Author Archives: kightp

About kightp

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

New methods find bacterial infection, not virus, associated with 2009 harbor seal deaths

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Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/noaaphotolib/

Harbor seals (Photo by Dr. Brandon Southall, NMFS/OPR, courtesy NOAA Photo Library, https://www.flickr.com/photos/noaaphotolib/)

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A study by microbiologists at Oregon State University has concluded that an unsuspected bacterial infection, rather than a viral disease, was associated with the stranding and death of seven harbor seals on the California coast in 2009.

The research, made with a powerful investigative method called “meta-transcriptomics,” found a high incidence of infection in the seals with the bacterial pathogen Burkholderia, and provides the first report in the Americas of this bacteria in a wild harbor seal.

The bacteria probably did not directly cause the death of the seals, researchers say, but this provides further evidence of the increase in emerging marine pathogens, and the need for improved monitoring and study of zoonotic diseases that could affect both human and wildlife populations.

In light of these findings, OSU researchers also remind the public that they should not touch stranded or dead marine mammals.

The research was recently published in PLOS ONE, in work supported by Oregon Sea Grant and the National Science Foundation.

“We now have improved tools to better identify new diseases as they emerge from natural reservoirs, and can record and track these events,” said Rebecca Vega-Thurber, an assistant professor of microbiology in the OSU College of Science. “It’s becoming clear there are more pathogens than we knew of in the past, and that some of them can move into human populations.

“This is why it’s increasingly important that we accurately pinpoint the cause of these diseases, and understand the full range of causes that may factor into these deaths.”

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Sea Grant Scholar’s video reveals remarkable feeding system of marine tunicates

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Keats Conley, a PhD student at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, and 2014-15 Oregon Sea Grant Malouf Scholar, studies the feeding preferences of pelagic tunicates, animals that serve as a key link between minute, lower food-chain organisms, such as bacteria, and commercially important fishes.

It turns out that tunicates, whether stationary and anchored to rocks or mobile (such as the jellyfish-like salps), all use an ornate mucus mesh to feed on much-smaller creatures, including bacteria.

Check out the video Keats made to describe what she’s learned:

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Study: Warmer water makes for smaller juvenile salmon

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Juvenile chinook salmon: warm water means smaller fishA new analysis of juvenile Chinook salmon in the Pacific Ocean documents a dramatic difference in their foraging habits and overall health between years of warm water and those when the water is colder.

The study found that when the water is warmer than average – by only two degrees Celsius – young salmon consume 30 percent more food than during cold-water regimes. Yet they are smaller and skinnier during those warm-water years, likely because they have to work harder to secure food and the prey they consume has less caloric energy.

Results of the research, conducted by researchers from Oregon State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, are being published this week in the journal PLOS One.

“When young salmon come out to sea and the water is warm, they need more food to keep their metabolic rate up, yet there is less available food and they have to work harder,” said Elizabeth Daly, an Oregon State senior faculty research assistant with the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies, a joint program of OSU and NOAA.

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OSG announces 2016-18 funded research

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Oregon Sea Grant will support eight research projects by scientists at three Oregon institutions during 2016-18, on topics ranging from sea-level rise to invasive jellyfish. The grants are funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as part of a biennial appropriation from Congress to Sea Grant programs around the country.

The grants will go to eight principal investigators at OSU, Oregon Health & Science University, and the University of Oregon for research into ocean and coastal issues.

“Oregon Sea Grant is committed to supporting the science needed to address challenges facing our coastal communities and ecosystems,” said Sea Grant director Shelby Walker. “These projects reflect a broad array of issues important to the future of coastal Oregonians, communities and our environment.”

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Fellowship, scholarship deadlines near

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Students in marine science and policy-related fields: Application deadlines are coming up in January for a number of graduate and undergraduate fellowships and scholarships offered by NOAA and administered by state Sea Grant programs. You need not be an Oregon resident to apply, but the opportunities are open only to US citizens. For complete application information, visit our Website.

Oregon Sea Grant-sponsored scholars have gone on to great jobs in ocean and coastal research, policy-making and administration, and in the non-profit sector. Check out our map to see where some of them are today.

Willamette Valley water future: Mostly bright, with some gaps

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Over the next 85 years, temperatures in Oregon’s Willamette River basin are expected to rise significantly, mountain snowpack levels will shrink dramatically, and the population of the region and urban water use may double – but there should be enough water to meet human needs, a new report concludes.

Fish may not be so lucky. Although ample water may be available throughout most of the year, the Willamette Valley and its tributaries likely will become sufficiently warm as to threaten cold-water fish species, including salmon and steelhead, the scientists say.

These are among the key findings of the Willamette Water 2100 Project, a five-year, $4.3 million study funded by the National Science Foundation and led by Oregon State University, in partnership with researchers from the University of Oregon, Portland State University and University of California at Santa Barbara.

Oregon Sea Grant’s Sam Chan, who specializes in watershed health and invasive species, led the “broader impacts” outreach effort for the project.

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Port Orford Field Station Holds Open House Nov. 14

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PORT ORFORD – Oregon State University’s two-year-old research field station in Port Orford will hold an open house Nov. 14 to celebrate its expanded role in coastal research, outreach and education.

The open house runs from 3-6 pm at the station, 444 Jackson Street, in Port Orford. It’s free and open to the public; light refreshments will be served.

The field station is supported by numerous programs at OSU that have a role in marine studies, including Oregon Sea Grant, the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station (COMES), the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and the OSU Research Office.

Port Orford Sustainable Seafood, a local fish processor, is also located in the building and its staff will be on-hand during the open house to describe its operation.

“The field station has been a place that professional scientists, students and citizen scientists can use as a base of operation to study topics ranging from the ecology of marine reserves to gray whale foraging behavior,” said Cynthia Sagers, OSU’s vice president for research. “The field station provides two laboratories, classroom and office space, and housing for visiting researchers.”

Station manager Tom Calvanese said that in June, the station installed a SCUBA air fill station to support scientific divers conducting underwater surveys. “Recently, we began to make this service available to recreational divers seeking to explore the rocky reefs in the area – a known diver destination,” he said.

Funding for the facility was launched with a $425,000 allocation by the Oregon Legislature in 2011 to purchase the building. OSU has funded its operation since.

Photographers sought for King Tides documentation project

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How might a changing climate and rising sea levels affect the Oregon coast? For the sixth straight year, Oregonians are invited to bring their cameras and smartphones to the coast and join in an international effort to document unusually high “King Tides” to help answer these questions.

This year the project focuses on three sets of extreme tides: Oct. 27-29, Nov. 24-27 and Dec. 23-25. Organized in Oregon by CoastWatch, the project invites anyone who can get to the coast during these tides to take shots at the highest reach of the tide on those days. Photos can focus on any feature, but the most useful show the tide near the built environment – roads, seawalls, bridges, buildings, etc.. Ideal photos would allow the photographer to return later, during an ordinary tide, to get comparison shots.

CoastWatch is making a special effort this year to document King Tides near Oregon’s four marine reserves (Cape Falcon, Cascade Head, Otter Rock, Cape Perpetua and Redfish Rocks.) Participants will be able to share their photos on Flickr and should be prepared to include the date, description and direction of the photo. The Oregon King Tides Photo Initiative website will include an interactive map to help photographers determine the latitude and longitude of their shots.

For information about the project, and about the special effort to document King Tides in the marine reserve areas, contact Fawn Custer, CoastWatch volunteer coordinator (and an Oregon Sea Grant marine educator) at (541) 270-0027, fawn@oregonshores.org

 

Science Pub in Coos Bay: Why Salmon Need Estuaries

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Dan BottomCOOS BAY – “Why Salmon Need Estuaries” is the question veteran NOAA Fisheries biologist Dan Bottom will explore in a Science Pub presentation at 7 Devils Brewing on Saturday, Oct. 3. The talk begins at 7 pm; there is no cover charge or admission.

For more than a century, resource managers and scientists in the Pacific Northwest have worked to enhance, protect and restore salmon. That’s often meant controlling populations or their environments to improve survival. Despite such efforts, salmon populations have declined, fisheries have been restricted and stocks have been added to the federal list of threatened and endangered species.

Recent watershed restoration efforts in Oregon offer useful case studies in salmon diversity and resilience. The region’s heavily developed Columbia River basin and its most heavily restored estuary, the Salmon River, demonstrate the importance of diverse habitats and life history to salmon in a changing world.

Dan Bottom has 38 years as a state and federal fishery research biologist. he is a co-author of Oregon Sea Grant’s book, Pathways to Resilienc: Sustaining Salmon Ecosystems in a Changing World.

The event is co-sponsored by 7 Devils Brewing, the Native Fish Society and Oregon Sea Grant.

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