There seem to be two key factors that go into the field of conservation. First is finding/studying what it is you believe needs to be conserved. Second is convincing everyone else why the heck it’s such a big deal. I’ve always envisioned myself working primarily on the first side. I’m more scientific than social, a nerd, if you must. Yet this week I spent almost the entirety of my time working on the second side of conservation. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Marine Reserves Program hosted several community outreach events across the coast, and my fellow interns and I were lucky enough to tag along for all of them! Remember that painfully clichéd “in the world of marine biology you either sink or swim” pun I made at the end of my last blog post? I hate to bring it up again, but it became even more appropriate during these outreach events.

First of all, as I mentioned earlier, this was basically my first experience on the outreach side of conservation. To add to that, at the time of the start of the first event, I had been in Oregon for exactly one week. Yet there I was preparing to act as a representative of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. I think I was justified in feeling a little bit intimidated. Our first event was a community barbecue in the town of Port Orford, which sits on the shore of Oregon’s first marine reserve (Redfish Rocks, look it up, it’s beautiful). Port Orford is a tiny fishing town with a lot of people who know way more about Oregon’s fish than I do, so I knew I had to be careful or I could talk myself into uncharted waters very quickly. But it’s not too difficult to talk to people about something when it’s something that you A) are knowledgeable of and B) really care about. Luckily, I know a few things about fish and marine conservation, and I care a lot about both.

Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve

The only stumbling block I encountered was my shoddy grasp on Oregon geography. I met people from Netarts, Yachats, Gold Beach, Brookings, etc. and I did a lot of smiling and nodding along, pretending like I knew where any of those places were. With the help of Google Maps, I eventually looked up all the towns I heard, and I was amazed at how far some people had come! The people of the Oregon coast (or at least those I have met so far) are impressive in their appreciation for our natural resources. Our main purpose for outreach was just to inform the public about who we are and what we’re doing in their oceans. Some who came were more interested in the free food than the free science, but it was remarkable how many were genuinely interested in the marine reserves and our monitoring methods. In Port Orford, our event attracted about 40 community members (quite impressive when you consider the town’s population is barely 1,000). That same evening we hosted a “Science at the Pub” event at a restaurant in Port Orford where we played Marine Reserves Bingo. Again we were able to get our message out to a lot of people. Port Orford was a huge success.

My fellow interns and I spent the next day hiking and snorkeling all in the name of collecting footage for the marine reserves image database (what a great job).

Hiking Humbug Mountain in the name of work

Then we were on the road again, this time up north to Garibaldi on the Tillamook Bay. Cape Falcon Marine Reserve, 10 miles north of Garibaldi was the most recent addition to Oregon’s protected waters, and we expected a different reception there than the one we received in Port Orford. The process of establishing Cape Falcon Marine Reserve was met with much greater resistance than Redfish Rocks. You wouldn’t have believed that though if you attended our barbecue in Garibaldi. We hosted over 100 people (in a town under 1000!) and had to run to the store to avoid running out of burgers. Not only were the numbers impressive, but the people of Garibaldi were eager to talk. I must’ve talked to two dozen different people about the marine reserves and explained what a SMURF is at least 10 times. There was even an incredibly friendly couple who expressed interest in the Sea Grant program and asked me for the address to this blog, which I was more than happy to provide (If that couple is reading this now, hello! Thanks for stopping by!). I shared info about the marine reserves and in return I learned so much about the history of Garibaldi, Tillamook Bay, and the state of Oregon. It was truly a fantastic experience. My hope is that our outreach events got at least a handful of citizens earnestly thinking about the future of Oregon’s coast, how they want that future to look, and how they might contribute to working towards it. That’s all I can ask.

Garibaldi barbecue after the rush had died down

This man knew everything there was to know about the history of Garibaldi. I was happy to listen.

After the outreach events I had a significant amount of downtime which I filled with hiking, biking, reading, running, and learning the real rules of beach volleyball. Concerning volleyball, one of the REUs living here actually told me “for someone so talented, you really don’t know anything”. I chose to take it as a compliment. Two weeks in, my experience in Oregon just keeps getting better. It won’t all be beach volleyball and barbecues I’m sure, but I’ll live with it.

Happy Hikers at Cape Perpetua