ADFG Honoring Women In Fish And Game

During Women’s History Month, Alaska Department of Fish and Game is honoring the women of Alaska’s conservation and outdoors industry. Here’s some of the story, which features personal essays from many of the state’s best in the field:

Jenell Larsen Tempel

Wildlife Biologist with the Threatened, Endangered, and Diversity Program, Juneau

I have had always had a great variety of career interests in biology- physiology, reproduction, ecology, and evolution. I thought I might study the cognitive abilities of captive marine mammals, or become a professor, or maybe a museum curator, but the one constant that really captured my love for biology was the water. Time spent on it, under it, in it or around it. A professor and mentor pointed this out to me as an undergraduate. From my sophomore through senior year, I volunteered on a bottlenose dolphin study on the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida. I piloted the Boston Whaler we used as our survey vessel and conducted focal follows in kayaks on the weekends and after classes. “You know,” Dr. Borkowski said to me, “you seem happiest when you’re on the water and in the field. Have you ever considered becoming a wildlife biologist?” And she was right! Some of my favorite memories in college were Friday afternoons boating down the river, a pair of binoculars in hand scanning for grey dorsal fins cutting along banks, and a ball-cap shielding my face from the hot Florida sun.

Stephanie Sell

Wildlife biologist, Juneau

My name is Stephanie Sell and I’m a wildlife biologist currently conducting research to estimate the population and density abundance of brown bears in GMU 1D (northern Southeast Alaska, around Haines). I was born and raised in Anchorage but am now living in Juneau. I started working with ringed seals in the Arctic as an undergraduate at UAS and continued my research through to a master’s degree in conservation biology at Central Michigan University. I started working at ADF&G in 2009 as Sanctuary Manager of Walrus Island State Game Sanctuary on Round Island in Bristol Bay. During the winter months I worked with our wildlife veterinarian conducting disease surveillance on moose in southcentral Alaska. I transitioned to southeast Alaska in 2012 after accepting the assistant area biologist position in the Douglas office. After two years I was promoted to area biologist and was in charge of managing all wildlife species in northern Southeast Alaska, before moving to research where I’m now working with brown bears.