Publications

dual instrument passive acoustic monitoring of belugas in cook inlet, alaska.	as part of a long-term research program, cook inlet beluga (delphinapterus leucas) presence was acoustically monitored with two types of acoustic sensors utilized in tandem in moorings deployed year-round: an ecological acoustic recorder (ear) and a cetacean and porpoise detector (c-pod). the ear was used primarily to record the calls, whistles, and buzzes produced by belugas and killer whales (orcinus orca). the c-pod was used to log and classify echolocation clicks from belugas, killer whales, ...	2016	27250163
testing the nutritional-limitation, predator-avoidance, and storm-avoidance hypotheses for restricted sea otter habitat use in the aleutian islands, alaska.	sea otters (enhydra lutris) inhabiting the aleutian islands have stabilized at low abundance levels following a decline and currently exhibit restricted habitat-utilization patterns. possible explanations for restricted habitat use by sea otters can be classified into two fundamentally different processes, bottom-up and top-down forcing. bottom-up hypotheses argue that changes in the availability or nutritional quality of prey resources have led to the selective use of habitats that support the ...	2015	25416538
providing culturally competent services for american indian and alaska native veterans to reduce health care disparities.	we conducted an exploratory study to determine what organizational characteristics predict the provision of culturally competent services for american indian and alaska native (ai/an) veterans in department of veterans affairs (va) health facilities.	2014	25100420
killer whale depredation and associated costs to alaskan sablefish, pacific halibut and greenland turbot longliners.	killer whale (orcinus orca) depredation (whales stealing or damaging fish caught on fishing gear) adversely impacts demersal longline fisheries for sablefish (anoplopoma fimbria), pacific halibut (hippoglossus stenolepis) and greenland turbot (reinhardtius hippoglossoides) in the bering sea, aleutian islands and western gulf of alaska. these interactions increase direct costs and opportunity costs associated with catching fish and reduce the profitability of longline fishing in western alaska. t ...	2014	24558446
prolonged recovery of sea otters from the exxon valdez oil spill? a re-examination of the evidence.	sea otters (enhydra lutris) suffered major mortality after the exxon valdez oil spill in prince william sound, alaska, 1989. we evaluate the contention that their recovery spanned over two decades. a model based on the otter age-at-death distribution suggested a large, spill-related population sink, but this has never been found, and other model predictions failed to match empirical data. studies focused on a previously-oiled area where otter numbers (~80) stagnated post-spill; nevertheless, pos ...	2013	23639486
causes and consequences of marine mammal population declines in southwest alaska: a food-web perspective.	populations of sea otters, seals and sea lions have collapsed across much of southwest alaska over the past several decades. the sea otter decline set off a trophic cascade in which the coastal marine ecosystem underwent a phase shift from kelp forests to deforested sea urchin barrens. this interaction in turn affected the distribution, abundance and productivity of numerous other species. ecological consequences of the pinniped declines are largely unknown. increased predation by transient (mar ...	2009	19451116
predicting synergistic effects of resources and predators on foraging decisions by juvenile steller sea lions.	many theoretical and experimental studies suggest that synergistic interactions between resources and predators influence foraging decisions and their fitness consequences. this framework, however, has been ignored almost completely by hypotheses on causes of the population decline of steller sea lions (ssls) (eumetopias jubatus) in western alaska. by comparing predictions from a dynamic state variable model to empirical data on the behaviour of individuals instrumented with satellite-linked tim ...	2009	18953573
patterns of growth and body condition in sea otters from the aleutian archipelago before and after the recent population decline.	1. growth models for body mass and length were fitted to data collected from 1842 sea otters enhydra lutris shot or live-captured throughout south-west alaska between 1967 and 2004. growth curves were constructed for each of two main year groups: 1967-71 when the population was at or near carrying capacity and 1992-97 when the population was in steep decline. analyses of data collected from animals caught during 2004, when the population density was very low, were precluded by a small sample siz ...	2006	17009761
ecological significance of residual exposures and effects from the exxon valdez oil spill.	an ecological significance framework is used to assess the ecological condition of prince william sound (pws), alaska, usa, in order to address the current management question: 17 y following the exxon valdez oil spill (evos), are there any remaining and continuing ecologically significant exposures or effects on the pws ecosystem caused by evos? we examined the extensive scientific literature funded by the exxon valdez trustees or by exxonmobil to assess exposures and effects from evos. criteri ...	2006	16869437