Rhinoceros Auklet chick (photo by Dave Calleri)

By Pat Lopes Harris, Media Relations Director

Ryan Carle, a graduate student in Marine Science who studies at the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, has received a 2012 Switzer Environmental Fellowship.

The fellowship provides a one-year $15,000 cash award for graduate study as well as networking and leadership support to awardees.

The Switzer Environmental Fellowship Program supports highly talented graduate students in New England and California whose studies are directed toward improving environmental quality and who demonstrate the potential for leadership in their field.

Carle is a master’s student in the Vertebrate Ecology Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and a lead ecologist for the non-profit Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge.

His current work is centered on the conservation of a small and threatened population of Rhinoceros Auklets (a burrowing seabird similar to puffins) breeding at Año Nuevo Island. One of only a handful of islands off the California coast, the island is critical breeding habitat for seven seabird and four marine mammal species.

Professor and MLML Interim Director Jim Harvey is Carle’s advisor. View more photos on Ryan Carle’s blog.