Fellow spotlight: Michelle Dutro

Michelle Dutro is an Alaska Sea Grant State Fellow working with NOAA’s Protected Resources Division, Alaska Region to support marine mammal stranding and entanglement data and response efforts. Under the supervision of Mandy Keogh and Sadie Wright, Dutro is assisting with stranding data management, investigating trends in baleen whale strandings in Alaska, and documenting large whale entanglement cases and response efforts. Additionally, Dutro is supporting Kim Raum-Suryan with the Ocean Guardian School Program, which works with K–12 students to increase ocean literacy through education, outreach and stewardship projects.

“The Alaska Sea Grant State Fellowship has offered a rare opportunity to get my foot in the door, not only with a federal agency, but in the highly competitive field of marine mammal research and management,” said Dutro. “It has been a dream of mine to contribute to marine mammal science and conservation, and I am thrilled to return to Alaska waters in this capacity.”

Dutro is looking forward to training opportunities in large whale entanglement response, stranding data collection in the field and survey methodology.

Education and outreach are also central components of her fellowship. Dutro has given talks at local high schools, developed educational activities and coordinated an entanglement-themed obstacle course at several evening science events. Dutro played a lead role in creating the Pacific Exchange Network, or PEN Pal Program—a letter writing exchange among students in Alaska, Hawaii and American Samoa, which encourages discussion of indigenous-related STEM topics.

Dutro recently earned a master’s degree in coastal and marine management from the University Centre of the Westfjords in Ísafjörður, Iceland. Her master’s thesis utilized passive acoustic monitoring to estimate occurrence and fine-scale movement of northern bottlenose whales and sperm whales in Iceland’s offshore waters.

Dutro now lives in Juneau and enjoys sea kayaking and exploring her new surroundings with her husband, Brendan.