Author Archives: kightp

About kightp

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

Sea Grant seeking applications for two NMFS fellowships

Posted on by

Oregon Sea Grant is accepting applications for the 2011 National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)–Sea Grant Joint Graduate Fellowship Programs in Population Dynamics and in Marine Resource Economics.

The award for each fellowship is contingent upon the availability of federal funds and will be in the form of a grant or cooperative agreement of $38,500 per year.

The complete Federal Funding Opportunity can be accessed through the links provided on the Oregon Sea Grant website: http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/funding/fellows.html

If you wish to apply through Oregon Sea Grant, please contact Eric Dickey (eric.dickey@oregonstate.edu or 541-737-2715) for more information.

Fellowship Program in Population Dynamics

The Graduate Fellowship Program awards at least two new Ph.D. fellowships each year to students who are interested in careers related to the population dynamics of living marine resources and the development and implementation of quantitative methods for assessing their status. Fellows will work on thesis problems of public interest and relevance to NMFS under the guidance of NMFS mentors at participating NMFS Science Centers and Laboratories.

Fellowship Program in Marine Resource Economics

The Graduate Fellowship Program generally awards two new Ph.D. fellowships each year to students who are interested in careers related to the development and implementation of quantitative methods for assessing the economics of the conservation and management of living marine resources. Fellows will work on thesis problems of public interest and relevance to NMFS under the guidance of NMFS mentors at participating NMFS Science Centers and Laboratories.

Scientists conduct rapid assessment survey of Oregon estuaries

Posted on by
Didemnum vexillum

D. vexillum

NEWPORT, Ore. – Scientists from the United States, Canada, Japan and Russia are conducting a “rapid assessment survey” of three Oregon estuaries, looking for invasive species such as the marine tunicate, Didemnum vexillum, found earlier this year in Coos Bay and Winchester Bay.

These scientists spent a week surveying the estuaries before for the annual conference of the International North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES), meeting in Portland through Oct. 31.

Nations hosting the conference also host cooperative on-site surveys for introduced species, conducted by scientists from participating countries, according to George Boehlert, director of Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center and one of two United States members on the PICES governing board.

“It provides an opportunity to train scientists on surveying techniques, assess local estuaries for potential problems, and share information on common invasive species,” Boehlert said. “Many of the non-indigenous species on the West Coast originated in Asia, so the opportunity to work with scientists from Japan, Russia and elsewhere is highly beneficial.”

OSU scientist John Chapman, an aquatic invasive species specialist at the university’s Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC), and Thomas Therriault of Fisheries and Oceans in Nanaimo, British Columbia, coordinated the Oct. 17-21 surveys, which looked at  Yaquina Bay in Newport; Winchester Bay near Reedsport; Coos Bay; and a 300,000-gallon seawater tank at the HMSC.

Funding for the project is provided by PICES through a contribution from the Japanese government, which has granted $500,000 to the organization for studies on invasive species and harmful algal blooms. Additional support is being provided by Oregon Sea Grant.

Read more

Still time to register for Heceta Head conference

Posted on by

FLORENCE – There’s still time to register for the 6th annual Heceta Head Conference, with a theme of “Oregon’s Ocean: Working Waterfronts,” this Thursday and Friday (Oct. 28-29) at the Florence Events Center.

The conference kicks off Thursday afternoon with a 2 pm tour of the Siuslaw River estuary and Florence’s working waterfront, including a river boat trip for the first 36 reservations. After the tour, join Oregon State University anthropologist Court Smith for dinner and a talk about “Salmon Peoples of the Northwest.”

Friday’s conference includes sessions about Oregon’s working waterfronts, estuary conservation and development, commercial fishing infrastructure needs, port planning and smart growth for coastal communities, along with a keynote address and panels about the relocation of NOAA’s Pacific research fleet to Newport, and partnerships for waterfront development featuring speakers from Bandon, Astoria, Coos Bay and Florence.

Registration for the Thursday dinner is $20, and for Friday’s conference and lunch is $25. The Thursday afternoon tour is free but reservations are requested. To register, visit http://www.HecetaHeadConference.org. Registration will also be accepted at the door.

This year’s conference is organized by Oregon Sea Grant in collaboration with Heceta Head Coastal Conference.

NPR features free-choice learning

Posted on by

In National Public Radio’s science blog,  “13.7: Cosmos and Culture,” Ursula Goodenough writes:

Myth: The American populace is science-ignorant, lagging well behind other “developed” nations in scientific literacy.

Fact: It turns out that the U.S. curve is U-shaped: Elementary-school children perform as well in science-understanding metrics as their peers elsewhere, even though formal science teaching at these grade levels is at best sporadic, whereas middle- and high-school students perform abysmally even though they take required science courses. But American adults demonstrate scientific knowledge on a par or above adults in other “developed” countries, even though only 30 percent of adult Americans have ever taken even one college-level science course.

How to explain? Goodenough cites an “excellent” article in a recent edition of American Scientist by John Falk and Lynn Dierking, Oregon Sea Grant’s professors of free-choice learning. Falk and Dierking specialize in studying the kind of learning that takes place outside the classroom – the learning that we do on our own, by visiting museums and aquariums, reading, investigating things on the Internet or pursuing our passions, from star-gazing to collecting tropical fish.

It turns out that, for most Americans, free-choice learning is how we pick up most of what we know about science.  And while Falk and Dierking support efforts to improve school-based science literacy, they also call for broadening opportunities for adults to pursue their inherent curiosity about science, technology, engineering and math.

(Oregon Sea Grant’s Free-Choice Learning program is aiding in that effort by using OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center as a living lab for studying how people learn in informal settings. Read more at http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/visitor/free-choice-learning .

Read Goodenough’s blog entry  here.

Nominees for ocean advisory panel sought

Posted on by

The Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) of the Ocean Policy Advisory Council (OPAC) is seeking to fill up to 2 new membership positions in one or more of the following disciplinary areas:

A. Economics
B. Sociology

Oregon Sea Grant, whose director chairs the STAC, is handling the nomination proceess and seeks nominations of objective individuals who have a strong scientific record in one or more of these fields and who are also knowledgeable about Oregon ocean issues.

Please submit your nominations NO LATER THAN October 21, 2010 to cathy.mcbride@oregonstate.edu.

Nominations MUST include

  1. rationale supporting the nomination
  2. each individual’s full name, address, phone number and email address and
  3. a copy of the nominee’s resume/vitae.

It is strongly preferred that you confirm with the nominee that they are willing to be nominated.

STAC will evaluate nominations on the basis of scientific expertise relative to STAC needs and put forward names for approval by the OPAC.

Further information about STAC including new responsibilities contained within Oregon HB 3013 can be found on the OPAC Web site.

New Sea Grant Extension leader takes office Oct. 4

Posted on by

CORVALLIS – David Hansen, a former Extension program leader at the University of Delaware, joins the Oregon Sea Grant leadership team Oct. 4 as program leader for Oregon Sea Grant Extension at Oregon State University.

Hansen succeeds Jay Rasmussen, who retired earlier this year after serving 14 years as Sea Grant Extension program leader.

Sea Grant Director Stephen Brandt called Hansen “a first-rate choice to lead Sea Grant Extension at a time when time when coastal stakeholders need our services most. He brings both the scientific and academic background and the practical experience to help us achieve our goals of using sound science to create a more informed and engaged society around issues important to our coast, our region and our nation.”

Hansen will be based on the OSU Campus and will oversee a marine Extension program including agents, specialists and educators located on campus and on the Oregon coast from Astoria to Gold Beach, working in fields ranging from watershed restoration and fisheries policy to invasive species, climate change and tsunami preparedness. Oregon’s is one of the largest and most highly regarded Extension programs among the 30 Sea Grant programs nationwide.

Hansen will also serve on the Sea Grant leadership team, which coordinates an integrated program of ocean and coastal outreach, education, research and communications.

The new program leader was educated at Iowa State University, where he earned an MS in forest biology and a PhD in soil science and water resources. He has been an assistant professor of soil and environmental quality at UD since 2006, and since 2008 has also directed Delaware’s Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources program.

Hansen has served as Delaware’s representative on the Chesapeake Bay Program scientific and technical advisory committee and co-chair of the program’s Water Quality Goal Implementation Team.

In public presentations during his interviews at OSU this spring, Hansen emphasized the need to build strong teams and forge broad coalitions with others – inside and outside the university – to deepen Sea Grant Extension’s “diversity of expertise,” particularly in tight fiscal times. He expressed strong support for an “outcomes-based” approach to public outreach and engagement, with measurable targets and regular, quantitative assessment of results.

OSU, partners to lauch regional climate consortium

Posted on by

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University has received a five-year grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish and coordinate a regional consortium of climate variability assessment, research and outreach.

The funding, which could surpass $3.5 million, will establish the Pacific Northwest Climate Decision Support Consortium – one of six new regional integrated sciences and assessments (RISA) programs funded by NOAA.

OSU researchers will work with colleagues from the University of Oregon, Boise State University, University of Idaho, and University of Washington – as well as the extension programs from Oregon, Washington and Idaho – to address climate assessment needs for businesses, state and federal agencies, municipalities, tribal leaders and non-governmental organizations in the Pacific Northwest.

Oregon Sea Grant expects to play a significant role in the new consortium’s research and public outreach efforts.

Read more …

Climate consortium seeks two for outreach effort

Posted on by

The Climate Decision Support Consortium, a Northwest partnership led by the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University, is seeking applicants for two positions: one to act as a Program Manager and one a Regional Extension Climate Specialist. The consortium is the designated Pacific Northwest Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments program under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Program Office.

The program manager will coordinate the project’s task teams, internal and external communications, and meetings fostering team integration, and has primary responsibility for carrying out the mission and goals of the project. Qualifications include MS (PhD preferred) in a relevant area of social or physical science, basic knowledge of climate science, and evidence of ability to manage a multidisciplinary multi-investigator project. Read more at the OSU Jobs site.

The Regional Climate Extension Specialist will work with CDSC researchers to develop and evaluate collaborative outreach and engagement pilot programs designed to help communities better prepare for, and adapt to, a changing climate. Qualifications include MS (PhD preferred) in a relevant area of social or physical science, demonstrated ability to communicate science to non-scientists, and experience with outreach/extension. Read more at the OSU Jobs site.

Both positions are fixed-term, 12-month appointments with faculty research assistant status in OSU’s College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences.

Oregon State University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.

Heceta Head Conference to focus on working waterfronts

Posted on by

Register now for “Oregon’s Oceans: Working Waterfronts,” the 6th annual Heceta Head Conference Oct. 28-29 at the Florence Events Center.

The conference is devoted to bringing new understanding of the Pacific Ocean off the Oregon coast through recent scientific advances and policy developments that  benefit coastal communities. This year’s program,  “Working Waterfronts,” examines the complexity of waterfronts in their multiple uses, diverse industries and environmental habitats.

For the first time this year, Oregon Sea Grant is partnering with the conference; Jamie Doyle, Sea Grant Extension agent in Coquille/Coos Bay, is developing the program of events, which begins on Thursday with a “discovery tour” of the Florence waterfront with the Port of Siuslaw and the Siuslaw Estuary Partnership.

Participants will view stormwater remonstration sites, port-led waterfront activities and projects, wetland restoration, natural resources as cultural resources, and salmon and trout enhancement projects – and the first 36 people to register will get a Siuslaw River boat trip.

The conference continues on Friday with a full day of presentations and panels on topics ranging from estuary conservation to “smart growth” for coastal communities and waterfronts.

Read more and register at http://www.hecetaheadconference.org

Sociological profiles help decision makers understand coastal towns

Posted on by

Fish processors take a breakA three-year effort to flesh out existing dollars-and-cents data about coastal fishing communities with sociological information about how fishing affects community life is paying off in broader awareness by resource managers and industry of the social and economic culture of three coastal Oregon towns.

The project, initiated by the fishing community and Oregon Sea Grant with support from NOAA Fisheries and the Oregon State University Sustainable Rural Communities Initiative, has generated the first-ever “long-form” sociological profiles of the communities of Garibaldi, Newport and Port Orford. Other coastal towns are expressing interest in developing profiles of their own.

The fishing industry employs thousands of Oregonians and generated $105 million in fish-landed value in 2009 alone. In 2007, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published “short-form” economic profiles attempting to describe how specific communities benefit from fishing.

“The NOAA profiles area useful step in the right direction, but limited in scope,” said Flaxen Conway, Oregon Sea Grant’s Extension community outreach specialist and a professor of Sociology at OSU. “These long form profiles provide a more detailed, rich description of this socially, culturally, and economically-important industry,” she said.

Read more