Category Archives: Oregon Sea Grant

Teachers invited to free wave energy workshop

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Youngsters explore wave energy lab at HMSC

NEWPORT – A free workshop at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center will familiarize Oregon coastal teachers with  current research and developments in wave energy, and how they can use the topic to create lessons where students can learn and apply Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) skills.

The workshop takes place from 9 am to noon Saturday, Nov. 16 and is open to second- through 12th-grade teachers up and down the Oregon coast. Sponsors are the Oregon Coast Regional STEM center, OSU, Oregon Sea Grant and the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center.

Participants will learn about latest developments in the field of wave energy,   create and test model wave energy devices, and receive a wave energy curriculum and supplies to use in the classroom. They will also learn how they can involve their students in the Oregon Coast Renewable Energy Challenge in March 2014.

For more information, and to download a .pdf flyer and registration form, visit the HMSC Visitor Center’s teacher resources page.

HMSC Visitor Center gets creative to boost donations

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Feeding Time, HMSC Visitor Center

NEWPORT – Oregon Sea Grant’s Visitor Center at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center is popular, but over time, donations – the only admission we ask people to pay – have been on the decline.

When staff and volunteers realized the problem – that few people carry cash these days – they decided to install a kiosk to accept donations via debit and credit cards. But things got complicated; as a government entity, the center isn’t allowed to operate a wireless payment kiosk, and other state laws prevent universities from piggybacking on contracts the state has with companies that provide the service.

But Sea Grant’s Mark Farley, who manages the Visitor Center, didn’t give up. With help from Dee Wendler of the University Administration Business Center and Wallace Rogers, State of Oregon manager of e-Government and Voice Services, the Center was able to contract with e-Government company NIC-USA, a company already under contract to the state, thus meeting state requirements without taking on additional legal and financial risk. Rogers’ office also  got the Department of Justice to review the proposed HMSC project for compliance with state and federal law.

The new kiosk is expected to be in place in January – and the arrangement could pave the way for others, including OSU Extension agents, to sell publications and other items at events outside their own county offices.

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New publication discusses effective stakeholder engagement in marine planning

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A new publication from Oregon Sea Grant, Knowledge, Capacity, and Needs for Effective Stakeholder Engagement in Marine Planning, examines the key findings from a study of marine spatial planning efforts on the west coast.

In response to the many existing and emerging demands on coastal and ocean resources, President Obama established by Executive Order the National Ocean Policy (NOP) in 2010, identifying marine spatial planning (MSP) as a mechanism to reduce conflicts and improve management. On the west coast, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was designated as a federal co-lead for implementation. NOAA’s Western Regional Collaboration Team (NOAA West), a cross-cutting line office team, and the west coast Sea Grant programs initiated assessment of NOAA’s knowledge, capacity, and needs related to MSP through focus groups and a survey.

This 39-page publication reveals the results of this study and makes recommendations for improvements in the MSP process. You can download a PDF of the publication free of charge here.

Register-Guard: Changing ocean chemistry threatens marine life

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The Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery on the state’s north coast watched oyster larvae die en masse for three years in a row in the mid-2000s — depriving oyster farms along the entire West Coast of seed oysters.

Florence crabber Al Pazar saw baby octopuses, an inch or two long, climb up his crab lines to escape the sea waters in the 2005 season. When he pulled up his pots, the crab were dead.

Eugene fisherman Ryan Rogers, who drags in great piles of salmon on an Alaska purse seiner, has instead brought up nets full of jellyfish in recent years.

“Sometimes we’ll catch 4,000 or 5,000 pounds of jellyfish. They spray all around. We get stung,” he said. “It makes it difficult to bring your net in. You have to let it go and lose the salmon that are in your net.”

Scientists — including many at Oregon State University — are beginning to define the cause of these events. They call it ocean acidification and hypoxia.

Wind, currents and ocean chemistry conspire to create pools of corrosive waters that can be lethal to key commercial species in Northwest waters — and favorable to some nuisance species, such as jellyfish. …

The Eugene Register-Guard examines what OSU scientists – some of them working with Oregon Sea Grant funding – are learning about the causes and consequences of ocean acidification.

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New publication offers insights from a NOAA-Sea Grant project

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A new publication from Oregon Sea Grant, Climate Field Notes, distills the results of a multi-year, multi-state SARP-Report-coverproject funded by the NOAA Climate Program Office Sectoral Applications Research Program (SARP).

Oregon Sea Grant led this project, which used a risk-communication framework to help coastal communities respond to the effects of a changing climate. Climate Field Notes documents the results of projects in eight states, including Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Maine, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida.

The report includes discussion of social science methodologies, definitions and usefulness of resilience, the roles of leadership and boundary organizations, user-centered communication approaches, and lessons learned from practitioners in the field.

Primary authors of the report are Joe Cone, Pat Corcoran, Miriah Russo Kelly, and Kirsten Winters.

You can download Climate Field Notes here.

 

“Stone Soup” draws on Sea Grant expert for help on invasives strips

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Stone Soup Comic

Click to enlarge.
(STONE SOUP © 2013 Jan Eliot. Used courtesy of the creator and Universal Uclick. All rights reserved.)

When Oregon cartoonist Jan Eliot, who draws the popular “Stone Soup” comic strip, wanted to feature a storyline about how animals common in one place can become invasive species in another, she turned to Oregon Sea Grant’s Sam Chan for advice.

The result, which runs newspapers nationwide starting tomorrow (Sept. 4), is an engaging – and scientifically accurate – story about a 9-year-old, a crawdad found on a camping trip, and an educational moment featuring a science teacher.

She contacted Chan, our watershed health and aquatic invasive species specialist, with questions about the species she wanted to feature (Procambarus clarkii, the red swamp crayfish), its invasive potential (highly invasive in areas without harsh, cold winters), and whether it was OK to call it a “crawdad” as opposed to “crayfish” (yes, the terms are regional but interchangeable).

Chan was happy to help, and calls the cartoon series “very timely for teachers, parents, students and pet owners. “It can be a revelation that releasing ‘pets’ is often not the kindest alternative.”

The Sea Grant specialist and his team are leading a nationwide study on a related topic: The spread of non-native species that are released from classrooms after being used for school science projects.

Eliot, who lives in Eugene but grew up tromping around Midwestern lakes and creeks, says she once considered studying marine biology at Oregon State University, but “chickened out and followed the easy path of Art and English.” Now, she says, she’s enjoying as Alix, the Stone Soup character featured in the new strips, grows into a budding biologist. “I can live the path I didn’t choose through her.”

It’s not the first time “Stone Soup” has delved into marine science. Her ongoing science teacher character, Erma, is modeled after former NOAA administrator and OSU zoologist Jane Lubchenco and Eliot’s friend Dr. Kathy Sullivan (now Lubchenco’s successor at the agency’s helm). The character is named after ERMA (Emergency Response Management Application), a web-based NOAA tool, available to the public, for managing information in oil spill crises.

Follow as the story unfolds over the next two weeks in your local newspaper, or at http://www.gocomics.com/stonesoup

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New study examines potential marine renewable energy conflicts and mitigation strategies

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Marker buoys ready for deployment on R/V Pacific Storm

Marker buoys read for recent deployment at the wave-energy test site off Newport

A recent study with participation from multiple Sea Grant programs takes a deep look at potential space-use conflicts in siting alternative energy along the US Outer Continental Shelf – and offers strategies for reducing those conflicts.

In the search for renewable energy sources, the potential to harness the clean power of wind, wave, and tide can seem irresistible. The long US coastlines offer what appears to be virgin territory for new energy producing facilities. But a closer look reveals that coastal and offshore areas are already teeming with productive activity – activity that could suffer if ignored in the quest for marine energy.

In 2011 and 2012, Oregon Sea Grant’s Flaxen Conway worked with Madeleine Hall-Arber of MIT Sea Grant, Carry Pomeroy of California Sea Grant and Industrial Economics, Inc., plus collaborators from the Urban Harbors Institute and  Virginia Sea Grant to identify, and develop strategies to avoid and reduce, potential space-use conflicts on the Outer Continental Shelf in the context of alternative energy development. Funding was from the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The study documents the characteristics of existing ocean uses including transportation and shipping, commercial and recreational fishing, sailing and boating, military operations, sand and gravel excavation, oil and gas facilities, and scientific research, and the cooperation and conflict negotiation that arise among such users.

New uses, such as aquaculture and marine renewable energy, with their demand for extensive, exclusive space, may engender additional serious conflicts. The authors note when two users want exclusive access to an area, it puts pressure on federal, state and regional agencies or organizations to try to manage the offshore space equitably.

The research team used ethnographic research techniques to interview stakeholders on both coasts, from commercial fishermen to cruise lines, port managers and  trade industry groups, as well as academic and government organizations. They conducted formal interviews, informal conversations and group meetings to identify conflicts among the various uses, and existing and new strategies for solving – or avoiding – those conflicts.

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Oregon Sea Grant wins APEX 2013 Award of Excellence

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2013_winnerOregon Sea Grant has been awarded the APEX 2013 Award of Excellence in the “One-of-a-Kind Education & Training Publications” category for its work on The Oregon Coast Quests Book, 2013-14.

APEX 2013, the 25th Annual Awards for Publication Excellence, is an international competition that recognizes outstanding publications from newsletters and magazines to annual reports, brochures, and websites.

According to the APEX 2013 judges, “The awards were based on excellence in graphic design, quality of editorial content, and the success of the entry in conveying the message and achieving overall communications effectiveness.” This year’s competition was “exceptionally intense,” drawing 2,400 entries in 12 major categories.

E-13-001 Quests book 2013-14 250Quests are fun and educational clue-directed hunts that encourage exploration of natural areas. In this self-guided activity, Questers follow a map and find a series of clues to reach a hidden box. This edition of the Oregon Coast Quests Book contains 26 Quests in three counties (Lincoln, Coos, and Benton), including six brand-new Quests and one in both English and Spanish.

The Oregon Coast Quests program is coordinated by Oregon Sea Grant Marine Educator Cait Goodwin, who also oversaw production of the book. Oregon Sea Grant Managing Editor Rick Cooper performed the editing and layout.

You can order copies of The Oregon Coast Quests Book here.

Oregon Sea Grant seeks candidates for program director

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Oregon Sea Grant invites applications for a full-time (1.00 FTE), 12-month, director position. Reappointment is at the discretion of Oregon State University’s Associate Vice President for Research. The application deadline is Sept. 15, 2013.

Oregon Sea Grant, founded in 1968 and based at OSU, supports research, education and public engagement to help people understand, manage, responsibly interact with and conserve ocean and coastal resources and communities.

Consistently rated one of the top such programs in the country, Oregon Sea Grant is part of a national network of 32 Sea Grant College Programs organized under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This network is a partnership among government, academia, industry, NGOs, and private citizens. Oregon Sea Grant is extremely well connected with local communities and stakeholders, and has made significant contributions in such critical areas as management and science of groundfish and salmon fisheries, pioneering support for wave energy research, programmatic research on free-choice learning, and developing greater public appreciation for and understanding of natural and man-induced coastal hazards. For additional information about Oregon Sea Grant, visit http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu

The program director provides overall leadership for Oregon Sea Grant, oversees a total annual budget of approximately $5M, and manages approximately 48 staff and faculty, who carry out research, administrative, communication and engagement (Extension) functions of exceptional quality and societal impact. He/she leads the organization in articulating and realizing a vision for excellence by embracing collaborative opportunities and fostering alliances. He/she works to encourage creativity and innovation in helping shape the agenda for Sea Grant within the Oregon University System, state, region, and nation The director also represents Oregon Sea Grant and OSU to NOAA’s National Sea Grant Office and the Sea Grant Association, as well as public and private stakeholders within the state and region.Sea Grant is a knowledge based organization, and the Director communicates with state and federal legislators, state and federal policy makers, industry, communities and citizens on 1) economic, environmental, and social implications of the program’s research, and 2) science-based implications of proposed state or federal policy options.

A terminal degree with professional experience and a record of excellence in research/ scholarship, policy, and/or management in marine, coastal, natural resources or a related field are required. Candidates should possess strong listening, writing and speaking skills; a record of innovative leadership and problem solving; and knowledge of marine issues and coastal resources are required. Other requirements include experience managing research programs or large projects, a proven commitment to diversity and team building, and experience working productively with diverse sets of stakeholders. Salary is commensurate with education and experience.

For a complete position description, and to apply, visit jobs. oregonstate.edu

Boating access advocates to convene in Portland

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Marina, Coos BayPORTLAND – “New Dimensions in Boating Access,” the national conference of the States Organization for Boating Access, comes to Portland Sept. 30-Oct. 3, bringing speakers and workshops on topics ranging from reducing conflicts between public boating access and commercialk shipping to the implications of sea level rise on recreational boating.

Registration is open now, at a significant discount for those who register by Aug. 30.

SOBA is a nonprofit organization that advocates for recreational boating; its membership is drawn from state and territorial agencies, boating groups, consulting firms and boating-related businesses. The annual conference brings members together to discuss issues related to recreational boating access, technology, and environmental/legislative issues.

Among the speakers at this year’s conference are Oregon Sea Grant Extension specialists Sam Chan, discussing invasive species; Megan Kleibacker, talking about Oregon’s implementation of the Clean Vessel Act; and Jamie Doyle, with updates on the National Working Waterfronts Network.