Author Archives: kightp

About kightp

Pat Kight is the web and digital media specialist for Oregon Sea Grant at Oregon State University.

OSG experts featured on invasive species program

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Oregon Sea Grant’s Sam Chan and Tania Siemens are featured in “Crayfish Invasion,” a recent episode of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s award-winning Oregon Field Guide program.

First aired on Feb. 17, the episode recounts how innocent elementary-school science projects have brought highly invasive crayfish into Oregon’s rivers and streams. Shipped to teachers for biology classes and then “set free” by well-meaning children or teachers, the animals spread quickly in the wild, out-competing native species. According to the series, shipments of live classroom specimens violates state wildlife laws but state authorities have chosen not to aggressively enforce the ban.

Chan, Oregon Sea Grant’s invasive species expert, and research assistant Siemens have been working with Oregon teachers to increase awareness of invasive species and enlist them and their classrooms in the fight to halt the spread of invaders in the marine environment. With the help of k-12 teachers and students, they are developing teacher toolkits with lesson plans, activities and other resources for teaching young people about the subject.

View video on the Oregon Field Guide site.

Sea Grant Summer Scholars accepting applications now

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2010 Summer Scholars get acquainted on the OSU Challenge CourseOregon Sea Grant is accepting applications from undergraduates for the Summer Scholars program.

This 10-week program places high caliber junior and senior undergraduate students from around the country with federal, state, and local public agencies to provide students with hands-on experience under the mentorship of a career professional, with a goal of  preparing them for graduate school and careers in marine science, policy, management, and outreach.

Participants gain  professional skills, agency workplace experience, and real-life practice in marine resource science, policy, management, and outreach and support agency programs and initiatives.

The 2011 Summer Scholars will be placed in Oregon in Lincoln, Coos, and Benton Counties, where they will assist host agencies with field work, lab work, analysis, natural resource policy research, public education, outreach and community engagement efforts.

The program is open to any undergraduate student who will have completed two years of study by summer 2011, and who is currently enrolled in any U.S. college or university may apply. Students of color, from first nations, non-traditional students, and those from other diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply. We seek students with a variety of interests including marine science, biology, ecology, zoology, environmental science, journalism, education, political science, or economics.

More information and application guidelines available here. The deadline to apply is April 1.

Sneaker waves, undersea gliders and an adventurous gray whale: OSU marine science in the news

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Marine scientists from Oregon State University are all over the news this week:

The Oregonian reports on so-called “sneaker waves”: Whether or not they’re a distinct phenomenon, the fact remains that sudden high waves on the Pacific coast can be deadly.  As OSU oceanographer Robert Holman explains:

“When you get into the beach, especially when you get into complicated areas like the rocks, you can get feedback – the previous wave changes the condition for the next wave. If you had a previous wave that washed down at just the right time, that would reinforce the next wave. That can produce things that truly are dangerous and not expected.”

KATU-TV reports on OSU’s plan to expand a fleet of “undersea gliders” – small, autonomously operated devices that gather data about undersea conditions. Thanks to funding from the national Ocean Observatories Initiative, the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Services plans to add 12 more gliders to its fleet over the next year, bringing the total to 21 and   dramatically increasing the opportunities for scientists to gather information about Pacific Ocean conditions.  Oceanographer Jack Barth explains:

“In more than half a century of work, OSU scientists have recorded about 4,000 profiles of the near-shore from ships. During the past five years, our gliders have logged more than 156,000 profiles – nearly 40 times what six decades of shipboard studies have provided.”

In British Columbia, the Vancouver Sun chronicles the travels of “Flex,” a highly endangered western Pacific grey whale. The animals summer off the Russian coast, and this one was tagged last summer by a team of US and Russian scientists trying to learn where the Pacific greys spend the winter. They thought it might be the South China Sea – but were surprised when the tagged whale, dubbed “Flex,” took off across the Bering Sea  and Gulf of Alaska and then down the west coast of North America.

Bruce Mate, head of OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute (and a pioneer in tracking whales via small, embedded satellite transmitters), is mapping the animal’s journey on the Institute’s Web site.

Research proposals due this Friday

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Reminder: 5 pm Friday, Feb. 4 is the deadline for researchers to submit preliminary proposals for Oregon Sea Grant’s competitive two-year funding cycle.

The grant competition is open to researchers affilliated with any institution of higher education pursuing research on important marine and coastal issues. An ideal proposal would apply the best science and an innovative approach to a well-defined coastal or marine problem or opportunity that is important to Oregon, the Pacific Northwest Region, and the nation. The two primary criteria for evaluating proposals are 1) scientific excellence and 2) societal relevance.

Funding comes from the National Oceaning and Atmospheric Administration via the National Sea Grant College Program.

Complete guidelines for preparing and submitting a proposal are available at http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/funding/rfpcall.html

Registration nears for HMSC Career Day

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Young scientists build their own ROVNEWPORT – Registration opens Feb. 1 for “CSI: Careers in Science Investigation,” the popular Hatfield Marine Science Center program for high school-aged students interested in exploring careers in marine and natural sciences.

The career day program takes place on Friday, April 8 from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm at the HMSC Visitor Center in Newport. The cost is $15/student.

Presented each spring and fall by the Oregon Sea Grant marine education program, the day-long program offers 9th-through-12th-graders an opportunity to spend a day interacting with working scientists on field research projects, learning about current research, recent discoveries and cutting-edge techniques, and taking part in hands-on activities – including building their own Remotely Operated Vehicles.

A highlight of this spring’s program will send participants out onto the Yaquina Bay mudflats to work alongside scientists sampling the rate of parasitic isopods in local ghost shrimp populations. Budding scientists are advised to bring boots and  rain gear, and to expect to get very wet and muddy!

Other sessions will focus on marine mammals, deep-ocean vents, wave energy, and marine invertebrate biology.

Space is limited, and reservations go fast. Read more and download a printable registration form.

Sea Grant seeks marine program, research specialists

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CORVALLIS, OR. – Oregon Sea Grant is looking for marine science professionals to fill two non-teaching faculty positions supporting its research initiatives and collaborations – and some part-time educators to help teach children and adults more about the sea.

The program, based at Oregon State University, is seeking to fill two 12-month, fixed term professional faculty positions on campus. One, a marine program specialist, will be charged with developing and executing university-wide, statewide and regional initiatives in which Sea Grant is involved. The other, a research program specialist, will help run  OSG’s biennial research funding competition and Sea Grant Scholars fellowship programs, as well as reporting on their impacts. Both positions require at least a master’s degree in the marine sciences. Application deadlines are Jan. 30 for the Marine Program Specialist and Feb. 2 for the Research Program specialist.

Meanwhile, the Sea Grant education program at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport is accepting applications for its marine educators’ pool.  These part-time, academic-wage appointments involve presenting informal marine education programs to K-12 school audiences and other groups. Applications will be accepted throughout the 2010-2011 academic year.

Read more about the positions and how to apply.

OSG beach publication solves a Great Lakes Mystery

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Beach Ball illustrationWhen a Duluth man walked into the Minnesota Sea Grant office recently seeking help identifying a couple of weird-looking balls of of stuff he’d found on the shore of  Lake Superior,  science writer Sharon Moen found the answer from a sister program in Oregon.

An Internet search led her straight to Oregon Sea Grant and its free publication, “Flotsam, Jetsam, and Wrack.”

The balls found by Glenn Maxham,  about 2½ inches in diameter and made of grasses, twigs, a bird feather and degraded polymer mesh,  match a similar phenomenon found on the Oregon coast, where locals (and some tourist shops) have dubbed them “whale burps.”

They have nothing to do with whales; rather, it’s the action of waves and surf that gather loose natural (and unnatural) debris and roll it over the sand until it compacts into a ball. The preferred name is “beach balls” or “surf balls,” according to retired OSG marine educator Vicki Osis, who helped develop the publication. Similar phenomena have been reported in Egypt, Australia, and on the shores of California’s Little Borax Lake.

“Flotsam, Jetsam, and Wrack” is among some 150 publications available free for the downloading from Oregon Sea Grant at Oregon State University. Topics range from enjoying the beaches to building your own water-conserving rain garden, salmon restoration,wave energy, tsunami preparedness and safe seafood preparation. Most are available in both printable .pdf format and accessible plain-text versions.

The Oregon and Minnesota Sea Grant programs are among 30 Sea Grant college programs across the nation, organized under NOAA’s National Sea Grant program.  Affiliated with major universities in the nation’s coastal and Great Lakes states, the Sea Grant programs conduct marine research, education and public outreach that  foster science-based  use and conservation of the nation’s aquatic resources.

NOAA PNW seminar videos now online

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How much will it snow?  What are we learning about ocean acidification? What would happen if a big oil spill hit Puget Sound? These and other topics were discussed by top scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the fall 2010 Seattle lecture series, “NOAA Science in the Pacific Northwest.”

The five hour-long seminars were videotaped and are now available online, courtesy of the agency’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

Speakers include Will Stelle, NW regional administrator for the NOAA Fisheries Service; National Weather Service meteorologist Brad Colman, Bill Douros,  director of the National Marine Sanctuaries West Coast Region, and  NOAA research oceanographer Simone Alim.

NOAA’s history in the Pacific Northwest goes back almost 200 years. NOAA’s predecessor agencies have surveyed waters, forecast the weather, and managed fisheries in the Pacific Northwest since the 1800s.

As Kitzhaber is sworn in, a look back

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The last time John Kitzhaber was Oregon’s governor, he made a major policy address at Oregon State University in January 2000, on the “Oregon Approach to Environmental Problems.”

Now, with Kitzhaber returning for a new four-year term, his reflections  on the environment and politics and on salmon recovery 11 years ago may have renewed interest. The 30-minute speech, introduced by then-OSU President Paul Risser and produced by Oregon Sea Grant as part of the John Byrne lecture series:

Oregon Sea Grant a major contributor to OSU’s community engagement

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When OSU President Ed Ray announced “wonderful news” on January 5, 2011, that OSU had received a special designation by the Carnegie Foundation for its work in “community engagement,” Oregon Sea Grant shared in the pride at that achievement.

Four of the 15 partnerships listed in OSU’s successful application involved university leadership from Oregon Sea Grant–and clearly Sea Grant is by no other measure 4/15ths of OSU! Oregon Sea Grant’s partners included local communities, school districts, community colleges, and science centers.

In addition, Oregon Sea Grant’s engagement role was highlighted in the Carnegie application as one example of OSU’s distinctive contribution to broader community engagement. “Stop the Invasion,” a comprehensive public campaign focused on invasive species, was a partnership between OSG, Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), the Salem Statesman Journal, and the Oregon Invasive Species Council. It included a 10-month Statesman Journal series and an OPB documentary that won the Dupont-Columbia award (equivalent to a Pulitzer Prize for documentaries).

The program was followed by a year-long action campaign to further engage Oregonians in learning about and taking action against invasives. Follow-up strategies included: A garden guide and web site that the public used to identify and report invasives, and action-oriented activities to alleviate the impacts of invasives (such as beach cleaning). A major outcome of this campaign was the passage of five pieces of new legislation in the 2009 Oregon legislative session on invasive species prevention. OSG’s Sam Chan, Lynn Dierking, and Joe Cone led the program’s activities in the campaign.

In his announcement to the university community, President Ray expressed our sense of value very well: “There are many attributes that we hope Oregonians associate with our university, but our outreach to and engagement with the people of this state is certainly at the top of that list.”