Category Archives: marine science

Free choice learning on tap in Newport

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Shawn Rowe NEWPORT –  Dr. Shawn Rowe, Oregon Sea Grant’s marine education learning specialist, is the scientist on tap at Rogue Ales’ Brewer’s on the Bay this Friday evening, talking about how people learn science outside the conventional classroom.

The event, part of the Science on Tap series sponsored by the brewpub and OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, is free and family-friendly. Doors open at 5:30 pm; food and beverages are available for purchase.

Rowe heads the Free-Choice Learning Lab at the HMSC Visitor Center, where he is working under a $2.6 million National Science Foundation grant to create  a state-of-the-art laboratory to study how people learn about science in aquariums, museums and other venues. The grant is the largest single research award to Oregon Sea Grant in its 40-year history and among the largest ever made to a Sea Grant program nationwide.

Dr. Shawn Rowe’s team is exploring the use of networked computers, face-recognition , real-time evaluation tools and other emerging technologies to get a deeper understanding of  what and how visitors learn in places like the HMSC.

Speaking with Rowe will be Nancy Steinberg, a biologist and longtime public outreach specialist who is currently involved in the Yaquina Bay Ocean Observing Initiative, an effort to make Newport a hub for ocean observing science in the Pacific Northwest.

 

 

Marine Science Day opens HMSC labs to visitors

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Pearl, the HMSC Visitor Center's newest octopusNEWPORT – OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center will open its doors a bit wider on Saturday, April 14, when the Newport facility hosts its first Marine Science Day.

The free public event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., will feature scientists and educators from OSU, federal and state agencies, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, and the new NOAA Marine Operations Center-Pacific. It offers a rare opportunity for the public to go behind the scenes of one of the nation’s leading marine science and education facilities.

Oregon Sea Grant and its marine education program will offer special activities at the HMSC Visitor Center, and behind-the-scenes tours of its ornamental fish laboratory.

Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes will speak briefly at 3 p.m. in the Visitor Center auditorium, along with OSU Vice President for Research Richard Spinrad. Bruce Mate, director of OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute, will follow with a presentation showcasing the center’s pioneering role in tracking whales by satellite.

“Marine Science Day will be fun and engaging for people of all ages,” said Maryann Bozza, HMSC program manager. “Visitors will wind through the campus, getting a true behind-the-scenes experience with an unparalleled opportunity to learn directly from marine scientists.”

Most Marine Science Day exhibits and activities will be indoors, but some tours will take visitors outside to walk from one lab to another, and some exhibits will be outdoors.

“The diverse science conducted at the facility reaches from local coastlines and estuaries to the depths of the world’s oceans,” she added, “and in scale from microbes on the seafloor to undersea volcanoes and the whales that swim over them.”

Visitors can meet Pearl, the Visitor Center’s newest octopus and watch her being fed at 1 pm; observe a sea turtle necropsy; and meet fisheries scientists and geologists whose research is described in center exhibits. The public also can participate in self-guided tours through the facility’s marine research labs, library and classrooms, where scientists will have interactive exhibits explaining their research. Highlights include:

  • Hear volcanoes erupt and whales ‘sing’ in an audio display by NOAA and OSU researchers using undersea hydrophones
  • Learn how researchers are supporting sustainable fisheries through innovative, collaborative research
  • Collect biological data from fish, plankton and even a shrimp parasite through hands-on experimentation
  • Explore novel oceangoing and ocean floor instrument platforms and meet the scientists who designed them.

Visitors may also take guided tours of HMSC’s seawater facilities and ornamental fish laboratory. More information, including program and special events, is available at on the HMSC Website.

The event is intended to showcase OSU’s unique partnership with state and federal agencies, which makes the HMSC a national leader in marine research and education, according to director George Boehlert.

“OSU’s Newport campus is known for a diversity of research and the expertise of its scientists, which offer unique opportunities in education and outreach,” Boehlert said. “Visitors to Marine Science Day will get a sense of the innovation and synergy that makes the Hatfield Marine Science Center unique.”

Collaborative research partners that share the campus with OSU labs include six federal and state agencies: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries and NOAA Research, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

 

 

 

 

Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholars program

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2011 Summer Scholar Sara Duncan samples water in the Yaquina estuaryApplications due April 17, 2012 for the Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholar program for undergraduates. The program will place students in a natural resource management agency and is designed to help prepare undergraduate students for graduate school and careers in marine science, policy, management, and outreach.

Read more at http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/fellowships/summer-scholars

To learn more about the Summer Scholars experience, visit our Sea Grant Scholars blog.

New Oregon Sea Grant publication probes the mysteries of hypoxia

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Hypoxia: How Is It Affecting Ocean Life and Why?The causes and effects of hypoxia have been confounding marine scientists since the 1970s, when so-called “dead zones” first started appearing in oceans and large lakes. Currently there are more than 400 dead zones worldwide.

How did this happen, and how can it be fixed?

As Nathan Gilles, Oregon Sea Grant’s 2011 Science Communication Fellow, spent time with Sea Grant-funded researchers Francis Chan, Lorenzo Ciannelli, and Stephen Brandt, he uncovered a rich and complex story. That story is revealed in Oregon Sea Grant’s new publication, Hypoxia:How Is It Affecting Ocean Life, and Why?

The publication is available for purchase, and as a free download.

More on hypoxia from Oregon Sea Grant:

 

OSU’s new research vessel arrives in Newport

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R/V Oceanus: Almost homeNEWPORT – Greeted by welcoming blasts from the horns of NOAA research ships berthed nearby, the Research Vessel Oceanus steamed under the arch of Yaquina Bay Bridge in a rainy mist on Tuesday and into her new home port at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center.

It was the end of a 28-day voyage for the Oceanus, which sailed out of its former home at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on Jan. 25 and cruised down the East Coast and through the Panama Canal before heading northward for Oregon and her new home port.

Marine science fans on both coasts were able to follow the voyage via a Webcam affixed to the ship’s mast, which also beamed its geographic coordinates to a Google map set up for the occasion.

OSU acquired the Oceanus via the  University National Oceanographic Laboratory System, a consortium of 60 academic research institutions that operate 16 vessels around the country. OSU, a member of UNOLS, was retiring its venerable research vessel, The Wecoma, and looked to the consortium for a replacement. Although the two vessels are about the same age, a National Science Foundation rapid assessment determined that the Oceanus would be more cost-effective to operate for the next 5-10 years. By that time, OSU hopes to have a new ship.

The Oceanus was greeted by the same sounds that saw her off from Woods Hole: A chorus of horns from other research vessels, this time those docked at the new NOAA Marine Operations Center facility not far from the Hatfield Center docks.

A formal retirement ceremony for the Wecoma is being planned for March.

(Photos by Bruce Mate. Additional photos on the Oregon Sea Grant Flickr gallery)

 

 

Follow the R/V Oceanus on her voyage to Oregon

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R/V Oceanus departing WHOI, Jan. 25The newest addition to Oregon State University’s research fleet, the R/V Oceanus, entered the Panama Canal today to make the transit from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, marking roughly the mid-point of the trip from her former home port at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to her new home at OSU’s docks in Newport, Oregon.

You can follow the trip via a live Webcam, courtesy of OSU Information Services, at

http://webcam.oregonstate.edu/oceanus/

The image and map update every few minutes, as long as the ship’s satellite uplink permits. An attached map even tracks the ship’s position by latitude and longitude (although the “larger view” map is still labeled with the name of the R/V Wecoma, the vessel the Oceanus will replace).

The Oceanus left Woods Hole on Jan. 25, and is expected to arrive in Newport in mid-February.

(Photo by S. Sutherland)

Documentary follows Sea Grant-supported research into salmon disease

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Jerri Bartholomew with juvenile salmonKLAMATH FALLS – A new documentary, airing Feb. 7 on Southern Oregon Public Television, looks at the work of an Oregon Sea Grant-funded research effort to understand more about a lethal parasite that can infect wild salmon in the Klamath River and elsewhere in the Northwest.

Dr. Jerri Bartholomew, a microbiologist and director of Oregon State University’s salmon disease laboratory, has been studying Ceratomyxa shasta since she was an undergraduate. The parasite is a major cause of mortatlity in juvenile salmon, and may infect up to 80 percent of outmigrating juveniles in the Klamath River.  Bartholomew’s work – much of it funded by Sea Grant –  has led to new understanding of the parasite’s unusual life cycle, and how changes in water temperature and other environmental factors can cause it to proliferate.

The documentary, Saving Salmon, was scripted, directed and produced by Judith Jensen, director of Educational Solutions, a Klamath Falls nonprofit. Sea Grant videographer Steve Roberts contributed footage to the project, which is scheduled to air at 9 pm Feb. 7 on SOPTV.

Read more:

 

Goodbye, Wecoma; hello, Oceanus

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R/V WecomaNEWPORT – The Research Vessel Wecoma, which has been serving Oregon State University marine scientists for more than 35 years, is being retired from service and replaced with a somewhat smaller ship from the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System fleet.

The 184-foot Wecoma made her last cruise in November; her replacement, the Oceanus, is expected to dock in Newport in February, after making the long voyage from her former port at the Woods Hole National Oceanographic Institute on the East Coast, down through the Panama Canal and up the Pacific Coast to Oregon. A retirement celebration for the Wecoma will be held at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport in March.

Both vessels are owned by the National Science Foundation, and operated by the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System, a consortium of 60 academic research institutions that operate 16 vessels around the country.

Mark Abbott, dean of the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at OSU, had approached the National Science Foundation for  a rapid analysis of the two ships to see which one would be more cost-effective to operate over the next several years.  A team of technicians returned the verdict – a strong recommendation for the 177-foot Oceanus – after discovering some problems with corrosion and other issues with the Wecoma.

R/V Oceanus“There are a few differences in science capabilities,” Abbott said, “but Oceanus is very capable and will be more cost-effective to operate over the next five to 10 years, at which point we hope to have a new ship.’

Read the full story from OSU News & Research Information

Funding Opportunity: Sea Grant Aquaculture Research Program 2012 Request for preproposals

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NOAA Sea Grant has announced a funding opportunity for its Aquaculture Research Program 2012 to support the development of environmentally and economically sustainable ocean, coastal, or Great Lakes aquaculture.

Priorities for this FY 2012 competition include: Research to inform specific regulatory decisions; Research that supports multi-use spatial planning; and Socio-economic research targeted to understand aquaculture in a larger context. Proposals must be able to express how the proposed work will have a high probability of significantly advancing U.S. marine aquaculture development in the short-term (1-2 years) or medium-term (3-5 years).

To view the full announcement Go to www.grants.gov and perform a basic search using the Funding Opportunity Number: NOAA-OAR-SG-2012-2003249.

This is a two-stage competition, with preproposals and full proposals. Each stage has specific guidance and deadlines, stated in the announcement, with Preliminary Proposals due 2/7/2012, and Full Proposals due 4/17/2012. Applicants must submit a preproposal in order to be eligible to submit a full proposals. Preliminary Proposals are to be submitted directly to the National Office via e-mail.

Pay careful attention to the instructions and contact Sarah Kolesar, Research Coordinator for the Oregon Sea Grant Program (sarah.kolesar@oregonstate.edu, 541-737-8695) as soon as possible to discuss proposals.

Oregon Sea Grant fellowship opportunities

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Oregon Sea Grant is soliciting applications for several current fellowship opportunities.

The NOAA Coastal Management Fellowship has just been posted,

two NMFS Fellowship opportunities are open,

and there are two additional NOAA opportunities.

Please visit our fellowship website for more information.