By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Sitka’s new area management biologist for the Department of Fish and Game says he knew he wanted to work in science from an early age.
“Once I found out you could go to school and get a job in fisheries, that’s what I wanted to do,” said Aaron Dupuis, the F&G biologist now in charge of managing a number of fisheries in this area. Those include herring, pot shrimp, dive fisheries (geoduck and sea cucumbers), subsistence fisheries, and seine and gillnet salmon fisheries for the Sitka area.
For the last two years, he has been assistant area management biologist, and heard Wednesday that he got the job.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity,” said Dupuis, 34.
An only child, Dupuis grew up spending a lot of time outdoors, enjoying his time at his grandparents’ cabin on Hood Canal, and fishing around Washington state with his parents.
“That’s why I like northwest fisheries so much,” he said. “We did everything – salmon, clams, oysters, shrimp, crab. Whatever could be harvested from the sea, we did that.”
Aaron Dupuis, Alaska Department of Fish and Game management biologist, loads buckets of herring samples onto a pallet at the Alaska Airlines cargo office Thursday. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
After graduating from Sultan (Washington) High School in 2003, he earned his degree in wildlife biology from the University of Montana in 2007.
His first job was as a fisheries technician for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Missoula. A year later, he moved to Fairbanks to earn his master’s degree in fisheries, which he earned in 2010.
“I’ve always wanted to be in Alaska – Alaska was the great mythical land of fishing and hunting,” Dupuis said.
After working for a year on a weir project for Tanana Chiefs Conference in Fairbanks, he moved south, taking his first job with Fish and Game. In Soldotna, he was the assistant area management biologist for upper Cook Inlet commercial fisheries, including sockeye salmon on the Kenai and Kasilof rivers.
“It was a good foundation in commercial fisheries management,” Dupuis said, of the five years he spent in the position.
When the chance came up for moving to Sitka, he jumped on it, taking the job of assistant area management biologist in 2017.
“Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I’ve always wanted to work on the coast; Sitka’s always been a place I wanted to check out,” he said. “I knew how cool the fisheries were down here so when the opportunity came up, I went for it.”
For about three years, he learned the ropes from Eric Coonradt, a longtime biologist for the department.
“I was fortunate to have Eric as a supervisor for the last three years,” Dupuis said. “Without that, it would’ve been a tough position.”
Coonradt passed away unexpectedly in late January, and Dupuis has been serving as acting area management biologist since then.
“We’re doing our best to honor his legacy by being good managers in what we do,” Dupuis said. “It’s been a tough transition – there’s a lot of emotion wrapped up in it.”
Dupuis said the coronavirus emergency is adding complications to his job, working under state and local mandates on social distancing, and limits on numbers at gatherings. Fish and Game is continuing its work while adhering to emergency rules, but Dupuis said they are limiting some aspects of the job, which he misses.
“There’s a lot less interaction with the public,” he said. “That’s been a bummer – I love having the public come in and chat with us. But I haven’t noticed a lot of difference in the day-to-day work.”
Dupuis and his wife Leslie have a 5-year-old daughter, Kaylee.
