to how many fish are out there."

Why did you choose UAF? "There was a project here that fit my interests as well as the university's location in the biggest fisheries in the world. I was interested in applying the mathematics I had learned in a natural resources field."

Favorite pastimes and hobbies: Hiking, fishing, computers, home brewing, jazz.

Most interesting educational experience so far: "One of the highlights of my time here so far was the 42-pound king I caught down here. It was pretty nice because it was the first king salmon I ever caught. It'll probably be difficult to top that."

Future plans: Dana is currently finishing work on his master's degree in adaptive fisheries sampling, and is expected th graduate in May 2000. He'll then begin his doctoral work at SFOS on adaptive sampling. He'll focus on improving his adaptive sampling methods and refining how they can be better used in the commercial groundfish surveys in Alaska and elsewhere.