April 12, 2026 @ 1200
Nick Bertrand will be giving the talk: Wild America: Western Fishes of the United States, Tall tales and Forgotten Gems. This talk focuses on some of the oddities found in the aquatic parts of the American West.
Nick Bertrand is a supervisory fish biologist and Portland District Chief of Fisheries for the United States Army Corps of Engineers. When asked how he became a Fish Biologist, he always describes keeping aquariums in high school as the event that settled his many diverse scientific passions on the singular one that would never bore him, ichthyology. Aquariums entered Nick’s life when his father decided he wanted one like he had in his parents house. No one was prepared for where this would go. At some point during selecting fish for this tank and having it successfully cycle with Zebra Danios, Nick discovered the magazine Tropical Fish Hobbyist. At a time when internet communities were still at best forums and maybe myspace existed, he tore through every copy of TFH he could read and the love of fish behavior and many ways evolution shaped their forms would occupy him every after.
Being limited to only his own bedroom, Nick mastered the multiple 10 gallon planted tank set up. The space limitation and exceptionally hard water of San Antonio TX led him to many successes with Livebearers and eventually joining the American Livebearers Association. Membership in the ALA led to employment at the XIphophorus Genetic Stock Center and recruitment into graduate school at Texas A&M University. After Graduate School, Nick began working for the US Forest Service in Wyoming, then the University of California at Davis in a fish evolution lab. Then he would return to federal service with the US Fish and Wildlife in Roswell NM working with western desert fishes in a genetics lab and hatchery. He would then return to California to work for the Bureau of Reclamation as their lead Delta Smelt Hatchery Biologist. It was moving on from that position to Portland that led him to a Greater Portland Aquarium Society swap meet where upon learning he was a fish biologist, he was immediately recruited to speak.
At the conclusion of the presentation Nick will host a Q & A and will be available to talk during breaks as well.