Gay Sheffield

Marine Advisory Program

UAF Alaska Sea Grant

gay.sheffield@alaska.edu

Nome , Alaska

Gay Sheffield is a state marine biologist and was recently hired as the new Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program (MAP) agent for the Bering Strait region. She is based at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Northwest Campus in Nome. Sheffield was a marine mammal biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game since 1997, and has been assigned to the ADFG regional office in Nome for the past three years. Sheffield's work in the Bering Strait began in 1992, working with residents and researchers on studies of walruses, ice seals, belugas, and bowhead whales. Most recently, her work with Saint Lawrence Island residents documented the ongoing range extension of Steller sea lions into the Bering Strait, as well as the diet and feeding behavior of bowhead whales during the spring and late fall in the Bering Sea. Sheffield holds a master's degree in marine biology from SFOS, and is a UAF affiliate research associate of mammalogy.