 • Services Overview
Kirkland Office:
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Gerald Erickson Jerry Erickson is a marine biologist with 20 years of experience in marine science and ecology, including marine invertebrate, shellfish, juvenile salmonid, and finfish ecology in the Pacific Northwest and other regions of North America. He has expertise on the effects of oil spills, wastewater effluents, and other environmental impacts on marine organisms, habitats, water quality and sediment quality. He also has expertise in marine toxicology, paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), red tides, and phytoplankton ecology. He has conducted extensive scientific literature and internet research in support of numerous projects in marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments. He has also conducted statistical analyses of invertebrate, finfish and other biological datasets on many projects.
In
1989, Jerry joined Beak Consultants, Inc. (Beak) in Kirkland,
Washington as a scientist in the Marine Division. He managed
projects preparing NEPA Environmental Assessments, Biological
Assessments of potential impacts to species listed under the
Endangered Species Act (ESA), habitat mitigation plans, and draft
and final project reports. He was In
1998, Jerry left Beak Consultants to help form Polaris Applied
Sciences. Jerry is currently a marine scientist at Polaris. He
is currently managing the marine portion of a project for Makers,
Inc. on the U.S. Navy torpedo range in Dabob Bay, Washington.
This project involves the preparation of marine biological sections
of a NEPA Environmental Assessment and a Biological Assessment
of potential impacts to Puget Sound salmonids recently listed
under the ESA. He is also managing a project evaluating the success
of mitigation habitats created to compensate for impacts resulting
from the
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As
an undergraduate student at the University of Washington in Seattle,
Jerry took marine biology courses at the Friday Harbor Marine
Laboratories and the Bermuda Biological Station. He completed
undergraduate degrees in Zoology and Botany at the University
of Washington in 1976 and 1977. Starting in 1980, Jerry worked
for several Sea Grant funded research projects at the University
of Washington School of Fisheries. These projects focused on
summer mortality in Pacific oysters and on the dynamics of dinoflagellate
plankton blooms, which cause toxic red tides and paralytic shellfish
poisoning (PSP).
As
a graduate student at the University of Washington School of
Fisheries starting in 1984, Jerry conducted his thesis research
on the effects of PSP toxins on several species of fish. Following
completion of his Master of Science degree in Fisheries Biology
in 1988, Jerry worked as an intern under the lead Fisheries Biologist
at Olympic National Park in Port Angeles, Washington through
the EIP Pacific Northwest internship program. As part of his
internship, he created a computer database of salmon and trout
spawning data for rivers and streams in the Park, and conducted
salmon and trout spawning surveys, electro-fishing surveys of
juvenile salmonids in side-channels and streams and razor clam
population studies. He also assisted in an assessment of the
effects of the NESTUCCA oil spill on intertidal organisms in
the Park's coastal unit.
Assistant Project Manager on a major
research project in British Columbia for Environment Canada on
the impacts of hydraulic cleaning techniques on oiled beach organisms.
He conducted numerous NRDAM/CME Type A computer model simulations
of natural resource injuries and damages due to oil and chemical
spills throughout North America. He also served as marine taxonomy
laboratory supervisor for various epibenthic and benthic invertebrate
taxonomy projects.
construction
of the Port of Seattle's Bell Street Pier on the central Seattle
waterfront. He has recently managed several projects assessing
the potential impacts to marine intertidal and nearshore habitats
resulting from shoreline construction activities. These projects
have included the preparation of Biological Assessments of potential
project impacts to salmonids recently listed under the ESA. He
has also conducted extensive literature and internet research
on many subjects, including the impacts of oil (and other substances)
to marine, freshwater and terrestrial habitats and organisms,
in support of natural resource damage assessments of spills in
Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, Maryland, South
Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, Oregon, Washington,
and Bolivia. Many of these projects also involved conducting
NRDAM/CME Type A computer model simulations of the spills.