The entryway to our new home

While everyone else is decking the halls, we at Oregon Sea Grant are dismantling ours, packing everything up for a big move to a brand-new location.

As of next week, the campus contingent of our program faculty and staff – currently spread among four different OSU locations – will be under one roof on the third floor of the University Plaza, just a block south of campus at the corner of 15th and Western in Corvallis.

The move begins on Monday when our computers will be disconnected from the campus network; on Tuesday, the movers come, and on Wednesday, we begin unpacking and setting up at the new location. All phone numbers and email addresses remain the same; our new mailing address is: Oregon Sea Grant, 1600 SW Western Blvd., Suite 350, Corvallis OR 97333.

It may be difficult to contact us during the move, but calls will be returned and email responded to as soon as we can find our phones, get the computers back online, and find places to sit.

We wish you all happy holidays, and look forward to welcoming visitors to our new office in the New Year. Watch for an open house announcement once we get settled.

Oregon Sea Grant will hold its inaugural Scholars Day Symposium on October 8^th, 2012 in the Memorial Union Joyce Powell Leadership Center Journey Room.  The Symposium starts at noon and ends at 5:00.

The agenda and the program abstracts can be downloaded on our Scholars Day website.

Join us for all or part of the afternoon. Thy symposium will feature presentations and posters by some of the brightest young scholars supported by Oregon Sea Grant’s fellowship, scholarship, internship, and research programs.

Besides showcasing undergraduate and graduate student projects and achievements, this interdepartmental, inter-institutional event is an opportunity for dialogue among researchers, decision makers, industry leaders, and the academic community about Oregon’s current ocean and coastal issues.

The Sea Grant Scholars program is intended to recognize and enhance long-term benefits to students who receive academic and research support from Oregon Sea Grant. The goal is to create a community of scholars, help them identify with the program and its mission, and foster professional development, research and outreach within coastal and ocean sciences in the state.

Why attend?

• Learn more about Oregon Sea Grant and its student programs
• Interact with Oregon Sea Grant personnel and the university community
• Talk with researchers, decision makers, industry leaders, stakeholders, and students about Oregon’s current ocean issues

Questions: seagrant.admin@oregonstate.edu

NEWPORT – October is Octopus Month at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, and to celebrate the occasion – and give the animal mental and physical stimulation – aquarists have taught Squirt, the resident giant Pacific octopus, to paint.

Aquarist Kristen Simmons, Aquarium Science student from Oregon Coast Community College, was the brains behind the mechanism, which allows the octopus to remotely manipulate a number of paint brushes against a canvas sitting outside its tank, while working to open a plastic toy containing food treats. “I did this to combine animal enrichment and public education.” she said, “The art gives people a different way to experience this animal behavior.”

“While a painting octopus is very entertaining and captures our imaginations,” explained Dr. Tim Miller-Morgan, aquatic veterinarian for Oregon Sea Grant and the OSU Veterinary School, “the real purpose behind this activity is to provide behavioral enrichment for these very curious and intelligent animals.”

The giant Pacific octopus exhibit has been a centerpiece at the HMSC Visitor Center since 1965. Generations of visitors have fond remembrances of seeing the octopus for the first time, and for the past few years, thousands more all over the world have enjoyed viewing the animals over a live, streaming OctoCam. “The octopus holds a very special place in the hearts of our visitors” said Becca Schiewe, Volunteer Coordinator for the Visitor Center. “Coming face to face with such an intriguing and intelligent animal opens people up to learning more about the wonder and mystery of the ocean.”

Evidence for octopus intelligence abounds: the leggy invertebrates can use tools, solve problems, and display remarkable curiosity. HMSC Aquarists strive to come up with new ways to challenge the animals during their tenure in the exhibit tank, including toys and puzzles – with a tasty bit of fish tucked inside – the octopuses quickly learn to open and disassemble. The painting mechanism takes the

Squirt’s colorful paintings have already captured the attention of community artists in Newport, and several have volunteered to collaborate with Squirt on shared works. Alex Krupkin, artist and molecular biologist based at HMSC, was the first to collaborate with Squirt. “The octopus’s artistic style is really bold, yet open to interpretation…the opportunity to participate in this collaboration is pretty exciting,” he said.

The octopus will create one painting a week during the month of October. Visitors who make an additional donation to the Visitor Center Octopus Fund will be entered into a weekly drawing for Squirt’s paintings and other prizes, including marine themed art from local artisans, and an “up close and personal” octopus encounter at HMSC.

On Oct. 20, the Visitor Center will celebrate Octopus Day, a showcase of all things octopus, including children’s activities, face painting, special guest speakers, and a 1 pm octopus feeding at 1 pm.

Learn more:

• More photographs of Squirt trying out the new painting mechanism, by 2012 Sea Grant Communications Fellow Jeffrey Basinger
• The Hatfield Marine Science Visitor Center, operated by Oregon Sea Grant, interprets and showcases ocean science and the latest OSU marine research, and also serves as a laboratory for the study of free-choice learning.
• The giant Pacific octopus

A developing El Niño pattern is likely to bring higher temperatures – and less snow – to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest this winter, according to scientists at the OSU-based Oregon Climate Service.

Kathie Dello, the OCC’s deputy director said this year’s El Niño will likely be “moderate.”

“Where we really see the signal is in the temperature,” Dello said. “So, that’s bad for skiers because the temperature needs to be cool enough for the precipitation to fall as snow.”

The past two winters were categorized as La Niñas (lower temperatures, more precipitation) in the Northwest, and the Cascades received a significant amount of snow, setting winter snowfall records at popular mountain ski slopes. Mount  Bachelor was hit with so much snow at one pointthis past January that the ski area had to shut down for a day.

Dello said it 2012 saw one of the driest Decembers on record for the Northwest. “December was rough last year because everyone expected all this snow – skiers love La Niña,” Dello said. “It was happening, it just wasn’t happening the way we like it in the Northwest.”

The El Niño predicted for this year is expected to be in effect for the next three months, said Dello, citing forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center. That means the weather could change later in the winter.

Learn more:

• Read the entire story from The Missoulian
• Curious about El Niño? Check out Oregon Sea Grant’s free publication explaining the cyclic phenomenon, available as a full-color, illustrated booklet by mail or download.