New Deputy Director for Alaska Fisheries Science Center Survey Division

On August 26, Dr. Alix LaFerriere will become the deputy director for the Alaska Fisheries Science Center's Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering Program. The deputy director assists the division director in management of fiscal, personnel, facilities, ship resources, and coordination of division research.

"Alix is a perfect fit for this position," said Lyle Britt, division director, Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering Division, Alaska Fisheries Science Center. "She has been serving as a supervisor for the division for the past three years at the Center's Kodiak Laboratory in the Shellfish Assessment Program. So, she already has a functional knowledge of the division and the challenges it faces in the short- and long-term. She brings to the position established working relationships with the Center leadership team and key stakeholders throughout Alaska."

LaFerriere joined NOAA Fisheries in 2021 as a supervisory research ecologist at the Kodiak Laboratory. She has been managing a research team with a diverse research portfolio that includes aquaculture, crab stock assessment and surveys, facilities management, and ocean acidification research. A focal area for LaFerriere has been providing science to support place-based kelp and shellfish aquaculture in Kodiak. She works directly with farmers on research questions important to the industry-one project focuses on the ecosystem benefits of kelp farms. She has recently undertaken a new project to examine the levels of harmful algal blooms in Pacific oysters. LaFerriere also leads a state-wide collaborative group focused on the growth and production of Bull Kelp.

Her previous experience includes working for the The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire on oyster restoration in the Great Bay Estuary and sustainable fisheries in the Gulf of Maine. She also spent time as a marine ecologist for marine reserves in Oregon and New Zealand, an oceanographer on tall ships, and as a marine educator on Catalina Island.

"I am excited to take on the new challenges of this position," said LaFerriere."Working with interest groups-building relationships with fishermen, Tribal government members and representatives, other scientists and resource managers-is something I am looking forward to doing more. We all have to work together to share our collective knowledge and understanding of marine ecosystems especially given the environmental changes we are seeing in Alaska. There is so much we can learn from the people who live their lives in nature. "

Laferriere received her B.S. in Biology from Simmons College in 1998, her M.S. in Marine Biology from the University of Oregon-Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in 2007, and her Ph.D. in Marine Biology from Victoria University, in New Zealand, in 2016. She lives with her husband, an aquaculture scientist, and her two Newfoundland puppies in Kodiak.