 • 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 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.
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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.
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 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.
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 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.