Category Archives: Extension

YouTube: Putting on a Survival Suit

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Clip from survival suit video Immersion suits, also called survival suits, have helped saved hundreds of lives, largely because they provide protection from hypothermia. However, the protection of a survival suit is only good if it’s on; and during at-sea emergencies, there may be only seconds to put the bulky items  on. This video shows the proper techniques for donning immersion suits and entering the water.

This video is one of a growing number of short explanatory or information videos on the Oregon Sea Grant YouTube Channel.

Outside magazine profiles Sea Grant’s Pat Corcoran

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PITY POOR CASSANDRA, blessed by Apollo with the power of prophecy, cursed with the fate of ­disbelief. She tells the people what’s coming. She suffers their laughter, absorbs their scorn. Then she watches her prediction come true. Yeah, you told us so, they’ll say as they bury the dead. Congratulations, jerk.

Patrick Corcoran feels her pain. It’s his job. Every day, he rises at dawn and goes out into the world to tell people to prepare to meet their doom. Or, rather, to prepare to escape it.

Corcoran is a professional geographer in Astoria, Oregon, a misty fishing port where the Columbia River meets the ­Pacific Ocean. He’s a high-energy guy, 50, with a little ­Billy Bob Thornton to his look. Loves his job and loves his coffee. Drives around in his ­Toyota ­Tacoma all day with an 11.5-foot-long Taka­yama paddleboard strapped to the rack. He’s a coastal natural-hazards specialist with Ore­gon Sea Grant, a marine version of an agri­cul­tural extension service affiliated with ­Oregon State University. Cor­coran prophesies earthquakes and tsunamis five days a week. …

(Read the whole article at Outside Online...)

Sea Grant’s water blogger moving on

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Rob EmanuelRob Emanuel, who for the past few years has been actively blogging from Tillamook about water, water quality and community on Oregon’s north coast, is leaving Oregon Sea Grant for a private-sector position in the Portland metro area.

Rob plans to continue blogging, however, at a new address: http://h2oncoast.wordpress.com

Rob plans to continue blogging about issues related to water, watersheds, climate, ecosystems and community, over a broader geographic area – roughly the region that stretches from the foothills of the Cascades to the coast.

Sea Grant will miss him, but we wish him the best in his new adventures.

Sea Grant’s Jeff Feldner on seafood and Fukushima radiation

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Oregon Sea Grant Extension fisheries specialist Jeff Felder is interviewed by Russia’s RIANOVOSTI news about US concerns for seafood safety in the aftermath of the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactors. Jeff’s assessment: While it’s likely detectable increases in seafood radiation levels will eventually show up in Pacific Northwest waters, it’s too early to tell how soon it will happen or how high the levels will be. The research he’s seen suggests the radition is unlikely to reach levels dangerous to consumers.

Watch the interview:

Interviewing to Understand the Mental Models of Others

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All professionals conduct interviews, often to determine what another person understands, feels, believes, or is willing to discuss about topics of interest.  The new Sea Grant publication, Mental Models Interviewing, is intended to help professionals such as agency officials, university outreach/extension specialists, and social science researchers interview more effectively by  providing a structure grounded in behavioral and communication research.

Just as a model airplane is a representation of a real airplane, so are mental models representations in our minds of something real. The question we’re trying to answer in mental models interviewing is, how does this other person put together this reality? A model airplane comes in a box full of pieces; what do interviewees perceive as being in the “box” of the topic at hand, and how do they think the pieces fit together? More precisely, interviewers often want to know how interviewees understand causes and effects.

Mental Models Interviewing describes the technique and answers the questions “What am I listening for?” and “How am I listening?”

To Order:

Title: Mental Models Interviewing
Oregon Sea Grant Product No.: ORESU-H-11-002
12 pages, color cover, B&W insides
Price: $2.50, plus shipping & handling as follows: first copy, $2.00; each additional copy, $1.00 For prices on 11 or more copies, please call 541-737-4849.

You may order this publication through Oregon Sea Grant’s e-Commerce Web site, or download a .pdf or text version for free.

What’s fresh on the Oregon coast?

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Fresh seafood at Local Ocean in NewportWondering what seafood will be in season when you visit the Oregon coast? Oregon Sea Grant’s Kaety Hildenbrand has compiled a handy, one-page guide to local seafood availability for 2011, based on  harvest estimates and commercial seasons set by fisheries regulators.

Right now, for instance, you should be able to find fresh, locally caught Chinook salmon, Dungeness crab and pink shrimp, as well as  flounder, sole, rockfish and lingcod (generally available year-round).

June should bring the appearance of albacore tuna and, late in the month, Pacific halibut, depending on when the fish make their appearance.

Fresh, locally caught seafood is available in markets and restaurants up and down the coast, and direct from the fishermen in many coastal ports. A family trip to the docks with an ice-filled cooler can be a great way to learn more about where your dinner comes from, how it’s harvested and the people who catch it.

The guide, “What’s Fresh and When in 2011” is ready to download and print, and suitable for hanging on the refrigerator door or tucking in the glove compartment for your next trip to the coast. Download it here in .pdf format.

Hildenbrand is Sea Grant’s Extension marine fisheries educator, based in Newport, where she engages the fishing community and general public on issues ranging from fisheries management to marine energy and multiple ocean uses.

Site off Newport chosen for wave-energy test facility

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Wave site

Wave energy test site location

NEWPORT – A one-square-mile site off the coast near Newport has been selected for a new wave energy test program, the first of its kind in the United States and the closest one this side of Scotland.

The siting decision was announced Wednesday by officials from the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center,  a collaborative research effort of Oregon State University and the University of Washington.

The selection follows two years of discussions with the Oregon coastal community, fishermen, state agencies, wave energy developers and scientists. It is within Oregon territorial waters, near the Hatfield Marine Science Center and close to onshore roads and marine support services.

Public comments on the proposal are still being sought, officials said.

The site will be about one square mile in size, two miles northwest of Yaquina Head on the central Oregon coast, in water about 150-180 feet deep with a sandy seafloor. It is exposed to unobstructed waves that have traveled thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean. The facility is being funded by the state of Oregon and the U.S. Department of Energy.

“If all of our plans and permits are approved, we hope to have the test facility available for wave energy developers to use by this fall,” said Annette von Jouanne, an OSU professor of electrical engineering and leader with the university’s wave energy research programs.

The site will not only allow testing of new wave energy technologies, but will also be used to help study any potential environmental impacts on sediments, invertebrates and fish. In order to simplify and expedite ocean testing, the facility will not initially be connected to the land-based electrical grid.

Testing will be done using a chartered vessel or stand-alone buoy along with the wave energy devices, and most of the technology being tested will produce its energy through the up-and-down motion of the waves. Some devices may be very large, up to 100 feet tall and with a diameter of up to 50 feet, but mostly below the water line.

“The site will not necessarily be off limits to other ocean users,” said Oregon Sea Grant’s Kaety Hildenbrand, who leads Sea Grant’s wave energy public engagement efforts on the central coast.  “As part of our continuing outreach to the coastal community, we plan to have a series of dialogues with safety experts and ocean users to discuss allowable uses.”

Read more from OSU News & Research Communications  …

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.”

Sea Grant, State Parks collaborate on iPhone guide to newest park

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NEWPORT – A new iPhone application gives visitors an inside look at Oregon’s newest state park, the Beaver Creek State Natural Area south of Newport.

The application, “Paddle Beaver Creek,” was developed jointly by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department and Oregon Sea Grant at Oregon State University. It is available free for downloading from the iPhone store.

The project is designed to provide park visitors with an additional way to learn more about the park. “We are adapting to the needs of present and future generations of park visitors,” stated Mike Rivers, Ranger Supervisor for Oregon State Parks. “Having a park-specific smart phone guide to water trails, wildlife and natural history will hopefully deepen our visitors’ experiences in Oregon State Parks’ 2010 park of the year, Beaver Creek State Natural Area.”

The core of the application is an interactive map of the Beaver Creek Water Trail – about three scenic miles of an easy-paddling waterway in a pristine coastal marsh open to kayaks and canoes. With no feasible way to post interpretive signs along a water trail, the application provides iPhone-equipped canoeists and kayakers a way to track their progress via GPS, and interactively highlights points of interest along the way, from nesting ospreys to beaver lodges.

Oregon Sea Grant’s interest in developing new tools for effective science education brought them to this cooperative project. “We are always exploring tools that deepen understanding of the coast,” said Dr. Shawn Rowe, Sea Grant Extension’s free-choice learning specialist at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. “Giving visitors the ability to seek the depth of information they prefer is the future of parks and interpretive centers.”

Beaver Creek State Natural Area  is located seven miles south of Newport, just east of Ona Beach State Park. The park, which celebrated its grand opening Oct. 1, offers recreation for boaters and nonboaters alike. A newly created Visitor Center features interpretive exhibits, an ADA-accessible deck overlooking the wetland, and trail access. Free Wi-Fi access allows visitors to download the iPhone App on the spot.

Other Sea Grant personnel involved in conceptualizing and creating the application and coordinating logistics include Mark Farley, Nancee Hunter, Joe Cone and Evelyn Paret. Plans are in the works for additional applications, in versions for a variety of mobile smart-phone platforms.

Oregon Sea Grant, founded in 1968 and based at Oregon State University, supports research, education, and public engagement to help people understand, responsibly use, and conserve ocean and coastal resources.

New Sea Grant Extension leader takes office Oct. 4

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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.