Its mission is 1) to conduct basic and applied research on timely and ecologically important topics, focusing on marine ecology, 2) to engage scientists from many different countries in ecological collaborations, 3) to provide guidance and training for graduate and undergraduate students and 4) to provide knowledge and personnel to non-profit, government, and other agencies in their ecologically-related research and goals.

The degree of Master of Science or Master of Arts at California State University Long Beach can be obtained on projects supervised by Dr. Baird as the thesis advisor through Kahiltna Research Group. Likewise, credits in Special Topics in Biology or Directed Research, Biology 490 and 496 at CSULB can be obtained by working on projects of the Kahiltna Research Group.