Despite their often significant roles in local ecosystems though, large sharks have been conspicuously absent from management efforts in the Northern California Current System. Using techniques such as bio-logging, stable isotopes, and stomach content analysis, Jess’s research will provide critical insights into the trophic ecology of an abundant apex predator in these marine ecosystems, the Broadnose Sevengill Shark (Notorynchus cepedianus). Her project will determine how this predator maintains productive Pacific Northwest marine ecosystems to inform management of critical fisheries through top-down interactions. Jess’s research aims to understand fisheries as part of a larger cultural picture in the Pacific Northwest and contribute to critical outreach and engagement with the broader public – teaching that sharks are important, necessary, and downright cool members of healthy marine ecosystems.
As part of Dr. Taylor Chapple's Big Fish Lab, I am researching the movement and foraging ecology of a top coastal predator - the Broadnose Sevengill Shark - within the Northern California Coastal Current to eventually incorporate shark predators into fisheries management and modeling.
At OSU
Beyond OSU
Biography
Jess graduated with honors from the University of Florida in 2013 with a degree in Environmental Science focusing on climate change and other global anthropogenic impacts. She interned in the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark lab, working in the International Shark Attack Files, as well as the US Geological Survey’s Benthic Ecology Lab, processing deep sea coral samples for stable isotope analysis. This work led to full-time opportunities in USGS’s Invasive Fish lab where she worked across a variety of research including ecophysiology, foraging ecology, and genetics of non-native species in Florida. She then served for 2.5 years in the Peace Corps where she collaborated with communities on coastal resource management and conservation in the Philippines. After returning to the States, she worked at the State Department in Washington DC, handling international climate change programs and diplomacy before starting graduate school in Fisheries Science at Oregon State University.
Professional Accomplishments
My Awards
Jess was awarded the 2021 Oregon Sea Grant Robert E. Malouf Marine Studies Scholarship, the 2021 Marine Studies Initiative Advancement Award, the 2021 and 2022 Mamie L. Markham Endowment Award, the 2022 McNeil Award, and the 2023 Next Swell Foundation Scholarship. She received the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention in 2020 and 2022.