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Nick Sanderson
Mighty Oak Monday: Nick Sanderson
Major: Aquatics and Fisheries Science
Hometown: Buffalo, New York
Class of 鈥�24
Nick Sanderson has always loved fish. In fact, he chose ESF because it was one of
the few schools where he could follow his passion for fishery science. 鈥淭he fact that
it was specialized really appealed to me,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he culture being so niche with
environmental fields was a big deciding factor.鈥� Now he鈥檚 president of ESF鈥檚 bass
fishing team and is conducting undergraduate research on bass, which he hopes to continue
as a graduate student at ESF.
Nick鈥檚 undergraduate research began with a summer internship on the Onondaga Lake Biomonitoring project, where he monitored the health of the recovering lake sturgeon population, conducted fish community analysis, and monitored contamination levels within fish. To make the internship count as a field experience credit, Nick had to develop it into a project. Given his passion for bass fishing, he decided to focus on bass fishing tournaments.
Nick asserts that current practices at bass fishing tournaments create problems for the individual fish, as well as the ecosystem in general. 鈥淲hen anglers catch a fish, they store it on the boat, then bring it back to the launch site to be weighed and released. At that point, you鈥檙e looking at the displacement of thousands of apex predators all being released in one location,鈥� he explains. 鈥淎dditionally, bass don鈥檛 typically deviate from their home range. If they can鈥檛 find their way back, they never really establish, so you鈥檙e transitioning to a population that is far more nomadic than it should be.鈥�
Nick ultimately hopes to influence the fishing industry in a positive way and continue his research on the side by getting a job as conversation director for a major bass fishing tournament organization or top-line fishing company.
Nick鈥檚 scholarship directly supports his passion and his dream: the funds help him
purchase equipment for his research. 鈥淭here are very few grants available for undergraduate
research, so this has been an essential resource for me. I cannot express the depth
of my gratitude to you for financing a project that has given my education a greater
purpose and allows me to work on precisely what I am passionate about. Thank you!鈥�
Learn more about ESF鈥檚 Aquatics and Fisheries Science program.