Bristol Bay Alaska

About the author(s)

Carol Ann Woody has been adventuring, researching, teaching and living in Alaska since 1988. She became fascinated with Bristol Bay in 1993 when, clad in a leaky dry suit, she spent a chilly summer floating around North America’s largest sockeye salmon nursery (Iliamna Lake) surrounded by ruby red spawning sockeye, studying their behavior for the University of Washington (UW). She went on to earn her Ph.D. in Fisheries Science from UW. She also holds an M.S. in biology from the University of Wisconsin and a B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Management from Utah State University.

Carol Ann served almost 20 years as a federal scientist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and, most recently, the National Park Service. During her four years on the 17 million-acre Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska, she and her teams earned multiple awards for exceptional productivity and meritorious service. While a fisheries research biologist with USGS, she earned multiple awards for exceptional research productivity in population status and trends, ecology, genetics and evolution. She also received a meritorious service award for acting as the nation’s USGS Director of Fisheries.

Carol Ann has academic affiliations with the University of Alaska, University of Idaho, and University of Montana, mentoring graduate and undergraduate students and sparking interest in fisheries and environmental science through courses and research internships. In 2016 and 2017, the Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program honored her for creating systematic change in the hiring patterns of Indigenous Americans in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Embracing the responsibility of a scientist to translate and communicate scientific findings and their implications to all interested parties—peers, resource managers, tribes, decision managers, policy makers, stakeholders, and the public—has led Carol Ann to become an expert fisheries advisor to diverse groups including indigenous tribes, the World Wildlife Fund, Patagonia Inc.’s Wild Salmon Advisory Team, and Alaska Governor Walker’s Fisheries Transition Team. She is a Past President of the Alaska Chapter of the American Fisheries Society (AFS) and served on the Western Division Environmental Concerns Committee and Endangered Species Committee of AFS. She is the first woman to receive one of the American Fishery Society’s highest honors—the President’s Fishery Conservation Award (2017).

She has published more than 20 peer reviewed articles; numerous technical reports; edited two books; prepared policy and law articles, including an amicus brief for the U.S. Supreme Court; served as an expert witness for various court cases; been an invited speaker on three continents; given innumerable talks; and led discussion panels and workshops on Bristol Bay fisheries. Carol Ann currently works as the Regional Fish Biologist for the National Park Service in Anchorage, Alaska.