Ramona Rapp

Ramona Rapp earned her bachelor’s degree in Ecology from the University of North Texas in 2020, where she conducted observational field research on Alligator Gar habitat use and experimental studies on freshwater mussel species under the guidance of Dr. David Hoeinghaus. In 2019, she joined the USGS Texas Water Science Center in Fort Worth, TX, where she surveyed lakes and rivers for invasive zebra mussels, collected sediment cores, and assessed the nutrient balances affecting harmful algal blooms. In 2021, she moved to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Red Bluff Fish and Wildlife Office in Red Bluff, CA, to work for the Tributary Monitoring Program. For most of 2022, she monitored Sacramento River tributaries for juvenile salmonid passage via rotary screw traps. She also monitored adult salmonid spawning habitats via snorkel and kayak surveys. In late 2022 she joined RBFWO’s Hatchery Evaluation Program, conducting postmortem mark-recapture surveys on TNE salmonids and helping federal conservation hatcheries to meet their production targets.

In late 2024, Ramona transitioned to the USGS Columbia River Research Laboratory as part of the movement ecology team, focusing on acoustic telemetry projects. She uses acoustic telemetry to investigate challenges faced by salmonids, suckers, and lamprey as they pass through dams, and habitat use by threatened and endangered fishes. Ramona specializes in logistical planning required for the surgical implantation of acoustic and radio transmitters in fish and the maintenance of large-scale acoustic telemetry arrays. She has surgically implanted acoustic transmitters and injected PIT tags into juvenile Chinook salmon on the Shasta and lower Klamath Rivers. Her research is primarily located in the Klamath Basin where projects include 1) estimating the relationship between flow and survival rates of out-migrating juvenile Chinook salmon in the lower Klamath River, 2) conducting 2-dimensional fish tracking to explore the relationship between flow and habitat use of juvenile salmonids, 3) tracking movement and survival of endangered juvenile and adult Lost River Suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, and 4) evaluating the influence of flow management on the timing, duration, and proportion of thermal refuge use by out-migrating juvenile salmonids, and how this may impact their survival. In the summer of 2025, she assisted with a multi-agency project to dig artificial winter-run Chinook salmon redds, place gametes, and monitor egg survival across the spawning period to assess suitability of conditions across the upper Sacramento River. She is currently working to complete a report assessing Washington state hatchery infrastructure for zebra and quagga mussel vulnerability for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. This will include a literature review, assessment tool for hatchery managers, and examples from four WDFW hatcheries.