Oregon tsunami preparedness work hits NOAA spotlight

Posted on May 13, 2011 by kightp

This month’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s “Research Spotlight” features the tsunami preparedness research and public outreach efforts of Oregon Sea Grant, along with its sister programs in Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

The article notes that “hazard resilient coastal communities” is a major focus area for NOAA Sea Grant, which has university-based research and outreach programs in 32 ocean and Great Lakes states.

Oregon is cited for its ongoing efforts to prepare the state’s coastal communities for the inevitability of an earthquake and/or tsunami. The state’s coastline is on the Cascadia subduction zone – a 600 mile long fault line similar to the one whose fracture in March caused a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

With scientists saying the Pacific Northwest is overdue for a high-magnitude quake, Oregon Sea Grant has worked for years with state agencies and local communities on everything from developing inundation maps, evacuation routes and signs to teaching people easy-to-remember steps for disaster preparation.

Read the NOAA Spotlight article …

NOAA begins Newport move-in

Posted on May 9, 2011 by kightp

NEWPORT – With little fanfare, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has begun moving in to its new port facility here, soon to be home to the agency’s Pacific research fleet.

NOAA officials accepted the keys to the new facility on April 29, five days ahead of the construction deadline, and met with Port of Newport officials to sign the final documents of a 20-year lease on the property, situated on Yaquina Bay across from Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center.

Among those taking part in the signing was retired Oregon Sea Grant Extension agent Ginny Goblirsch, now president of the Newport Port Commission.

The new Marine Operations Center and its long dock will become home base for the vessels of NOAA’s North Pacific fleet: the Miller Freeman, the McArthur II, the Rainier, the Oscar Dyson, and the Bell M. Shimada (the agency’s newest research ship).

The agency’s decision to move the center to Newport from its longtime base in Lake Union, WA, sparked political outcries from lawmakers and local governments in the Seattle area, and an equally strong show of support from the Oregon community. The decision survived multiple political and procedural challenges, largely because of cost-savings the federal government hopes to realize from its initial 20-year lease with the Port of Newport. Groundbreaking took place last June, and construction crews have been working ever since to complete the complex of docks and support buildings that make up the new center.

NOAA’s lease on its Washington facility expires on June 30, and the agency has already begun moving personnel and equipment south. Once the ships and support personnel have settled in, there are plans for a public open house in mid-July, and an official ribbon-cutting ceremony on Aug. 12.

NOAA researchers in Newport record sounds of March 11 earthquake

Posted on April 27, 2011 by kightp

NEWPORT – Earthquakes are felt more often than heard, but Oregon scientists say the sound of the March 11 Japan earthquake alone could help improve our ability to detect earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in the deep ocean.

Scientists with the NOAA Vents Program at Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory captured the sounds of the earthquake using an underwater microphone near the Aleutian Islands – 900 miles from the quake epicenter.

“The Japan earthquake was the largest source of ocean sound ever recorded on our hydrophone arrays. This unique record gives us insight into the physics behind how sound is transmitted from the Earth’s crust into the ocean and then propagates through the Pacific Ocean basin,” says Robert Dziak, Ph.D., a scientist with the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Marine Resource Studies (CIMRS). CIMRS is a partnership between NOAA and Oregon State University. Dziak is also the principal investigator of the Ocean Acoustic Project in the NOAA Vents Program, based in Newport.

Dziak’s team is one of many research projects taking advantage of a vast network of underwater acoustic devices (developed by the US Navy for surveillance purposes) to listen in on what’s going on deep beneath the surface of the sea. OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute has used the system, for instance, to record the voices of migrating whales as they travel around the Pacific.

OSG beach publication solves a Great Lakes Mystery

Posted on January 12, 2011 by kightp

When 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

Posted on January 11, 2011 by kightp

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.

Call for preliminary research proposals, 2012-2014

Posted on December 9, 2010 by kightp

Oregon Sea Grant invites preliminary proposals for research on important marine and coastal issues from researchers who are affiliated with any institution of higher education. Proposals will be entered into a highly competitive review and selection process. Funding comes from OSG’s $1.8 million NOAA research allocation for 2012-2014.

The deadline for submitting preproposals is Friday, Feb. 4, 2011 before 5 pm. Full proposals are due May 6, and funding decisions will be announced on Sept. 12.

The two primary criteria for evaluating proposals are scientific excellence and societal relevance. An ideal proposal would apply the best sicence and an innovative approach to a well-defined coastal or marine problem that is important to Oregon, the Pacific Northwest and the nation. Successful proposals are also likely to show significant progress within two years, focus on outcomes, clearly show how and two whom the work would make a difference, and have co-funding from interested stakeholders and partners, among other qualities. All proposals are required to include community outreach and engagement components.

For more information, including a timeline and specific guidance for preparing proposals, visit http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/funding/rfpcall.html. For questions about potential proposal ideas contact Sea Grant Director Stephen Brandt at 541-737-02714 or by email to stephen.brandt@oregonstate.edu

Oregon Sea Grant to lead regional invasive species effort

Posted on December 2, 2010 by kightp

Sam Chan, Oregon Sea Grant Extension’s aquatic invasive species educator, will lead a two year, $416,000 effort to combat high-priority aquatic invasive species identified by natural resource managers in the Pacific Northwest and Southwest, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Dec. 1.

Chan’s team at Oregon State University will work with Sea Grant programs and others throughout the region to develop a method to better predict the risk of aquatic invasive species and better understand the economic value of early detection and rapid response.

These programs will also develop strategies for managing the risk of non-native mussels invading West Coast waters through long-distance water tunnels and will investigate school classrooms as a potential source of new invasions (via educational aquariums).

Seattle symposium: Energy use in Fisheries

Posted on November 2, 2010 by kightp

Federal agencies are teaming with nongovernmental organizations to sponsor a symposium on “Energy use in Fisheries: Improving Efficiency and Technological Innovations from a Global Perspective,” November 14-17 in Seattle.

Sponsored by NOAA Fisheries Service, NOAA National Sea Grant, Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, the Pacific Marine Expo, the World Bank and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, the symposium will look at the direct and indirect effects of global energy costs on the seafood harvesting, processing and marketing sectors.

The symposium resulted from planning by the Sea Grant Safe and Sustainable Seafood Supply (SSSS) focus team. More than 90 presentations by experts from all over the world will address local and regional solutions for addressing energy challenges. Participants will identify and discuss management strategies, alternate gear and vessel designs, alternate fuels, vessel operation and maintenance strategies, and a set of metrics to measure the level of energy reduction.

Guest speakers include Jeff Steele, who led a green refit for the F/V Time Bandit, a vessel featured on Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” television show, and Chris Dixon who supplied a South Carolina shrimp boat with waste vegetable oil from the Margaritaville Restaurant.

To register and to learn more: http://www.energyfish.nmfs.noaa.gov/index.html

OSU, partners to lauch regional climate consortium

Posted on September 23, 2010 by kightp

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.

Newport celebrates NOAA fleet move

Posted on June 3, 2010 by kightp

NEWPORT – The impending arrival of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific research fleet is being celebrated in Newport this week with ceremony, festivities – and visits from a pair of the vessels that will eventually be berthed here.

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Congressman Kurt Schrader were among the officials expected on hand to break ground for the new facility, dubbed “Marine Operations Center – Pacific” – or NOAA MOC-P, in government parlance.

The ceremony was also expected to mark the end of a bureaucratic battle with the state of Washington, which has raised numerous objections to NOAA’s decision, announced last year, to move its operations center from Seattle to the central Oregon coast. Governor Kulongoski and others said they expected to get the final word that the agency had affirmed its decision just before this morning’s groundbreaking.

The $35 million, five-acre facility is scheduled to open in June 2011, with a staff of 175, including 110 officers. It will be home port to four ships and host visiting ships, as well. It will mean hundreds of family-wage jobs for the Newport area, and it’s expected to pump $19 million a year into a local economy hit hard by fishing cutbacks and the global economic slump.

The Port of Newport was able to make the winning bid largely because the state had offered $19.5 million in Oregon Lottery funds to the project, allowing the port to offer a 20-year lease for only $2.4 million.

This weekend’s celebration includes a family-style “welcome” picnic from 1-4 pm Sunday under a a tent at the construction site, just west of Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center. The event, open to the public will include live music and refreshments, and a chance for local residents to meet some of the team charged with getting the new operations center up and running.

In addition, if weather permits, two of the NOAA research vessels that will be relocating to Newport are expected to visit this weekend. the R/V Miller Freeman is expected to arrive Saturday afternoon, followed on Sunday by the R/V Bell M. Shimada, with an honorary Coast Guard escort and vessels from the Newport commercial fishing fleet on hand to welcome the ships and their crews.

(Photo of R/V Miller Freeman courtesy of striatic)

Breaking Waves

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