Senior Biologist
B.A. Ecology; M.S. Marine Resource Management

Phone: (503) 850-9610

Portland, Oregon 

Ryan is an exceptional fisheries biologist with over a decade of experience conducting and leading a variety of sampling and monitoring projects. Ryan has extensive field experience that includes deployment and operation of biotelemetry equipment, collection of juvenile outmigrant data (rotary screw and incline plane traps, PIT tagging, snorkeling), water quality sampling, boat operations, and assessment of aquatic and riparian habitats. Prior to joining Cramer Fish Sciences, Ryan worked on studies evaluating survival rates of juvenile salmonid passage through hydroelectric projects and estimating the exposure of ESA-listed salmonids to harmful levels of total dissolved gas. As a graduate student, Ryan researched how genetics-based tools can be used to identify catch distributions for Chinook salmon at refined space-time scales that are beyond the capacity of traditionally reported coded-wire tag data. Ryan is well versed in managing and analyzing complex data sets in R and GIS, developing web-based applications to host and visualize data, and preparing and editing technical reports and publications.  

Selected Publications

Arntzen, E. V., R. J. Flaherty, A. H. Colotelo, R. D. Harnish, J. Vavrinec, S. A. Zimmerman, J. D. Tagestad, and K. Stertz. 2018. Assessment of the effects of total dissolved gas exposure of upper Willamette River Chinook salmon and steelhead below Foster Dam. PNNL-27325. Final report prepared for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, Portland, Oregon, by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington.

Liss, S. A., J. S. Hughes, E. F. Fischer, R. J. Flaherty, and J. P. Duncan. 2017. Willamette Valley high head bypass downstream passage prototype evaluation: radio telemetry evaluation of the connecting and bypass pipes at Green Peter Dam, 2016. PNNL-26198. Final report prepared for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, Portland, Oregon, by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington.

Hughes, J. S., S. A. Liss, R. J. Flaherty, E. S. Fischer, B. J. Bellgraph, C. V. Vernon, and G. E. Johnson. 2017. Evaluation of juvenile salmonid passage and behavior at Foster Dam using radio telemetry, 2016. PNNL-26416. Final report prepared for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland, Oregon, Portland, Oregon, by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington.

Flaherty, R. J. 2015. Tags versus genetics: identifying which tool provides the best information about Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) distributions in the California Current. M.S. Thesis, Oregon State University, Corvallis.

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