Mary Yoklavich

Bob Lea, Greg Cailliet, and Mary Yoklavich on the bridge of the R/V McGaw, assisting with navigation and plotting the trackline of a manned submersible during their recent study of fishes and habitats in deep water of the Big Creek Ecological Reserve off Big Sur, CA.

Two-person Delta submersible on site at Big Creek Ecological Reserve off Big Sur, CA.

Mary Yoklavich is a research fishery biologist working for NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service, Pacific Fisheries Environmental Laboratory in Pacific Grove, CA. She periodically lectures at Moss Landing Marine Labs and often includes ichthyology graduate students in her studies. As an undergraduate at University of California, Santa Barbara, she majored in Biological Sciences and emphasized studies of nearshore marine fish assemblages. Mary received an M.S. in Marine Sciences from San Francisco State University and Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. As a graduate student, she participated in a number of projects in the ichthyology program of Dr. Greg Cailliet, was especially interested in environmental physiology, and published her graduate thesis on the energetic requirements and habitat use of English sole in Elkhorn Slough.

Mary has been conducting research from California to Alaska on a variety of biological problems in marine fisheries and oceanography, including both field and laboratory studies, since 1980. She has authored and co-authored over 40 scientific publications, and is well known for her research on reproduction, age, growth, and habitat assessments of west coast rockfishes (Sebastes spp.). She has developed new techniques to evaluate assemblages of fishes and their associated habitats in deep water, and is currently applying these techniques to California’s new ecological research reserves. She is a scientific advisor to several national, regional, and local committees on fishery conservation issues. Most recently, she received the 1998 award for science and research from the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Jean deMarignac, Greg Cailliet, Rick Starr, Mary Yoklavich, and Bob Lea viewing video transects of fishes and their habitat.

Graduate student, Jeff Field, returning from a dive to 150m in the Delta submersible off Big Sur, CA.

Recent publications (1996-1998)

Yoklavich, M., H. G. Greene, G. Cailliet, D. Sullivan, R. Lea, and M. Love. Habitat Associations of Deep-water Rockfishes

in a Submarine Canyon: An Example of a Natural Refuge (in review with Fishery Bulletin).

Murray, S., R. Ambrose, J. Bohnsack, L. Botsford, M. Carr, G. Davis, P. Dayton, D. Gotshall, D. Gunderson, M. Hixon,

J. Lubchenco, M. Mangel, A. MacCall, D. McArdle, J. Ogden, J. Roughgarden, R. Starr, M. Tegner, and M. Yoklavich.

No-take Reserve Networks: Protection for Fishery Populations and Marine Ecosystems. (in review with Fisheries).

Yoklavich, M., G. Cailliet, D. Oxman, J. Barry, and D. Lindquist. Fish assemblages of Elkhorn Slough and Adjacent

Habitats. In: J. Caffrey (ed.). Ecosystem Change in a California Estuary: a Characterization of Elkhorn Slough.

(chapter of book in review).

Greene, H.G., M.M. Yoklavich, V. O’Connell, W.W. Wakefield, R. M. Starr, D. Sullivan, J. McRea, and G. Cailliet.

A Classification Scheme for Marine Benthic Habitats. (in review with Oceanologica Acta).

Yoklavich, M.M. (ed.) 1998. Marine Harvest Refugia For West Coast Rockfish: A Workshop. NOAA/NMFS Technical

Memorandum (in press).

Sladek Nowlis, J. and M. Yoklavich. 1998. Reserve design from models of fish transport. In: M. Yoklavich (ed.)

Marine Harvest Refugia For West Coast Rockfish: A Workshop. NOAA/NMFS Technical Memorandum (in press).

Yoklavich, M., R. Starr, J. Steger, H.G. Greene, F. Schwing, and C. Malzone. 1997. Mapping benthic habitats and

ocean currents in the vicinity of central Big Creek Ecological Reserve. NOAA Technical Memorandum, NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWFSC-245, 52 p.

Yoklavich, M.M. 1997. Applications of side-scan sonar and in situ submersible survey techniques to marine fisheries

habitat research. p. 140-141. In: Boehlert, G.W. and J.D. Schumacher, eds. Changing oceans and changing fisheries:

environmental data for fisheries research and management. NOAA Tech. Memo. NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWFSC-239. 146 pp.

Yoklavich, M., V. Loeb, M. Nishimoto, and B. Daly. 1996. Nearshore assemblages of larval rockfishes and their physical

environment off central California during an extended El Nino event, 1991-1993. Fishery Bulletin, U.S. 94:766-782.

Harvey, J.T. and M. M. Yoklavich. 1996. Book Review: Otolith Atlas of Southern African Marine Fishes, by M.J. Smale, G.

Watson, and T. Hecht. Copeia.1996(4):1061-1063.

Barry, J.P., M.M. Yoklavich, G.M. Cailliet, D.A. Ambrose, and B.S. Antrim. 1996. Trophic ecology of the dominant fishes

in Elkhorn Slough, California, 1974-1980. Estuaries 19: 115-138.

Bailey, K., A. Brown, M. Yoklavich, and K. Mier. 1996. Interannual variability in growth of larval and juvenile walleye

pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) in the western Gulf of Alaska, 1983-91. Fisheries Oceanography 5 (Suppl. 1):

137-147.

Recent Proposals Funded:

Principal Investigators: M. Yoklavich, G. Cailliet and R. Lea.
Project Title: Deepwater habitat and fish resources associated with a marine ecological reserve: implications for fisheries management.
Sponsor: University of California Sea Grant College System ($167,888: 1997-1999).