Knauss Fellow Feature: Meet Dr. Claire Gonzales

Each year, NOAA Fisheries hosts fellows through the John A. Knauss Fellowship program . This fellowship places graduate students with an interest in ocean and Great Lakes policy in offices in the executive and legislative branches of the government.

Dr. Claire Gonzales recently completed her Knauss Fellowship with NOAA Fisheries' Office of Science and Technology. A subject matter expert in marine spatial planning for the blue economy with a Ph.D. from UC Santa Barbara, she worked as a Species Distribution Mapping and Analysis Specialist during her fellowship.

Learn more about Claire's experience as a Knauss Fellow in the Office of Science and Technology!

What is your background and why did you decide to pursue a Knauss Fellowship?

I got my Ph.D. in the synergistic approach to marine spatial planning in crowded seascapes. I focused on the co-location of seafood and renewable energy-specifically off of the West Coast-and how we can build a blue economy that is efficient, minimizes impact, and serves all the different types of ocean stakeholders.

My background is also rooted in science across different sectors and finding synergies across those sectors. I decided to pursue a Knauss Fellowship because I thought it would be really valuable to learn about how we turn that science into policy. I wanted to see how science and policy working together can create positive impacts and solutions for ocean users, stakeholders, and constituents from various backgrounds and industries across the country.

On a personal and career level, I also wanted to build my analytical skills as a scientist and understand how science from a data and quantitative perspective can feed into management and make a positive change in the world.

What type of work did you do as a fellow, and what did a typical day look like?

As a Species Distribution Mapping and Analysis Specialist, I specifically worked to develop and maintain the Distribution Mapping and Analysis Portal , also known as DisMAP. So most of my days were spent advancing the DisMAP mission and its functions. A lot of my time was spent deep in analysis, maintaining the data that we have and compiling it across different regions to prepare data for our updates.

We worked on developing a new module this year, so a lot of time went towards developing that methodology and those analytics. I also spent a lot of time engaging with different regions to ground truth the outputs that we deliver from DisMAP. I connected with the regions who might be using or supplying the data to make sure that our relationships are strong with those end users.

What achievement are you most proud of as a fellow?

As part of my work with DisMAP, we completed the annual data update and also developed a new species persistence module. Its purpose is to flag species and taxa that might be increasing, decreasing, or remaining persistently present in a particular region. It provides decision-makers with more information about which species are moving in and out of (or remaining in) various regions.

We launched the pilot version this fall. I participated in the engagement process after the launch, and talking to different staff from regional fisheries councils about the module and what we could do to improve it was incredibly useful for me as a scientist. That allowed me to gather regionally dependent and specific context and information on the data, which will help us continue to process that data in DisMAP. But as a fellow it was also really fulfilling to meet people from all different places who have similar and different priorities.

What did you enjoy most about working in the Office of Science and Technology?

For me, it was definitely the people. It's such a collaborative environment and I was so impressed. Every person that I met in the Office of Science and Technology and across NOAA is outrageously smart, kind, and really thoughtful. I feel very lucky that I got to work with and learn from this group. It strengthened me as a scientist and also as a person to be surrounded by so many incredible people, many of whom have become lifelong friends.

What was the most memorable experience you had this year?

Traveling to this year's International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Annual Science Conference in Lithuania with the U.S. delegation was certainly a highlight. Throughout the whole year, I developed a really good understanding of how NOAA promotes sustainable fisheries domestically. But it's really valuable to figure out the ties that we have in the international community as well, and the ways that science can be translated internationally. It was a valuable way to see all the different cases in which what we do here is important. Seeing that on the international stage was crucial to my development as a scientist and a Knauss Fellow and helped me to better understand the implications of what we do here at NOAA.

How has your fellowship shaped or changed your perspective on fisheries science and ocean policy?

As I'm concluding my fellowship, something I've thought about a lot is that resolution matters, which is a nerdy way of saying that perspective matters. The challenges of each region are so specific, and it really bolsters our ability to tackle those challenges to have people coordinating at the national level. I think that people at the regional level need to have that ability to really get into the weeds in the areas they work on. Having a headquarters that is focused on coordination across the regions ensures that regional staff can really zoom in on their specific, incredibly nuanced issues. To me, both of these roles working hand-in-hand is crucial to maintaining and advancing sustainable fisheries systems in the United States.