Science-policy interface; seabird-fisheries interactions; population dynamics; fisheries management; urban marine ecology
Publications
Peer-reviewed (feel free to contact me to ask for a pdf)
HAMEL, N. J., BURGER, A. E., CHARLETON, K., DAVIDSON, P., LEE, S., BERTRAM, D. F. & PARRISH, J. K. In review. Bycatch and beached birds: assessing mortality impacts in coastal net fisheries using marine bird strandings.
HAMEL, N. J., PARRISH, J. K. & LAAKE, J. 2008. Linking colonies to fisheries: Spatio-temporal overlap between common murres (Uria aalge) from Tatoosh Island and coastal gillnet fisheries in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Biological Conservation 141: 3101-3115.
HAMEL, N. J., PARRISH, J. K. & CONQUEST, L. L. 2004. Effects of tagging on behavior, provisioning, and reproduction in the common murre (Uria aalge), a diving seabird. The Auk 121: 1161-1171.
Selected reports
Hamel, N.J., S. Pearson et al. In review. State of the Washington Coast: A Report on the Status of Coastal Washington’s Biological Resources and Identification of Scientific Data Gaps. Olympia, WA.
Bowman, R., L.A. Riopelle, N. Hamel. 1996. The influence of habitat fragmentation and matrix habitat type on the demography of Florida Scrub-Jays at Avon Park Air Force Range. Annual Report to U.S. Department of Defense, McDill AFB, Tampa, FL.
Books
Marzluff, J.M. and N.J. Hamel. 2001. Land use issues. In: Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Vol 3. Academic Press. San Diego, CA. 924pp.
Peter Hodum
Fellowship
More on research interests
After landing in Seattle from Québec, I was completely taken by the fisheries world. My graduate studies focus on seabird spatial ecology and seabird-fisheries interactions in the Washington and British Columbia salmon gillnet fisheries.
Bycatch of seabirds, in particular of common murres, has been a management and conservation concern in this region for over two decades. My graduate studies follow up on collaborative work between the fishing industry and Washington Sea Grant, who got together to test bycatch reduction gear (Melvin et al. 1999). The collaboration resulted in the use of modified nets that maintain salmon catch but reduce common murre bycatch, a win-win situation. It remains though that the origin of bycaught birds is unknown. One of my focus is to determine whether common murres fromTatoosh Island, the closest colony to the fisheries, are vulnerable to bycatch. The conceptual analysis consists on quantifying the spatio-temporal overlap of the distribution of Tatoosh Island murres and gillnet fisheries effort (Hamel et al. 2008).
Almost every year in Puget Sound, the Strait of Georgia and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we hear reports of tens to hundreds of seabirds washing up on shore, all at once. How unusual are these seabird wrecks? What causes them? Thanks to beach surveys organized by citizen-science programs like the Beached Bird Survey and COASST, I compared background levels of seabird deposition rates to acute events, comprehensively across boundaries and regions, to understand the level of mortality and impact on birds.
I love to learn through scientific research, only one of many ways to learn about the natural world. My professional wishes are to work as a biologist in the policy arean. I hope to apply my scientific skills and knowledge of ecology and conservation in decision making both at the policy and the grassroots level. I hope one day when the time is right to return to la Belle Province to contribute to the conservation of its precious natural resources.
References
HAMEL, N. J., PARRISH, J. K. & LAAKE, J. 2008. Linking colonies to fisheries: Spatio-temporal overlap between common murres (Uria aalge) from Tatoosh Island and coastal gillnet fisheries in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Biological Conservation 141: 3101-3115.
MELVIN, E. F., PARRISH, J. K. & CONQUEST, L. L. 1999. Novel tools to reduce seabird bycatch in coastal gillnet fisheries. Conservation Biology 13: 1386-1397.
I hope you don't mind me enjoying a poutine once in a while!
