Breaking Waves

Visitors to the Oregon coast may find a new publication from Oregon Sea Grant useful when strolling the docks or watching commercial fishers at work.

Boats of the Oregon Coast, a pocket-size field guide, depicts and describes 18 different fishing and service vessels seen along the Oregon coast. The booklet’s drawings, concise descriptions and size make it ideal for port and marina tours from Astoria to Brookings.

Also included in the 52-page booklet is a short history of Oregon fisheries, illustrated with historic photos and accompanied by a timeline of important dates in the development of Oregon’s commercial fishing industry.

Copies may be purchased for $4.95 each plus $1 shipping and handling from Sea Grant Communications, 541-737-4849, or from our e-commerce store on the Web. It is also available in several bookstores and gift shops along the coast.

Boats of the Oregon Coast was illustrated by Stefania Padalino and written by Oregon State University Sea Grant Extension faculty Pat Corcoran, Ginny Goblirsch, Paul Heikkila, Kaety Hildenbrand, Steve Theberge, Michael Thompson and Jim Waldvogel.

Oregon Sea Grant and the Oregon Department of Water Resources are teaming up to offer a new graduate fellowship in well-water outreach. The application deadline is June 10.

The fellowship is available for a Masters level graduate student at an Oregon College or University who will develop and evaluate outreach and education approaches that improve the skills of well owners to monitor water levels and understand their water-use patterns.

The chosen applicant will receive a stipend of up to $2,500 a month for three months of full-time work at the ODRW office in Salem during the summer of 2008, plus a nine-month part-time stipend for the academic year beginning in fall 2008.  Frequent trips to Salem will be required during the school year, and the project involves  significant field work in the central Willamette Valley.

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Oregon Sea Grant has announced a new scholarship that will support one student working toward a graduate degree in any field of marine studies compatible with the program’s mandate and areas of interest.

Interested students from any Oregon University System institution have until June 20 to apply for the Robert E. Malouf scholarship, named for the program’s recently retired director.

Read more …

Scotch broom, Japanese eelgrass, Quagga mussels, and Oregonians: How are they related? The first three are non-native, invasive species of plants and animals -  and  Oregonians often unknowingly spread these and a growing number of other invaders. But they can also stop invasive species before they spread.

A year-long educational effort to prevent the spread of invasive species in Oregon ramps up this month, with the premiere of a new documentary film produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting. The hour-long documentary, “The Silent Invasion,” has its OPB broadcast premiere on Earth Day, April 22 at 8 p.m.

But Oregon Sea Grant’s contributions of time and expertise to the production is bringing special advance screenings to Corvallis, on April 9, and Nweport, on April 17.

Read more …

Visit our new Marine Invaders page for more tools to aid in the fight to identify and control the spread of invasive animals and plants.

Many Oregon communities are facing rapid population growth and increases in housing and industrial construction, without a matching increase in the resources necessary to manage such growth and make wise land use decisions. One result may be added stress from increased stormwater runoff on already overtaxed water management systems.

To help communities address such issues, Oregon Sea Grant at Oregon State University (OSU) has published Barriers and Opportunities for Low Impact Development: Case Studies from Three Oregon Communities.

More information: http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/communications/releases.html#lowimpact

A series of “listening and learning” forums in eight communities up and down the Oregon Coast this month will gather a wide range of interests and viewpoints to explore the issue of marine reserves.

The forums, starting in North Bend on Feb. 18, are being organized by Oregon Sea Grant, the Oregon State University-based marine research and outreach program, at the request of the state’s Ocean Policy Advisory Council (OPAC).

 Read more …

Graduate students in marine science and resources have only a few weeks to apply for two major fellowships being offered by Oregon Sea Grant and/or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The opportunities include:

• The National Marine Fisheries Service/Sea Grant NOAA’s Coastal Management Fellowship, which provide on-the-job education and training opportunities in coastal resource management and policy for postgraduate students and to provide project assistance to state coastal zone management programs. Application deadline: Jan. 28, 2008
• The John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship , which matches highly qualified graduate students with hosts in the legislative branch, the executive branch, or appropriate associations and institutions located in the Washington, D.C. area. Recipients spend one year working on substantive national policy issues related to marine issues; a stipend is provided. Application deadline: Feb. 29, 2008

For more information about these and other Sea Grant fellowhip opportunities for qualified graduate and undergraduate students, visit our Web site.

Melissa Feldberg
Fellowship Application
322 Kerr Admin.
Corvallis, OR 97331

Please don’t hesitate to contact me for information about either of these opportunities.

The following publications and DVD are available online at http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/sgpubs/newpubs.html

This is Oregon Sea Grant

Oregon’s Coastal Marine Recreational Fishing Community:….

Public Outreach and Behavior Change:….

Responses to the West Coast Groundfish Disaster:….

Salmon and Estuaries:….

Tsunami Awareness for Fishermen and Mariners

Oregon Sea Grant Program Report 2007:…. [DVD and booklet]

Oregon Sea Grant is pleased to announce the launch of a new series of audio podcasts, Communicating Climate Change. The podcasts will feature in-depth conversations with prominent social scientists whose work informs public communications about science. Joe Cone is the producer. The first conversation is with Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change:

http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/blogs/communicatingclimate/

Given the importance of appropriate actions in response to climate change, successful communication with various audiences is vital and deserves to be informed by the best communication research. These podcasts will present some of that research through informal conversations with the researchers themselves. Complete text transcripts of the conversations will also be online.

Links on the web site guide listeners to subscribe to the podcasts via RSS, iTunes, or even email.

People come to Oregon from all over the United States each year to learn about - and try to spot - the gray whales that migrate past our coast. Now’s your chance to join the host of volunteers who take up stations at prime whale-watching spots each winter and spring to teach people about these majestic marine mammals.

Oregon Sea Grant, the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center and Oregon State Parks and Recreation team up Nov. 17-18 to offer training for volunteers in the Winter Whale Watch Week “Whale Spoken Here” program. Dr. Bruce Mate, OSU marine mammal specialist, and John Calambokidis, research biologist and co-founder of Cascadia Research, will lead the Newport training.

Pre-registration is required; sign up through Whale Spoken Here, the Oregon State Parks & Recreation whale-watching site.

This year’s Winter Whale Watch Week is Dec. 26-Jan. 1.

(Additional training will be offered in January and February for those interested in volunteering for the Spring Whale Watch Week, March 22-29, 2008).

(photo of surf scoters and breeching gray whale courtesy of the Oregon State Parks Whale Watching Center, Depoe Bay)