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Rachel Lekanoff earned her MS in Oceanography at UAF and her BS in Environmental Science at Western Washington University. She is now a graduate student at UAF CFOS (again!) as a Tamamta fellow pursuing a PhD in Fisheries. In addition to school, she works for the Northern Latitudes Partnerships’ Aleutian Bering Sea Initiative as their Â鶹¹ÙÍø Coordinator. Through both school and her job, she works closely with Tribal communities on climate resilience, mariculture, and co-production research projects.

Outside of work and school, Rachel is an avid cyclist and cross-country skier and is frequently on the incredible trail networks in and around Anchorage. She lives with her partner, Craig, and their three cats.

I am investigating the use of eDNA as a tool to measure salmon abundance in rural Alaska, especially the Aleutians. I will use salmon counts generated by an enumeration weir operated by the Alaska Department of Fish & Game and the Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska, and compare count data with salmon abundance derived from eDNA sampling.

• Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska
• Northern Latitudes Partnerships - Aleutian Bering Sea Initiative