Category Archives: videos

Calling Northwest film makers: Stories from Our Watershed

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watershedWhat does watershed restoration mean to you? How and why does it inspire you? If you have an idea and a video camera, The Whole Watershed Initiative wants to hear from you.

“Stories From Our Watershed” is a contest offering a total of $3,500 in prize money to digital film makers of all ages for short (10 minutes or less) videos focusing  “on the human, ecological and economic benefits of whole watershed restoration in the Northwest” — Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

There are two categories:  one for film-makers 21 and older and another for those 20 and younger. The deadline for submission is 5 pm July 19.

Special consideration will be given to films that feature restoration happening in priority basins including Oregon’s north and south coasts, John Day, Lower Columbia, Puget Sound and Upper Columbia.

Portland-based Ecotrust is managing the contest for the initiative, a collaborative effort involving with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, the Bureau of Land Management and others. The  initiative supports  the restoration of  streams and fish and wildlife habitate in the region’s high-priority basins.

For details about the contest and how to submit your videos, visit the Ecotrust Web site.

Oregon Sea Grant’s Pat Corcoran quoted in NY Times article on tsunamis

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Pat Corcoran, hazards outreach specialist for Oregon Sea Grant, was quoted in an article that appeared in the February 28, 2010, NY Times, “Chilean Quake a Warning to U.S. Northwest“:

“The release of pressure between two overlapping tectonic plates along the subduction zone regularly generates massive 9.0 magnitude earthquakes –- including five over the last 1,400 years. The last ‘Big One’ was 309 years ago. We are in a geologic time when we can expect another ‘Big One,’ either in our lives or those of our children. Prudence dictates that we overcome our human tendencies to ignore this inevitability.”

He was also quoted extensively in an Associated Press article appearing in the Feb. 27 Seattle Post-Intelligencer, among other places. (“Tsunami barely registers in Pacific Northwest“).

Corcoran appears in an Oregon Sea Grant video about tsunami preparedness called Three Things You Need to Know. You can view the 3-minute video here. Oregon Sea Grant also has a 14-minute video about tsunami preparedness called Reaching Higher Ground. Watch it here.

Video: Great White Shark Necropsy

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A new video is available documenting part of the public dissection of a 12-foot great white shark that was featured in an earlier blog post.  The shark died after becoming entangled in the ropes of a crab pot, but the shark’s death may mean educational benefits to scientists.

William Hanshumaker, a marine science educator at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, explains: “There are researchers from throughout the country who are interested in what we’re doing here and have requested sample materials…. This is also an opportunity for the public to observe first-hand this unique creature and how scientists conduct research and share information.”

The 2-minute video is a time-lapse sequence showing the fin removal portion of the necropsy.

Oregon coast climate change videos online

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Five new, short videos about climate change at the Oregon coast produced by Oregon Sea Grant respond to the concerns of coastal residents. Those concerns, expressed through a 2008 survey of 300 coastal Oregonians, frame the topics of the videos:  How do scientists predict climate change? Shoreline Effects of Climate Change, Broader Coastal Ocean Effects, What is Government Doing?

Joes4_still An Introduction video provides background on the set. The videos, hosted by Sea Grant climate change specialists, focus answers to Oregonians’ questions through interviews with experts, including scientists from NOAA and OSU  and coastal planners. The producer of the climate videos is Joe Cone, assistant director of Oregon Sea Grant; editor is Stevon Roberts; the videos were supported in part by a grant from the NOAA Climate Program Office. Transcripts are available on the video pages.

Oregon Sea Grant climate video receives gold award

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The video, Building a Resilient Coast: Maine Confronts Climate Change, was produced in cooperation with Maine Sea Grant under a grant from the NOAA Climate Program Office. The gold prize is from the international Ava Awards (Audio/Visual Awards), which “recognize outstanding work by creative professionals involved in the concept, writing, direction, shooting, and editing of audio/visual materials and programs.” Twelve percent of this year’s entries received a gold prize.

The creative personnel of Resilient Coast are from Oregon Sea Grant: Joe Cone is the producer, videographer, and writer; Stevon Roberts, editor; Patricia Andersson, designer. Susan White, associate director of Maine Sea Grant, is the co-producer. The video was released on DVD in summer 2009 and on the Oregon and Maine Sea Grant web sites; it has also been shown on the Maine Public Broadcasting Network.

Resilient Coast was guided by preliminary research conducted with Maine coastal property owners to determine what climate-related issues they were concerned about. Individual segments of the one-hour program address those concerns. One very short excerpt follows. The entire program can be viewed at

http://www.seagrant.umaine.edu/extension/coastal-community-resilience

The Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP) administers the Ava Awards program. The international organization consists of several thousand marketing, communication, advertising, public relations, media production and free-lance professionals.

Building a Resilient Coast: Maine Confronts Climate Change

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Building a Resilient Coast: Maine Confronts Climate Change

“The ocean is coming up, higher than it ever has. The climate is changing. The ocean water is warm, a lot warmer,” warns Timothy Pellerin, Emergency Management Agency, Lincoln County, Maine. Building a Resilient Coast addresses the concerns and interests of coastal Maine residents. The hour-long documentary highlights key climate change issues including public perception and the need to protect both private and public property from millions of dollars of future storm damage. The one-hour program was produced by Oregon Sea Grant as part of a NOAA-funded project with Maine Sea Grant.

Twelve short excerpts from the documentary can be found on the Sea Grant Web site.

They present “take home” messages and insights. The documentary focuses on coastal residents who are “being the change” that the circumstances warrant. For example, homeowner Dee Brown built her shoreline house on piers to withstand a rising sea and what she rightly calls, “terrible storms.”

OPB talk show comes to Newport

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Oregon Public Broadcasting’s “Think Out Loud,” a radio talk show that invites listeners to comment by phone or e-mail, comes to OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport June 16 for a discussion about wave energy. The episode is part of the series’ ongoing feature, “The Switch,” which is exploring energy options.

Taping of the program, which is scheduled for broadcast the following day, starts at 7 p.m. sharp in the HMSC Visitor Center’s Hennings Auditorium. Doors open at 6 p. m., and seating in the 160-seat auditorium is first-come, first served.

Read more about “Think Out Loud” on OPB’s Web site.

Watch excerpts from Oregon Sea Grant’s “Wave Power” video.

Documentary Preview: Michael Harte

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In this preview to an upcoming documentary featuring Climate Change in Oregon, Michael Harte (Oregon State University’s College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, or COAS) explains that the effects of global climate change on our day-to-day lives are not necessarily the effects talked about in the larger discussion of climate change.

The documentary, scheduled for release this summer, will feature interviews with researchers that are already identifying effects on Oregon’s coast linked to climate change.  Part of the film will include recent research findings by Jack Barth (COAS) who discusses how local salmon are affected by changes in ocean conditions.  Sea Grant Extension agent, Robert Emmanuel, will describe recent increases in flooding in Tillamook, and Nathan Mantua, from the University of Washington, will talk about the effects of increasing winter storm activity.

Transcript is available at the above link

Exploring Beach Recovery

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In the Hinsdale Wave Research Lab at Oregon State University, Associate Professor Tuba Ozkan-Haller studies how beaches recover after winter storms.  The hope is that this information will go into predictive models that can help developers make smart decisions about how to protect properties or infrastructure along coastlines.  “People who have lived near the coast know that in the summertime the dry beach actually increases,” says Ozkan-Haller.  “There’s more sand that is just sitting on the dry beach area in the summertime. And that sand actually goes away in the wintertime because of the storms and forms a bar, sort of a submerged island offshore. It’s the way that the beach protects itself…. as the summer then approaches again during springtime, waves move that bar, that mound, back onto the beach. And, we found out that we’re actually very bad at predicting how that happens.”

She is joined by civil engineering professor Merrick Haller, who describes how the instrumentation is used to interpret the data.  After the data is analyzed, they hope to build numerical models that will help predict what will happen to the beaches after severe storms, and whether there will be increased need for protective structures or beach nourishment.

View Transcript