Michael Dalton

Dalton is an Industry Economist at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC). Dalton develops bioeconomic models with population dynamics for Alaska’s crab and groundfish fisheries to quantify the expected future effects of ocean acidification and climate change on bioeconomic reference points such as maximum economic yield (MEY). Dalton maps and analyzes U.S. trade statistics, market exchange rates, and tariffs, to estimate global demand for Alaska’s seafood commodities and is currently embarking on new research that utilizes U.S. energy statistics to quantify changes in total energy use for U.S. commercial fisheries. Dalton received a PhD in economics from the University of Minnesota, with specialties in Industrial Organization and Public Finance. Dalton’s thesis was supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to develop a bioeconomic growth model under rational expectations to quantify the expected welfare effects of climatic variability in the form of heatwaves and droughts on maize crops in Minnesota.

Dalton was a postdoctoral research associate at Stanford University for a U.S. Department of Energy funded project that developed a global demographic-energy-economic growth model, founded on a rational expectations solution method, which was employed as the main component of the Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) at the National Center of Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Recently the Trade Model Expert Panel report to the U.K. Department for International Trade cited Dalton’s research with NCAR that developed, validated, and demonstrated, a parallel algorithm to solve rational expectations equilibrium in economic growth models with many countries and bilateral trade flows.

Before joining the AFSC, Dalton was an Associate Professor at California State University Monterey Bay where he taught courses on natural resource economics and geographical information systems (GIS) in the earth systems program and conducted applied research supported by California Sea Grant to develop a bioeconomic model under rational expectations that was used to forecast effects of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on commercial fisheries in Monterey Bay. Dalton served for six years on the Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee and was co-Chair of the Economics Subcommittee.

At the AFSC, Dalton studies the bioeconomic effects of ocean acidification and climatic variability such as marine heatwaves and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), on Alaska’s commercial crab and groundfish fisheries. Dalton’s research synthesizes the best available economic, environmental, and fishery, data collected for Alaska’s fisheries and a recent scientific review for NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program (OAP) concluded Dalton’s research meets the objectives of NOAA’s Next Generation Stock Assessment Improvement plan. Dalton served for six years on the Gulf of Alaska Groundfish Plan Team. Dalton is an avid angler for freshwater bass and pike.