Join Amanda Higgs and Jessica Best as they discuss their research about the incredible fish of the
Hudson River. They will share how they track fish species in the Hudson and how technology helps
scientists see fish on the bottom of the river, making the invisible visible!
Amanda has a B.S. in biology from Villanova University. She has spent her entire life on the Hudson and began working with DEC’s Hudson River Fisheries Unit in 1999. Throughout her career she has worked with many species that use the Hudson River as a spawning ground or as their home. She is the current NY member of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Atlantic sturgeon Technical Committee (coast-wide management commission). She is involved with Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon research and management, and also manages the adult Atlantic sturgeon program that catches large, spawning Atlantic sturgeon that average 6 feet long.
Jessica has a B.S. in zoology from the Ohio State University, where she realized her passion for aquatic ecology and fisheries science. Her love for the Hudson and ocean migrants began when she first joined the Hudson River Fisheries Unit in 2007. She is currently a NY representative on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s striped bass tagging subcommittee, where members from all the east coast states collaborate to tag and manage striped bass. She enjoys helping out on all the fisheries projects within the unit, but her primary responsibilities are the spawning stock survey for striped bass and American shad, the blue crab survey, the Hudson River Cooperative Angler Program, and
commercial monitoring of American eels.