USGS scientist Jake Gregg training Alaska Pacific University graduate student Nadia Barcelona how to inject Yukon River Chinook salmon with Ichthyophonus at the Marrowstone Marine Field Station
Dalton Hance
Fisheries data does not speak for itself – no matter the size, detail, complexity, or expense at which it was collected. My research is focused on improving and applying statistical methods that maximize the value of existing data or of planned studies for assessing fish movement and survival, and the relationships of these demographic parameters to management levers.
I work at the Columbia River Research Laboratory as a Research Statistician within the Quantitative Fisheries Ecology Section. Currently, my work is focused on Snake River Fall Chinook salmon and Chinook salmon in the Sacramento – San Joaquin system. My graduate work investigated seasonal movement of Oregon Coast Coho Salmon by accounting for imperfect detection of tagged individuals. Prior to working with USGS, I conducted statistical analysis of environmental contaminants in fish, sediment, and water in various locations throughout the United States.
Research Interests:
My main research interest is in developing and applying mark-recapture models to fisheries data. Simple mark-recapture models have been used for decades to inform management data in the Columbia River and other basins. However, many existing methods do not take full advantage of the wealth of data offered by telemetry data. For example, analysts commonly ignore the temporal dimension of these data by either aggregating fish released or detected over several days or weeks into an artificial “single-release”, often this entails discarding data (e.g. fish released or detected outside of an arbitrary timeframe). I am interested in developing and expanding process-based statistical models that account for this temporal variation and make more efficient use of the available data while also providing more informative results that can address operational and environmental conditions at a timescale that is relevant to management (e.g. daily).
Professional Experience
2016 to Present – Statistician, U.S. Geological Survey, Western Fisheries Research Center, Columbia River Research Laboratory, Cook, WA
2014 – 2016 – Environmental Scientist, Anchor QEA, Wenatchee, WA
2010 – 2014 – Graduate Research Assistant, College of Forestry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
2007 – 2010 – Clinical Research Coordinator, Department of Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Education and Certifications
M.Sc. 2014 – Statistics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
M.Sc. 2013 – Forest Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
B.Sc./B.A. 2006 – Mathematics/English, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA
Science and Products
Acoustic-tagged juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) detections in Lookout Point Reservoir and downstream in the Middle Fork Willamette River, Oregon
Daily and annual abundances of natural- and hatchery-origin age-0 fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) passing Lower Granite Dam, Washington 1992 - 2021
USGS scientist Jake Gregg training Alaska Pacific University graduate student Nadia Barcelona how to inject Yukon River Chinook salmon with Ichthyophonus at the Marrowstone Marine Field Station
These are graphs detailing the number of natural origin age-0 Chinook salmon passing Lower Granite Dam over the years.
These are graphs detailing the number of natural origin age-0 Chinook salmon passing Lower Granite Dam over the years.
This is a map of the Snake River, used in the publication Back from the Brink: Estimating daily and annual abundance of natural-origin salmon smolts from 30 years of mixed-origin capture-recapture data.
This is a map of the Snake River, used in the publication Back from the Brink: Estimating daily and annual abundance of natural-origin salmon smolts from 30 years of mixed-origin capture-recapture data.
Using parentage-based tagging to estimate survival of Chinook salmon fry in a large storage reservoir
Back from the brink: Estimating daily and annual abundance of natural-origin salmon smolts from 30-years of mixed-origin capture-recapture data
Snake River Fall Chinook Salmon research and monitoring
Assessing the efficacy of using a parentage-based tagging survival model to evaluate two sources of mortality for juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in Lookout Point Reservoir, Oregon
From drought to deluge: Spatiotemporal variation in migration routing, survival, travel time and floodplain use of an endangered migratory fish
Research, monitoring, and evaluation of emerging issues and measures to recover the Snake River Fall Chinook salmon ESU
Identifying resting locations of a small elusive forest carnivore using a two-stage model accounting for GPS measurement error and hidden behavioral states
Juvenile Chinook salmon survival, travel time, and floodplain use relative to riverine channels in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta
Combining models of the critical streakline and the cross-sectional distribution of juvenile salmon to predict fish routing at river junctions
A temporally stratified extension of space‐for‐time Cormack–Jolly–Seber for migratory animals
Research, monitoring, and evaluation of emerging issues and measures to recover the Snake River fall Chinook Salmon ESU
Survival, travel time, and utilization of Yolo Bypass, California, by outmigrating acoustic-tagged late-fall Chinook salmon
Science and Products
Acoustic-tagged juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) detections in Lookout Point Reservoir and downstream in the Middle Fork Willamette River, Oregon
Daily and annual abundances of natural- and hatchery-origin age-0 fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) passing Lower Granite Dam, Washington 1992 - 2021
USGS scientist Jake Gregg training Alaska Pacific University graduate student Nadia Barcelona how to inject Yukon River Chinook salmon with Ichthyophonus at the Marrowstone Marine Field Station
USGS scientist Jake Gregg training Alaska Pacific University graduate student Nadia Barcelona how to inject Yukon River Chinook salmon with Ichthyophonus at the Marrowstone Marine Field Station
These are graphs detailing the number of natural origin age-0 Chinook salmon passing Lower Granite Dam over the years.
These are graphs detailing the number of natural origin age-0 Chinook salmon passing Lower Granite Dam over the years.
This is a map of the Snake River, used in the publication Back from the Brink: Estimating daily and annual abundance of natural-origin salmon smolts from 30 years of mixed-origin capture-recapture data.
This is a map of the Snake River, used in the publication Back from the Brink: Estimating daily and annual abundance of natural-origin salmon smolts from 30 years of mixed-origin capture-recapture data.