Austin Demarest is a Fish Biologist working in the Lodi Fish and Wildlife Office on the SJRRP leading complex fisheries studies to assess reintroduction of Chinook salmon in the San Joaquin River and inform habitat restoration activities. Prior to the SJRRP, Austin worked on fishery related issues in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers and San Francisco Estuary related to juvenile salmon emigration, timing and survival and white sturgeon and Delta smelt population assessments. He found his passion for aquatic ecology while growing up in upstate New York where he obtained his Bachelor’s Degree (Aquatics and Fisheries Science) from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. He began his career by conducting research on the speciation of endemic fishes of Palawan, Philippines. After spending time abroad he worked at the Thousand Island Biological Station on the St. Lawrence River where he focused on sportfish population assessments with an emphasis on Muskellunge recruitment and reintroduction as well as wetland restoration.