Past Graduate Student

Melissa Haltuch (B.S. 1996; M.S. 1998; Ph.D. 2008) is currently a Fishery Research Biologist with the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, WA. Her research focuses on fisheries stock assessment methods, quantifying environmental effects on population dynamics, using the bomb radiocarbon chronometer for age validation, projecting climate impacts on fish stocks, and how to best provide scientific advice for fishery managers. The primary focus for this work is the U.S. West Coast groundfish fishery. Melissa leads the U.S. West Coast petrale sole stock assessment as well as contributes to other groundfish stock assessments. She also serves on the NOAA Fisheries and the Environment (FATE) program steering committee.

During her graduate studies in the Punt lab, Melissa was supported by the NMFS-Sea Grant Fellow in Population Dynamics. Prior to her arrival in Seattle Melissa worked for the U.S. Department of State, Office of Marine Conservation, in Washington D.C. as a Knauss Sea Grant Fellow. She received her Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences from Ohio State University, where she participated in the NSF Summer Institute in Japan. While in Ohio she also worked for the U.S. Geological Survey on the GAP Analysis Program.

For more information see Melissa’s NOAA NWFSC staff webpage.

Publications

1. Cope, JM, Haltuch, MA. 2012. Temporal and spatial summer groundfish assemblages in trawlable habitat off the west coast of the USA, 1977 to 2009. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 451: 187-200. doi:10.3354/meps09595.
2. Haltuch, MA, Punt, AE. 2011. The promises and pitfalls of including decadal-scale climate forcing of recruitment in groundfish stock assessment. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 68:912-926. doi: 10.1139/F2011-030.
3. Haltuch, MA, Punt, AE, Dorn, MW. 2009. Evaluating the estimation of fishery management reference points in a variable environment. Fish. Res. 100:42-56. doi:10.1016/j.fishres.2009.03.001.
4. Haltuch, MA, Punt, AE, Dorn, MW. 2008. Evaluating alternative estimators of fishery management reference points. Fish. Res. 94:290-303. doi:10.1016/j.fishres.2008.01.008.
5. Punt, AE, Cope, JM, Haltuch, MA. 2008. Reference points and decision rules in U.S. Federal fisheries: West coast groundfish experiences. p. 1343-1356. In: Nielsen, JL, Doson, K, Friedland, TR, Hamon, J, Musick, J, Verspoor, E [Ed.] Reconciling Fisheries with Conservation: Proceedings of the Fourth World Fisheries Congress. American Fisheries Society Symposium 49.
6. Punt, AE, Dorn, MW, Haltuch, MA, 2008. Evaluation of threshold management strategies for groundfish off the U.S.West Coast. Fish. Res. 94:251-266. doi:10.1016/j.fishres.2007.12.008.
7. Piner, KR, Haltuch, MA, Wallace, J. 2005. Preliminary use of oxygen stable isotopes and the 1983 El Nino to assess the accuracy of aging black rockfish (Sebastes melanops). Fish Bull. 103:553-558.