Millions of dead krill found on Oregon beaches

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Rick Cooper

Bill Peterson, an oceanographer with the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Newport, Ore., says millions of dead North Pacific krill have washed ashore recently between Newport and Eureka, Calif. He says it’s the largest die-off he can recall in recent history.

North Pacific krill primarily live on the eastern side of the Pacific, between southern California and southern Alaska. They’re typically found along the continental shelf, Peterson says. The shrimp-like crustaceans are an important source of food for salmon and other species of fish, birds and marine mammals.

Joe Tyburczy, a researcher with the California Sea Grant Extension office and a former Oregon Sea Grant Knauss Fellow, says the culprit could be hypoxia. Indeed, oceanographic cruises along the northern California coast found lower oxygen levels than usually seen in Pacific Northwest waters. “If it is hypoxia, there’s a possibility of implications for other species like crab,” Tyburczy says.

Another possibility, Peterson says, is that the shrimp were victims of unfriendly weather conditions during their mating cycle, and were driven to shore by high winds.

For the moment, Peterson and Tyburczy are asking that the public keep them informed of any more dead krill sightings. Peterson can be reached at 541-867-0201; Tyburczy at 707-443-8369.

Marina owners, users, team up to clear Fernridge lake of boat-fouling invader

Posted on April 30, 2013 by kightp

EUGENE – The Fern Ridge Reservoir just west of Eugene, Ore., is a popular recreation spot for boaters and swimmers during the spring and summer months. The marina attracts freshwater sailors and provides ample fishing opportunities for anglers. There’s only one problem: An invasive species is steadily taking over the lake, and the worse it gets, the less welcoming the lake becomes.

The invader, known as Eurasian watermilfoil, is an aquatic plant that forms tangled mats as it grows. Eurasian watermilfoil tends to show up in shallow waters where it can access sunlight. These thick tangles are obstructive enough to stop boat motors from working, and they can prevent kayakers from maneuvering through the water.

Not only is the milfoil an obstacle, but it also saps oxygen from the water and can cause fish to suffocate. As the fish decay at the bottom of the lake, the smell can get pretty strong.

For boaters like Scott Coleman, the owner of Underway LLC and manager for the Orchard Point Marina, it’s a worrying problem. “Specifically in this marina, if this plant really got going and clogged up the marina, then you wouldn’t be able to get your boat through here,” Coleman says. “And, it would be no fun to swim in.”

Last year, Coleman and a band of concerned marina users decided to take action. After consulting with Tania Siemens, WISE Program coordinator, and Sam Chan, invasive species specialist at Oregon Sea Grant, the boaters created a management plan that could correct their core problem: standing water.

(Photo by Roger Bailey)

Deadlines have been set for a number of fellowships

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Eric Dickey

Check out several new fellowship opportunities, including the newly announced 2014 Knauss Fellowship: http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/education/fellowships

Current opportunities

REOPENED: Oregon Sea Grant Natural Resource Policy Fellowship – Deadline: November 19, 2012.
NOAA Coastal Management Fellowship – Deadline: January 25, 2013.
NMFS/Sea Grant Graduate Fellowship Program in Marine Resource Economics – Deadline: January 25, 2013.
NMFS/Sea Grant Graduate Fellowship Program in Population Dynamics – Deadline: January 25, 2013.
Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships – Deadline: February 15, 2013.

Want to find out more what it’s like to be an Oregon Sea Grant Scholar?

Check out the Scholars Blog where you can read recent entries by our student scholars and their work, such as 2012 NOAA Coastal Management Fellow Kelsey Gianou.
Also, check out the interview of 2012 Knauss Fellow, Jennifer Dresler in the latest issue of Confluence.
And be sure to visit the Meet the Scholars page where you can learn about current and recent Oregon Sea Grant Scholars.

HMSC volunteers return to sea – and blogging

Posted on October 4, 2012 by kightp

NEWPORT – Michael Courtney and Annie Thorp, longtime volunteers at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, return to sea this week as support crew for Dr. Clare Reimers, an ocean ecologist and biogeochemist with OSU’s Colleage of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, who is studying the role of seafloor processes in ocean chemical cycles, the influences of low oxygen conditions on ocean biology, geology and chemistry, and new electrochemical tools for ocean observing networks.

Courtney and Thorp, who are husband and wife, have been volunteering at the HMSC Visitor Center since their retirement and have offered their services to shipboard research teams since 2009. They plan to once again chronicle their adventures in words and photographs through their blog, Buoy Tales.

As they wrote at the end of last year’s cruise with Dr. Reimers’ team, “Science is not just sitting in a warm, stable lab. It is also hard, hard work. Collecting the necessary data means being cold, wet, getting dirty, laying on a rough, rolling deck adjusting sensitive equipment, taking samples in an enclosed van under a dim red light, and working in a lab that won’t stand still.”

This voyage will be on board the R/V Oceanus, OSU’s new research vessel. The research team is loading and setting up equipment today, and expects to depart tomorrow for a cruise lasting until Oct. 15, taking the science team to the waters of the the continental shelf off the Pacific Northwest coast.

Learn more:

R/V Oceanus Webcam – View the ship on a live webcam and track its position at sea
Volunteering at the HMSC Visitor Center

Students from afar learn about ocean sustainability in Oregon

Posted on August 6, 2012 by kightp

A group of students from Purdue University, North Carolina State University, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences came together on the Oregon coast last month to learn about sustainable use of natural resources in the Pacific Northwest, as part of an annual summer program sponsored by Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and Purdue’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources.

The group spent time with Oregon Sea Grant Extension specialists on the coast, learning about the commercial fishing and oyster industries, visiting the Hatfield Marine Science Center, and even getting a chance to see the 66-foot-long Japanese dock that had been ripped away by the March, 2011 tsunami and deposited on Oregon’s Agate Beach.

Read more about their trip and the program on Lakeside Views, the blog of Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant

(Photo courtesy of Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant)

Despite storm OSU remains on National Mall

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Rhett Register

WASHINGTON, D.C. Day three of the ten-day Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall was cancelled after OSU’s tent and at least nine others were damaged by a massive thunderstorm that swept across the capital on Friday night.

On Saturday morning the 16-foot long plexiglass wave tank, borrowed by OSU from Howard University to demonstrate tsunamis, stood on two tables peeking out from under a frayed blue tarp amid a field of debris. Around it laid bent pieces of metal tent tubing, soggy “Powered by Orange” tee shirts, and muddied posters that describe OSU extension and outreach activities.

OSU's demonstration area after a severe thunderstorm came through Friday night.

“I was shocked when the festival representative called this morning and said, ‘well, the wave tank is fine but you’ll need you to stay away for the day while we find you a new tent’,” said OSU Director of University Events Shelly Signs. Signs heads up the team of paid staff and volunteers that has traveled from Oregon to demonstrate OSU research and extension activities. These include tsunami education activities, Sea Grant-related surimi and fisheries research, and projects by the 4-H Tech Wizards—an OSU Extension program that provides after-school tech-related activities for underrepresented youth.

The annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival was created in 1967 to examine and showcase different aspects of American and global culture. To mark the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln’s signing of the Morrill Bill that called for the creation of land-grant universities, Smithsonian invited land-grant universities from around the country to set up exhibits that showcase activities connected with their mission. The program, called “Campus and Community“, features exhibits and activities from 28 U.S. land-grant institutions.

By Sunday, OSU’s tent had been replaced and Signs and her team were busy making tsunamis, rolling out surimi and firing off air-propelled rockets. At tables in front of the wave tank, children and parents snapped together Legos trying to create structures that could withstand the six-inch wave the machine generates. OSU researcher Jae Park and his wife stood by a glass-topped freezer that displayed numerous brands of surimi and spoke to festival goers about how the product utilizes parts of fish that were once discarded (Park’s research and his Astoria-based Surimi School got early support from Oregon Sea Grant). On nearby tables children used surimi molds and rolling pins to make artificial crab and pressed shrimp shapes out of clay.

Smithsonian volunteer and young festival attendees watch to see which structures will withstand the tsunami.

In Reunion Hall, just across from the OSU tent, 4-H Tech Wizards program manager Octaviano Merecias-Cuevas showed one young festival goer how to connect a motor to a solar cell. Behind him teacher Miguel Angel Cholu Hernandez tested the latest batch of air-propelled rockets that had been made at their table.

Despite losing a day, Signs seems happy with the way things are turning out. “People are learning about how to build structures that are less susceptible to tsunamis, they’re learning sustainable food practices and are seeing the great things that the Tech-Wizards are doing,” she said. “Plus we’ve had an opportunity to build community with all of the other land-grant communities that are also participating. I’d say this is a success.”

To see more photos of the event please visit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/r_register/sets/72157630388536296/

(Rhett Register is a former Corvallis reporter and freelancer now living and working in Washington, D.C., where he is a researcher for National Geographic Travel magazine.)

OSU grad student wins NMFS fellowship

Posted on June 19, 2012 by kightp

Susan Hilber Piacenza, an Oregon State University PhD candidate, has been awarded a prestigious National Marine Fisheries Service fellowship to study population dynamics of threatened and endangered sea turtles.

The fellowship, will provide $115,000 over the next three years to support Piacenza’s work on the green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas. The turtle, considered threatened or endangered in most US and Mexican waters, appears to be recovering in other parts of the world. “Not only is this good news for green sea turtles,” Piacenza said, “but it also represents an invaluable opportunity to study what happens to a large vertebrate population as it recovers from serious population decline.”

So far, signs of positive population growth among C. mydas colonies in Hawaii and Florida has been inferred from nesting beach surveys. What’s missing – and what Piacenza plans to study – is broader data on what happens to the animals after they hatch, and throughout their lives, and how that information fits into population estimates and trends.

The research could be useful to biologists and managers seeking to understand how populations of other threatened and endangered animals change over time, and as a population comes back from the brink. Solid, data-driven forecasting could also help scientists and the public understand how different conservation and management strategies might affect threatened animal populations.

Piacenza is working with researchers at the Southeast Fisheries Science Center Turtle Program in Miami, FL, and the Pacific Island Fisheries’ Marine Turtle Research Group in Honolulu, HI. Her PhD adviser in the OSU Department of Fisheries and Wildlife is Dr. Selina Heppell.

The award is one of five population dynamics fellowships nationwide by NOAA/NMFS this year, and the first ever to an OSU graduate student. Piacenza’s application was sponsored by Oregon Sea Grant.

Learn more about the NOAA/NMFS Fellowships

Apply now for summer science communication fellowship

Posted on June 6, 2012 by kightp

If you’re a senior undergraduate or graduate student interested in a career in science communication, you have until June 25 to apply for a summer Science Communication Fellowship with Oregon Sea Grant in Corvallis, OR.

Under the mentorship of communications director Joe Cone, the fellow will have an opportunity to work with our professional communications team, developing and writing stories for the lay public – primarily for print, but potentially for Web, video or audio projects as well.

The fellow is required to maintain minimum enrollment requirements for their program of study during the summer months (undergraduates 1 credit, graduates 3 credits).

The fellowship is intended to run from approximately July 1 to October 1, 2012, with the possibility of extending into fall term.

For information about stipends, requirements and how to apply, visit the Oregon Sea Grant Website.

Netcasts – Jerri Bartholomew, Salmon Researcher, Glass Artist

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Stevon Roberts

At the intersection of science and art, you’ll find Jerri Bartholomew, a microbiologist and salmon researcher who also has a passion for working with glass.

“I see my artwork as being parallel to my scientific experimentation,” she says. “Science is often a very long process–it may take months, years, or even decades to find an answer to something, whereas art… you can get into the studio and experiment and come out with a product within hours, days, or weeks.”

But whatever the time scale, Bartholomew’s passion for scientific processes is evident as she shares her successes in solving some of the mysteries behind a growing threat to Pacific salmon, a parasite called Ceratomyxa shasta. Like many other parasites, C. shasta has a complex life cycle, requiring both vertebrate and invertebrate hosts to successfully reproduce.

In this installment of Netcasts, we visit the John L. Fryer Salmon Disease Laboratory, where Bartholomew and her team are using genetic tools to piece together a puzzle, searching for the right ways to target parasites while protecting salmon. We’ll also get a glimpse at some of her artwork, including some more recent pieces in a set called “Pages From a Naturalist Notebook.”

Breaking Waves

Oregon Sea Grant: Coastal science serving Oregon

Category Archives: people