Dawn Wehde
Undergraduate Researcher and URECA Scholar (2017-2018)
Project Title, "Pilot investigation into the age structure of market squid, Doryteuthis opalescens, in the Gulf of Alaska."
Wehde in the lab
Wehde used statoliths to age market squid. The above photo shows a polished statolith from a squid captured in the Gulf of Alaska near Yakutat in 2017.
Dawn Wehde is an undergraduate student studying Marine Biology at the University of Alaska Southeast. She is currently working as a URECA grant recipient and as an assistant in Dr. Navarro’s lab of Oceanographic Climate Change. Her research focuses on collecting and analyzing the morphological and age data of market squid, Doryteuthis opalescens, a species that recently extended its range to Alaska’s waters. Dawn’s research has required her to become proficient at using an oil-emersion microscope to acquire age estimates form the squid’s statolith microstructure. The information she is gathering will provide valuable insight in to size and age differences of market squid collected inshore and offshore the Gulf of Alaska. Her undergraduate research has only confirmed her interest in studying the changing dynamics of fisheries species in light of climate change.
Dawn will be pursing her passion after graduation as a Fisheries Biologist for the Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation in Nome, Alaska.
