Please see the below highlights for some of our on-going and recent collaborations. Although many of these are based in Alaska, we do maintain ongoing collaborations as well in Europe, particularly Scotland (where Morag is from!)
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Supporting Community and Tribal Disease Surveillance efforts across the state of Alaska.
Fish Health and Pathology LLC works with state, federal and Tribal groups across Alaska on disease surveillance projects, both as part of Sitka Sound Science Center-based research and as an independent contractual service. By providing advice in study design and efforts in data interpretation, we aim to support enhanced understanding of the fisheries that hold great importance as a subsistence resource to communities, including Indigenous groups. We provide support in various areas including analysis of histopathology, interpretation of data, and report writing for dissemination of disease surveillance findings. |
Demonstrating sampling approach to AITRC technicians working with Copper River subsistence communities.
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Research at the Sitka Sound Science Center
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Through her role as Senior Research Scientist, Morag Clinton provides support on a number of research projects, grant writing efforts, as well as assisting in mentoring and managing junior staff. Morag plays an active role in a North Pacific Research Board (NPRB) funded project examining the bioenergetic cost of climate change in Chinook salmon, as well as collaborative efforts with local aquaculture industry and the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. Additionally, as a veterinarian with specialism in fish health, Morag works actively with hatchery staff and the aquarist at the Sitka Sound Science Center to support the SSSC Aquarium and Pacific salmon hatchery, which in 2025 produced chum, pink, and coho salmon (with Chinook salmon housed experimentally in the wetlab facility). |
Visible Implant Elastomer (VIE) tagging juvenile fish to allow individual tracking of fish through the experiment duration of an experiment.
Measurement of muscle fiber numbers and diameter will provide additional metrics of fish growth in NPRB-funded work.
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Potential Non-Lethal Biomarkers of Fish Health
Research funded by the Yukon River Panel R&E fund as well as the University of Alaska Fairbanks BLaST program has allowed us to test samples collected through collaboration with an on-going Yukon River Chinook salmon disease surveillance project spearheaded by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) and US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS). Through analysis of blood parameters we aim to study the impacts of the pathogen Ichthyophonus on fish health towards the goal of identifying biomarkers of infection that might be utilized in the future in place of current gold-standard lethal sampling approaches. Future work will include determining whether blood samples can be obtained from migrating adult fish as part of routine state and federal assessments and without significant impact on migration success. The ultimate goal of this work is for implementation of less impactful in-season disease surveillance. |
Mentoring students and technicians at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in collection and processing of fish blood samples in the field
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Continued collaboration and research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks
By retaining an affiliation with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, we continue to partner on a variety of projects including:
By retaining an affiliation with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, we continue to partner on a variety of projects including:
- The US Geological Survey / University of Alaska Fairbanks / Alaska Department of Fish and Game 'Rusted River' work, examining impacts of changing river conditions in Interior Alaska on freshwater fish health.
- Center for Alaska Native Health Research projects, which work towards understanding impacts of climate change on Alaska Native Communities and Tribal groups (including changes to important fisheries resources).
- A project aimed at understanding how Bering Sea Pacific salmon diets impact Chinook and chum salmon disease and disease outcomes, funded by the Pollock Conservation Cooperative Research Center (PCCRC).
- Gill histology of Antarctic fish, a project led by Dr Kristin O'Brien at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Travel with CANHR to Arctic Village Alaska
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Returning from Tanana Alaska, loading supplies onto the plane
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Working with US Fish and Wildlife Service out of Fort Yukon Alaska
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Dr Morag Clinton also continues to serve on various student committees at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and is always happy to work with students at other organizations to support their research as a committee member or through providing advice.
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Arctic Fish Health
Dr Morag Clinton is working with the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the North Slope Borough to collect data to understand the impacts of a changing climate of fish distribution and health on the North Slope of Alaska, including projects looking at whitefish as well as Pacific salmon. Establishing a baseline of fish health and conducting surveillance in the circumpolar north is essential for understanding changes in disease presence and prevalence within fish stocks that are likely naive to many of the diseases found further south. 
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The work pictured here was conducted with the support of a TUNDRA award as well as research permits from ADF&G for sampling Arctic Grayling.
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Recent research spotlight
Gill Transcriptomic Responses to Toxin-producing Alga Prymnesium parvum in Rainbow Trout. This publication explores the gene expression in salmonid gill tissue exposed to a toxin producing algal organism. Results demonstrate that a number of transcripts assigned to genes with immunological function are altered with fish exposure to algal toxins. What does this mean?
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