In my day job, I am a fishery scientist (the last 23 years with NOAA Fisheries) who studies the ecology and behavior of Pacific salmon and steelhead (primarily during their freshwater phases) along the West Coast of North America. Prior to that, I spent several years teaching at the The Evergreen State College, including courses in fish ecology, stream ecology, limnology, and aquatic entomology. While my career focus has been on freshwater organisms, my interest in the natural world extends to many other ecosystems and taxonomic groups, and I border on obsessive when it comes to identifying and making lists of what I see in nature.

I am an avid snorkeler of tropical waters (mostly Hawaii), know the fauna of shallower waters very well, and have recently posted observations from various tropical trips to iNaturalist. I've been a somewhat casual but enthusiastic birder for three decades (mostly songbirds, not so much shorebirds or raptors), and have recently taken interest in butterflies as well.

But my "second home" and deepest passion is the high country of the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. I've been backpacking in these mountains since the early 1970s, taking trips ranging from a few nights to as much as a month nearly every year since 1973. I've grown increasingly interested in the diversity of wildflowers and have recently cataloged many of those observations in iNaturalist (restricting myself to observations where I am certain about the date/location, and confident in the ID). Not being a trained botanist, I welcome any and all feedback from knowledgeable folks!

Here are Hawaii fish observations that need ID confirmation:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&quality_grade=needs_id&subview=map&user_id=okisutch99&verifiable=any&iconic_taxa=Actinopterygii

Here are Sierra flower observations that need ID confirmation:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=52173&quality_grade=needs_id&subview=map&user_id=okisutch99&verifiable=any&iconic_taxa=Plantae