Fisheries Biologist II
B.S. Environmental Science & Management; M.S. Ecology
Phone: (916) 250-1705

West Sacramento, California

Mollie is a fisheries biologist with extensive experience in fish monitoring and surveying across the Central Valley and northern California, including PIT tagging, backpack electrofishing, and installation and operation of rotary screw traps, fyke traps, and PIT tag antenna arrays. In addition, she has experience in macroinvertebrate and zooplankton collection in freshwater rivers and streams throughout California and collecting field data from rafts and other inflatables. Mollie recently served as the lead field biologist to monitor fish utilization of floodplains in the Central Valley as well as collection of zooplankton and water samples from reservoirs and rivers in the Lake Shasta area of California. Additionally, she oversaw the laboratory processing and analysis of juvenile Chinook Salmon and stomach contents identification for determination of diet and growth in different habitats throughout the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and Estuary. Mollie has experience with numerous technical laboratory methods, including fish tissue dissection, macroinvertebrate identification, and tissue preparation for isotopic analysis. Throughout her fisheries career, Mollie has led backpack electrofishing surveys, rotary screw trapping, beach seining, fyke trapping, gillnetting, and macroinvertebrate and zooplankton collection throughout California. She is an expert at identifying California’s diverse freshwater fishes, as well as being as experienced boat operator in lakes, rivers, and deltas. Mollie also has extensive experience in analyzing fisheries diet and growth data and using linear models to explore migration cues.

Selected Publications

Ogaz, M.H, Rypel, A. L., Moyle, P. B., Lusardi, R. A, and Jeffres, C.A. Should they stay or should they go: Do behavioral cues enable native fishes to exit a California floodplain? [Manuscript submitted for publication].

Sturrock, A.M., Ogaz, M.H., Neal, K., Corline, N.J., Peek, R., Myers, D., Schluep, S., Levinson, M., Johnson, R.C., and Jeffres, C.A. 2022. Floodplain trophic subsidies in a modified river network: Managed foodscapes of the future? [Manuscript submitted for publication].

Ogaz, M.H., Moyle, P.B., Lusardi, R.A., and Rypel, A.L. 2020. Habitat Utilization and Outmigration Dynamics of Fishes on a Restored Floodplain in California’s Central Valley [Unpublished master’s thesis]. University of California, Davis.

Jeffres, C.A., Holmes, E., Ogaz, M.H., Saron, G., Tilcok, M, Montgomery, J., and Katz, J. 2017. Fish Food on Floodplain Farm Fields: Report of the 2017 Pilot Year Investigations.

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