Parker's work with lampreys featured on local TV station
A Fisheries Biology Graduate Student at Humboldt State University was recently awarded with an environmental fellowship to conduct research on a tribal trust fish species in the Klamath River.
Yurok Tribal Member Keith Parker says some of his first childhood memories are rowing a boat, running gill nets and fishing with his grandfather on the Klamath River. Those experiences left a lasting impression.
"It's instilled within us culturally that we have a responsibility to be good stewards to the land and to the river," said Parker.
Over the years Parker has witnessed the devastating salmon fish kills, the rise in algae blooms, and the death of a mother gray whale that was stranded in the Klamath.
"So all of these things, quite frankly, they angered me,” said Parker. “And made me want to go out and do something about this once and for all. And I figured if I didn't do it now at this time in my life that I probably wouldn't do it as I got older."
Parker went back to school to obtain his undergrad from Humboldt State University in his 40’s. He is now a Fisheries Biologist working toward his Master's Degree at HSU with a focus on genetics.
