Vernon
Byrd
US Fish and Wildlife Service

I was born and raised in North Carolina. I received a BS in wildlife management from the University of Georgia in 1968, conducted graduate studies in ecology and statistics at the University of Alaska in 1975, and received an MS at the University of Idaho in Wildlife Biology in 1989. I became particularly interested in the ocean when I was stationed in the US Navy at Adak Island in the Aleutians 1968-1971. Since then, opportunities to conduct studies of marine birds and marine mammals have been afforded through positions as a biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service on National Wildlife Refuges in coastal Alaska and Hawaii.

My professional interest is in contributing to the understanding of marine ecosystem processes through long-term study of response of top-level predators to fluctuations in environmental conditions and resource management practices.