Chris Kern

I have been an Oregon resident since the age of three, when my family migrated to Oregon, attracted by our state’s natural treasures and abundant fishing opportunities. I grew up in the Willamette Valley with interests in hunting, fishing, and biology that led me to the fisheries field.

After graduating from OSU, I began my career with seasonal jobs in Oregon, then Idaho, where I worked on emerging salmon supplementation studies using the then relatively new PIT tag technology. I returned to Oregon and continued my work in fisheries research working with salmonids in the Umatilla River basin, kokanee population dynamics in Lake Billy Chinook, and white sturgeon stock assessments and population dynamics modeling in the Columbia River.

Despite my research-oriented career, I eventually found my way to fisheries management on the Columbia River. I am currently involved in a number of Columbia River and inter-jurisdictional fisheries management arenas, including the Pacific Fishery Management Council and the Pacific Salmon Treaty/Commission process, where I serve as policy advisor to Oregon’s Commissioner and as an alternate on the PSC Southern Panel.

The various technologies associated with DNA-based fishery sampling and Genetic Stock ID are a rapidly expanding area of fisheries science. These methods have the potential to provide valuable information that was previously unobtainable. In addition to valuable information on fine-scale, stock-specific distribution information, project CROOS has proven to be extremely valuable in bringing together fishers, scientists, and fishery managers to achieve the common goal of sustainable, productive fisheries and healthy coastal communities.