March 2023 | By Emily Anderson

Tell us about your background

I’m originally from Washington state and grew up going tide-pooling and spending lots of time around the ocean. I graduated from Oregon State University with a BS in Biology with a focus in Marine Biology. During my undergraduate studies I spent a semester studying coral reef ecology in Bonaire and a quarter studying temperate intertidal ecology in Oregon. I earned a MS in Biology at Old Dominion University in 2021 with my thesis exploring responses of fish and invertebrate recruits to soundscapes of healthy and degraded hardbottom habitats. 

What attracted you to MarineGEO? 

I love getting to work on many different projects in different habitats. The work is constantly evolving and it’s exciting to be a part of a large network of sites and people!  

Tell us a little about your work with MarineGEO 

I started as the Chesapeake Bay MarineGEO technician in July 2022 and hit the ground running with our settlement plate, predation assay, marsh plant, and oyster reef studies. I’m also piloting some acoustic monitoring studies and we have been able to collect data from Chesapeake Bay, Panama, and Belize so far.  

^{Emily Anderson making friends with a shark sucker while on the 2022 Belize MarineGEO campaign!}