Contents
- Celebrating 35 years of Oregon Sea Grant
- Extreme Makeover: OSG Web Site Gets a New Look and a New Direction
- Publications and Videos
- Staff News
- Awards and Recognitions
- Competitive Program Awards 2005–2006
- Fellowships
- Stories of Accomplishment Document Program Results
- Bob Malouf: What Matters Most
What Were You Doing on September 17, 1971?
By Joe Cone
Assistant Director, Oregon Sea Grant
If you were browsing the brand-new issue of Science magazine, you might have read stories debunking flying saucers and debating the emerging role of nuclear power plants. And if you were skimming a local Oregon newspaper, you might have read that Maurice Stans, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, signed the documents designating the Oregon State University Sea Grant College Program.
The bronze plaque that resides today in the Sea Grant office in the Kerr Administration Building reads
In Accordance with the National Sea Grant
College and Program Act of 1966
Oregon State University
Is Designated a
Sea Grant College
For Sustained Excellence in Research,
Education, Conservation and Development
Of America’s Marine Resources
September 17, 1971
OSU President Robert MacVicar journeyed to Washington, D.C., to meet personally with Stans and receive the OSU designation. In his remarks, Stans noted that “Oregon State University has concentrated on helping the Northwest fishing industry from fishermen to processors improve income
. . . . ” and “OSU’s Marine Advisory Program is considered the model for the nation.” At the time, the Marine Advisory Program (now Sea Grant Extension) included 10 agents and specialists on the coast and in Corvallis, making it also the largest marine extension program in the nation.
Although the career of Secretary Stans himself shortly ran into rough seas, as this former chief fundraiser for Richard Nixon was indicted along with attorney general John Mitchell on several charges related to Watergate (Stans was later acquitted), the career of Oregon Sea Grant has been graced with fair winds and a shipshape crew. This September we celebrate 35 years as a Sea Grant College Program.
The “college program” designation recognized that OSU and Sea Grant had met the federal requirements for this new status, achieving the “highest degree of effectiveness in its program,” according to Robert Abel, the director of the national office of Sea Grant.
The effective Oregon Sea Grant that Abel referred to was the “institutional program” that had in fact begun in 1968. In the beginning, Sea Grant was placed administratively under the National Science Foundation. But with the 1970 establishment of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the new OSU Sea Grant College Program joined other college programs in Washington, Texas, and Rhode Island as the first four under NOAA. Oregon’s federal funding was the largest of the four.
Thirty-five years later, how do we celebrate? Modestly, according to our personality.
As this publication goes to press, the one completed public show of celebration is a 30-second video “spot” produced by Sea Grant Communications for presentation at OSU home football games this fall. The spot will be projected on the stadium “Jumbotron”—likely before games and at halftime, when approximately 35,000 fans will be exposed to the upbeat message and visuals.
Included in the spot is a series of Sea Grant faces framed over a dramatic low flyover of the nearshore central coast, while the voice-over narrator says “The Oregon coast: our knowledge of this special place has grown because of OSU scientists, educators, and students. . . . We recognize their contributions as part of the Oregon Sea Grant College Program, based at Oregon State University since 1971.”
During the coming year of celebration, Sea Grant employees and friends will be notified via e-mail or post of other events and commemorative items as they arise.
Extreme Makeover: OSG Web Site Gets a New Look and a New Direction
By Pat Kight
Webmaster, Oregon Sea Grant
A year-long process of evaluation, redesign, and revision culminated in August with a brand-new Oregon Sea Grant Web site that aims to give visitors easier, quicker access to the information they’re looking for.
The top-to-bottom site revision represents the first time OSG has used
a formal evaluation process to look at how various user groups, both internal
and external, use the site and to tailor its features to their needs.
It’s the first major, sitewide change in the program’s Web presence
since 2004 and the first ever to employ a panel of in-house users and outside
technical advisors, plus statistical analysis of how the site is used by
its visitors, to help shape the newest version of Sea Grant’s home
on the Web.
The process actually began late in 2004 with discussions among Sea Grant support staff about changes that could be made to the site to make it more useful to them and the faculty they support. Some of those changes—making it possible, for instance, for some staff members to directly update parts of the site themselves—were implemented immediately. Others, including expanded links to commonly used forms, are part of the new design.
Feedback and suggestions were also solicited from the Sea Grant management team and the 2005 PAT review panel, and in August 2005 an advisory panel was convened to provide more detailed review. Members included Program Director Bob Malouf; Assistant Director Joe Cone; Sea Grant Extension’s Flaxen Conway, Tim Miller-Morgan, and Cathy McBride; and Advisory Committee member Allan Rumbaugh. Minnesota Sea Grant Webmaster Nick Zlonis provided technical review, and Russell Kaye, a graphics designer who had done previous video and Web work for OSG Communications, was brought on board as design consultant.
Out of their work came several observations that have been translated into
design concepts for the new site:
· The OSG site serves multiple audiences, each of which comes
to the site looking for different kinds of information. They include OSG faculty
and staff, grant seekers, publication buyers, and those who find us via a Web
search for a specific marine-oriented word or phrase.
- Clearer navigation and accessible technology should make the site more useful—and usable—to all audiences.
- Web content should be clear, concise, and accurate and provide easy ways for visitors to get more detailed information.
- In addition to directing visitors to the information they seek, the site should serve as a showcase for the good things Sea Grant does.
- It’s more important that the site reflect who we are and what we do than it is to incorporate all the latest “gee whiz” Web tricks. Video, animations, and other interactive elements should be reserved for uses where they help convey information.
Working with Kight and Cone, Kaye translated those concepts into a new graphical layout for the entire site. Since spring 2006, Kight has been reviewing the site’s more than 2,000 existing pages, revising content as needed and coding the page templates that support the new design.
A Few Quick Facts about seagrant.oregonstate.edu
- OSG was among the first Sea Grant programs to launch a Web site, back in 1995. (Visit the Internet Wayback Machine to see what we looked like then.)
- Our site averages about 150,000 “hits” (page views) a month by an average of 35,000 visitors.
- The top five search terms
that brought people to our site last month were
- domoic acid
- Oregon Sea Grant
- albacore tuna
- salt brine
- Sea Grant
The site undergoes constant revision and updating; while much of that work is done by Webmaster Pat Kight, a growing number of others are being trained to take responsibility for specific content updates. They include
- Grants and fellowships—Eric Dickey
- Publications—Cindy Newberry
- Free-choice learning—Shawn Rowe, Julie Howard
- Watershed Extension—Megan Kleibacker
- HMSC education-Maureen Collson
Publications and Videos:
Then Came Desktop Computers
By Sandy Ridlington
Managing Editor, Oregon Sea Grant
When I first started as managing editor of Oregon Sea Grant Communications, production was much less complicated on our side of the process than it is now. With a number two pencil, I edited a typed manuscript and then passed it on to our secretary or to the author’s secretary, who retyped the material, adding the corrections. After that, my job was mainly to oversee the rest of the process. A typesetter at the Department of Printing retyped the text into a Linotype machine. A graphic artist at University Publications designed the layout and put the publication together. A proofreader, also at Publications, checked the proofs. It was rumored that the printing profession had one of the highest rates of heart attack in the country. The printer’s level of stress was high. Mine wasn’t.
Then came desktop computers. As the computers got smarter, we became busier and our jobs became more challenging. For nearly every paper project, we became editor, graphic artist, typesetter, and proofreader without even leaving our offices. In fact, a former marine agent, who will go unnamed, once petulantly advised me to get off my chair (he said it with more flair, though) and see more of the real world.
Today it seems harder than ever to get out of our chairs. Computers drive the work we do. And they have broadened the scope of what we do. We edit books, brochures, stories of accomplishment, and reports and create their look; we design and produce bookmarks, posters, CD labels, video packaging, table tents, handbills, and advertisements; we create videos, from conception through final production and marketing; we sell our products online and keep an active Web presence; we maintain a sophisticated database. We even compose music for our videos, or at least, Rick Cooper does (see his sidebar, next page).
Even a sampling of last year’s products reflects the scope of our work.
Selected New Productions
Invasive Species Publications
We worked with Sam Chan to produce two brochures and a poster, all of which have received much national attention. When Sam, with the assistance of designer Stefania Padalino, came up with a poster he could use in making presentations at public schools to discourage science teachers from using and then releasing invasive species, he thought we would be printing 15 or 20 of the posters. However, word barely got out about the problem and the poster when we began receiving requests from other educators to acquire or adapt the poster. A companion brochure, You Can Stop the Spread of Aquatic Invasive Species, has been equally popular. To date, we have shared files with agencies or institutions in Missouri, Kansas, Nevada, Louisiana, Alaska, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Scotland.
A second aquatic invasive species brochure, New Zealand Mudsnails, is also proving to be popular. Our first press run of 10,000 is nearly gone, and we’ll be reprinting soon. The brochure describes how to identify New Zealand Mudsnails and how to keep from spreading them between bodies of water.
Finally, we revised the Nab the Invader flyer for HMSC.
Spanish Translations
AnaMaria Esparza has translated into Spanish several of our older publications, three of which are now in print: Ballenas Grises (Gray Whales), Disfruta la playa con sequridad (Enjoy the Beaches in Safety), and a version of Tax Information for Crewmen.
Program Support
Paul Hoobyar, former editor of Restoration newsletter, wrote a study of OSU’s Watershed Extension Program (Watershed Education), a program in which Oregon Sea Grant has been heavily involved. Hoobyar profiled several Sea Grant Extension staff in the report.
Research
Jerri Bartholomew felt that explaining her research to interested parties in the Klamath area would be easier if she had a synopsis of her work to hand out. And so we produced a two-page summary called Management of Salmon Mortality Caused by Ceratomyxa Shasta in the Klamath River System. It has also been used by at least one journalist who covers the Klamath River conflict.
For Curt Peterson, we produced a CD of a report that represents the first effort to compile various data sets from the mapping and dating of 26 dune sheets in the central west coast of North America. Curt’s colleagues in geology are the intended readers. The report is titled Dating and Morphostratigraphy of Coastal Dune Sheets from the Central West Coast of North America.
Videos
By Joe Cone
Sea Grant is experiencing the same rapid movement to DVD as the preferred video format of our customers as is occurring in the broader marketplace. During the past year, the vast majority of our videos distributed were in DVD format, with two titles outstripping all others by a factor of four or more (Celilo Falls and the Remaking of the Columbia River—345 copies; Living on the Edge—253 copies).
In fact, Sea Grant Communications (SGC) is now releasing new titles only in DVD format, and we’re in the process of converting some of our older VHS titles into DVD, based on customer demand.
Wave Power: The Potential of Oregon’s Ocean Energy is a 12-minute overview of the wave energy research conducted by OSU engineering faculty Annette von Jouanne and the late Alan Wallace, in which Sea Grant played a key role in providing seed funding. SGC responded to a request from the researchers to provide a video program which could be distributed to interested parties, including the media, by way of introduction to the research, thereby taking some of the continuing pressure off them to repeatedly provide this background. Sea Grant’s assistant video editor, Steve Roberts, and videographer Michael Bendixen took particular care in realizing the visual potential of the wave power story, and the addition of on-camera interviews with energy industry and governmental insiders broadens the focus of the video beyond the work of von Jouanne and Wallace. Sea Grant Extension faculty member Flaxen Conway is also interviewed on camera, discussing the role of the Port Liaison Project in bringing the insights and concerns of coastal communities to bear on the research effort as it ramps up for at-sea deployment in the next year.
As a national wave energy center has become a funding priority for the university and a keen interest of the Kulongoski administration, the Wave Power video has been well used—distributed to national media by the university’s assistant vice president for university advancement, Todd Simmons, and used in a number of public forums involving government, industry, and the wave researchers.
In a sense, this Sea Grant role in supporting wave power research goes back to the Sea Grant Advisory Council, which urged program managers to provide the seed funding for research that they viewed as having potentially a big benefit for coastal communities.
Sea Grant videos, like other creative works, get made for a number of reasons and purposes, but most often because they specifically address some important issue with which the program is concerned. You Ought to Tell Somebody: Dealing with Aquatic Invasive Species is just such an example. The video, originally released in 2001, subsequently won two national awards and has had a sizeable national distribution in VHS. Given the continuing importance of the aquatic invasives issue and Sea Grant’s involvement with it, we converted the program to DVD. Because Sea Grant has invested in its own video studio, complete with all the necessary hardware and software, we can do this work comparatively easily, in-house.
Coming Home Was Easy: The West Coast Salmon Troller is another one of our titles we converted to DVD because the video receives sustained interest. Produced in 2002 by former Sea Grant Extension faculty member Jim Bergeron and Portland filmmaker Larry Johnson, the 34-minute program may well attract additional interest following its broadcast in August on Oregon Public Broadcasting. The August airdate makes the second time in two months that Sea Grant-produced documentaries were broadcast on OPB; Celilo Falls and the Remaking of the Columbia River was broadcast in July.
All of these videos are, of course, available from SGC, and, for Sea Grant staff, at a substantial discount for the first personal copy.
Composing Soundtrack Music for OSG Videos
by Rick Cooper
You may have seen documentaries about how composers like John Williams compose music for films like Star Wars. Well, that isn’t how I compose music for Oregon Sea Grant videos.
In fact, I don’t really compose the music at all; rather, I simply assemble the sounds and rhythms and effects I want, using a program called GarageBand along with a keyboard and a Macintosh computer.
GarageBand comes prepackaged with several thousand musical instrument sounds and “loops,” or continuous pieces of prerecorded music. You can produce the most basic or the most elaborate musical composition imaginable simply by assembling the sounds or loops you want into a cohesive and coherent matrix of notes, chords, effects, rhythms, tempos, volumes, tones, and dynamics.
I also use a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) keyboard to control the variety of digital instruments that come with GarageBand, including orchestral strings, synthesizers, guitars, drums, woodwinds, horns . . . even choral vocals. The keyboard I use makes it possible not only to play individual notes or entire chords, but to control the dynamics and pitch of each note or chord.
Usually, I wait until the video is pretty much done before I begin creating the music. That way, I can more accurately and effectively fit the music to the visuals. Sometimes, however, it isn’t possible or practical to wait until a video or a particular scene is completed before creating the music, and then I have to stretch my imagination even further to come up with something appropriate.
For example, when Joe Cone asked me to come up with some music for a video he’s planning to produce about life in tidepools, I visualized creatures that I’ve seen swimming and moving around in tidepools, and tried to create a bed of sound that matched those images. It’ll be interesting to see whether the music fits the video at all, or whether I’ll have to (or get to) start all over from scratch.
Staff news
Free-Choice Learning Leaders Join OSU
by Joe Cone
National leaders in the growing field of free-choice lifelong learning start in a new faculty position at Oregon State University this fall. John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking were hired jointly to fill a tenured professor position within the OSU College of Science, Department of Science and Mathematics Education (Falk and Dierking are married).
Falk and Dierking are president and associate director, respectively, of the Institute for Learning Innovation, in Annapolis, Maryland. Founded by Falk in 1986, the institute, a not-for-profit research and development organization, works to understand, facilitate, and advocate for free-choice (informal) learning. They will continue their roles as part-time senior researchers at the institute, but moved to Oregon this summer. Each is working half-time at OSU.
Falk and Dierking have been associated with the university over the last three years as courtesy faculty with the department and have worked closely with Oregon Sea Grant. Sea Grant is jointly funding the new professorship with the department through the position’s first five years.
“We are delighted to have professionals of their caliber joining us,” said College of Science Dean Sherman Bloomer. “And we appreciate the initiative and the collaborative spirit that Sea Grant has brought to our relationship,” he said.
Larry Flick, chair of the Department of Science and Mathematics Education, added, “We are thrilled with the addition of faculty in free-choice learning who will enable us to develop a graduate program that supports science learning across the lifespan, complementing and enriching our current programs in K–12 and collegiate education.”
“We are very excited about this new role at OSU,” said Lynn Dierking. “The position will enable us to accomplish one of our longstanding professional goals, to develop a graduate program for the next generation of free-choice learning leaders.”
While estimates put the number of free-choice learning professionals in
the United States—from museum staff to public television producers—at
more than 100,000, no graduate program or center for comprehensive research
and development in the area of free-choice learning exists anywhere in the
world, said Falk.
“At this point in our careers, the development of such a program at OSU
and the recruitment and training of a cadre of quality graduate students is
the single most important contribution we can make to the field,” he
said.
Falk and Dierking are credited with coining and championing the term “free-choice,” which
expresses the kind of learning that most people do throughout their lives
outside of school—learning that is freely chosen and self-directed.
Falk holds a joint doctorate in ecology and science education from the University of California, Berkeley, while Dierking’s doctorate in science education is from the University of Florida. Both have written books. Falk’s newest is Thriving in the Knowledge Age: New Business Models for Museums and Other Cultural Institutions, and Dierking is working on a new book focused on family learning, due out in 2007.
Between them, the couple have more than 55 years of diverse experience in conducting free-choice science learning research. Both of them bring expertise in successful grant writing and project implementation; both currently have grants from the National Science Foundation; and both serve on the editorial boards of several academic journals. From 2000 to 2002 they cochaired a task force of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, identifying key issues in this arena of science learning research.
“With the addition of John Falk and Lynn Dierking to the OSU faculty, we see the makings of world-class capability in this growth area of informal education,” said Bob Malouf, Sea Grant director. Through its outreach and education programs, Sea Grant has been, of course, deeply involved in free-choice/informal education for many years.
New Staff
Dennis Glaze
Dennis Glaze is Oregon Sea Grant’s new aquatic animal health/husbandry
specialist, a new position created to meet the needs of the rapidly growing
Ornamental Fish Health Program. Glaze serves the ornamental (pet) fish industry
in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. He will be assisting Tim Miller-Morgan,
Oregon Sea Grant’s Extension veterinarian for aquatic pets, in providing
service and education to the ornamental fish industry.
Glaze holds an AAS degree in aquarium science from Oregon Coast Community
College. He also has completed Cornell University’s Recirculating Aquaculture
Systems Short Course. While a student at Oregon Coast Community College,
he worked part-time at the Hatfield Marine Science Visitor Center, where
he was instrumental in building the World of Wet Pets exhibit, the Adventures
of Totally Turtle exhibit, the Hospital/Quarantine Facility, and the new
research holding systems for the Ornamental Fish Health Program.
Mark Whitham
Mark Whitham is our new seafood product development specialist, a position
that entails development of locally harvested seafood products, seafood
product-development education, and fee-based contract work with seafood
processors, fishers, and seafood vendors. He works with the Seafoods Lab,
the Seafood Consumer Center, and the Consumer Seafood Initiative.
Whitham holds a BS in nutrition sciences from UC Davis and an MS in food
science from Oregon State University. Before coming to Oregon Sea Grant,
he was the product development/technical services manager for Rainsweet,
Inc., in Salem. He also had previous “value-added” development
experience with Chef Francisco in Eugene and General Mills in Minneapolis,
and in private food consulting.
Awards and Recognitions
Jim Good Receives National Sea Grant Award
The national Sea Grant Extension organization has given its top career award to Jim Good, an Oregon State University emeritus faculty member and former Oregon Sea Grant Extension specialist in coastal management issues.
The William Q. Wick Visionary Career Leadership Through Programming Award was presented to Good recently at the biennial national meeting of Sea Grant Extension program leaders. Good shared the award with longtime colleague Bob Goodwin of Washington Sea Grant.
“Jim Good and Bob Goodwin made significant contributions in three primary areas: revitalization of deteriorated urban waterfronts, coastal hazards mitigation, and coastal management program evaluation,” said Jay Rasmussen, Oregon Sea Grant associate director and Extension program leader.
“Their efforts in waterfront revitalization and tsunami hazards were national firsts for Sea Grant,” Rasmussen noted. “Each issue they addressed—whether they worked collaboratively or individually—resonated nationally. For instance, Good’s and colleagues’ 1980s assessment of Oregon’s capacity for state ocean management served as a model that other states followed.”
Another global contribution, tsunami warning signs developed by Good and colleagues at OSU, appear throughout Pacific states and other countries.
In accepting the award, Good acknowledged the role of Wick, the first director of Oregon Sea Grant, for whom the national award is named.
“Bill Wick was my mentor,” said Good. “He was an Extension agent himself, originally, in Tillamook County, and he recognized—before there was a Sea Grant program—that there was a need for Extension outreach about marine and coastal topics, based on the best science.”
With Wick’s support, Good pursued a joint interest in science and policy, teaching, and outreach as he earned a PhD at OSU, became the director of the Marine Resource Management Program in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, and also served as a Sea Grant Extension specialist.
This is the second time in two years that Oregon Sea Grant Extension faculty members have garnered top national awards from their Extension peers. Last year, Ginny Goblirsch and Flaxen Conway received the Superior Outreach Programming award for their work with fishers.
Award for Sea Grant Video
Oregon Sea Grant Communications received an “Award of Distinction” (silver prize) from The Communicator Awards, for the DVD Celilo Falls and the Remaking of the Columbia River.
Competitive Program Awards 2005–2006
Research and Education—Continuing Projects
Economic Leadership—Biotechnology and Natural Resources
J. Crosa: Use of Green Protein (GFP) Fusions to Study Colonization and Tissue-Specificity of Virulence Gene Expression during Infection of Salmonids with Vibrio anguillarum. Objective: to gain a better understanding of in vivo virulence expression during infection. (SG: $84,785; GRANTEE: $40,904)
P. Proteau: Biosynthesis and Regulation of Scytonemin. Objective: to provide the underpinning technology needed to ensure future adequate supplies of scytonemin, an article of commerce for its novel biochemical properties, and a promising lead compound in the areas of inflammatory disease (osteoarthritis, arthritis, psoriasis), UV-protection, and proliferative disorders, including cancer. (SG: $89,143; GRANTEE: $75,300)
G. Rorrer: Uptake and Metabolism of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons by Tissue Cultures of Marine Seaweeds. Objective: to characterize the intrinsic capacity of tissue cultures of marine seaweeds to take up and metabolize polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from seawater. (SG: $44,852; GRANTEE: $0)
Economic Leadership—Coastal Community Development
J. Padin: Economic Development and the Need for Foresight in the Incorporation of Immigrant Workers on the Oregon Coast Objective: to identify factors that are likely to place the rapidly growing Hispanic/Latino immigrant population on the Oregon coast at risk of becoming marginalized economically and socially. (SG: $37,923; GRANTEE: $33,786)
Economic Leadership—Revitalize Commercial Fisheries
J. Bartholomew: Management of Salmon Mortality Caused by Ceratomyxa shasta in the Klamath River System. Objective: to determine how habitat affects the distribution and abundance of Ceratamyxa shasta in river systems and to predict how changes in river management could affect this relationship. (SG: $82,849; GRANTEE: $39,256)
V. Buonaccorsi. Larval Dispersal, Design of Marine
Protected Areas, and Investigation of Cape Blanco as a Barrier to Gene Flow
in Oregon Copper Rockfish Sebastes caurinus. Objective: to use genetic microsatellite
techniques to determine the type and magnitude of larval dispersal in nearshore
rockfish with sedentary adults and to look at the association between genetic
and geographic distance. (SG: $68,353; GRANTEE: $13,862)
S. Hanna: Developing Best Management Practices for Exploited Marine Ecosystems.
Objective: to enhance the effectiveness of fishery management by developing
prototype ecosystem-based best management practices for the Pacific groundfish
fishery. (SG: $86,099; GRANTEE: $0)
A. Shanks. Local and Regional Patterns of Dispersal and Exchange in Coastal Fish as Determined with Otolith Microchemistry. Objective: to provide new information on larval dispersal and juvenile and adult movement patterns in black and canary rockfish, using distinct otolith elemental signatures. (SG: $84,639; GRANTEE: $23,897)
Economic Leadership—Seafood Science and Technology
M. Morrissey: Use of Small Pelagics for Food Applications through Recovery of Functional Proteins and Fish Oils. Objective: to increase use of sardine proteins and lipids for human food through a new processing technology called the pH-shift method. (SG: $74,940; GRANTEE: $39,735)
Economic Leadership—Sustainable Aquaculture
C. Langdon: Development of Methods to Improve Acceptability of Artificial Diets by Asteropteryx semipunctata (Blue Spotted Goby). Objective: to improve retention efficiencies of lipid spray beads containing low molecular-weight, water-soluble substances for marine fish larvae to digest to reduce mortality of fish larvae exposed to Vibrio bacteria. (SG: $75,634; GRANTEE: $23,629)
Coastal Ecosystem Health and Public Safety—Coastal Ecosystems
L. Shapiro: Sustainable Harvesting Levels for Intertidal Species of Marine Algae. Objective: to examine the effects of selective harvest of intertidal algae. (SG: $41,817; GRANTEE: $18,272)
D. Bottom: Salmonid Use of Restored Estuarine Wetlands: Regional Application of the Salmon River Estuary Study. Objective: to determine landscape and habitat factors in estuaries that affect salmon habitat use and performance. (SG: $99,923; GRANTEE: $40,923)
Coastal Ecosystem Health and Public Safety—Coastal and Natural Hazards
T. Ozkan-Haller: An Experimental Study of Beach Recovery. Objective: to gain a better understanding of the processes at work during beach recovery after a storm season and to validate a modeling scheme that produces estimates of the evolution of waves, currents, and bathymetry in the nearshore region. (SG: $117,826; GRANTEE: $0)
M. Haller: Investigating the Causes of “Hot Spot” Beach Erosion. Objective: to investigate the importance of wave scattering generated by steep bathymetric features in the coastal zone and the formation of rip current embayments through numerical simulations and field observations. (SG: $82,276; GRANTEE: $0)
Coastal Ecosystem Health and Public Safety—Sustainable Development
K. Field: Testing Fecal Source Discrimination in Water Using Molecular Markers from Bacteroides. Objective: to determine the survival of bacteroides in water, suspended particles, and sediments. (SG: $111,792; GRANTEE: $20,066)
S. Hanna: Applying Best Management Practices to Marine Protected Areas. Objective: to develop systematic and effective processes that involve all coastal economic interests in the development, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and enforcement of marine protected areas. (SG: $84,506; GRANTEE: $29,094)
Education and Human Resources—University Education Resource Management
S. Heppell. Student-Led Research on Spatial and Temporal Variation in Fish Diversity and Recruitment in Yaquina Bay. Objective: to provide students with hands-on marine ecology research through student-devised experiments and long-term monitoring of abiotic and biotic conditions in Yaquina Bay, Oregon. (SG: $27,060; GRANTEE: $9,258)
Education and Human Resources—Outreach
J. Cone: Sea Grant Comunications. (SG: $267,982; GRANTEE: $280,931)
J. Rasmussen: Sea Grant Extension. (SG: $570,000; GRANTEE: $321,840)
J. Rasmussen: Coastal Communities Development Program and EPA Smart Growth Extension Partnership. (SG: $50,000; GRANTEE: $0)
Program Management and Development
R. Malouf: Program Management. (SG: $241,845; GRANTEE: $236,619)
R. Malouf: Oregon State Fellows. (SG: $20,200; GRANTEE: $0)
Contact Eric Dickey (eric.dickey@oregonstate.edu) if you wish to find out more about any of these projects.
National Strategic Initiatives
Economic Leadership
Coastal Business Development
F. Conway, Oregon Sea Grant Extension—Enhanced Fisheries Communication Extension Plan
Sustainable Aquaculture
C. Langdon, Coastal Oregon Marine Experimental Station, OSU HMSC—Predicting Resistance of Adult Pacific Oysters (Crassostrea gigas) to Summer Mortality
Revitalize Commercial Fisheries
J. Rasmussen, Oregon Sea Grant Extension—Linking Management and Seafood Technology to Promote Sustainable Fisheries Communities
Biotechnology
J. Leong, University of Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology—Marine Biotechnology Education Initiative
Coastal Ecosystem Health and Public Safety
Aquatic Nuisance/Nonindigenous Species
S. Chan, Oregon Sea Grant Extension—Invader Investigators! Aquatic Nuisance Species Education Kits for the West Coast
J. Rasmussen, Oregon Sea Grant Extension—Sea Grant Aquatic Nuisance Species Outreach Program: Invasion of the Habitat Snatchers! Teaching New Audiences About Aquatic Invasions through an Innovative Aquarium Exhibit
S. Chan, Oregon Sea Grant Extension—Sea Grant Aquatic Nuisance Species Outreach Program: From Headwaters to Ocean: Building Capacity of West Coast Watershed Councils to Address Aquatic Invasive Species
J. Luke, Oregon Sea Grant Extension—Nab the Aquatic Invader—A Nationwide Online Educational Program to Direct Attention to AIS Issues and Inspire Action
Coastal Natural Hazards
J. Rasmussen, Oregon Sea Grant Extension—Pacific Northwest Coastal
Storms Initiative Outreach Project
D. Cox, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, OSU—Incorporating
Meteorological Forecasts to Nowcast/Forecast Water Level Anomalies in Navigable
Waterways of the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico
Advanced Technology
C. Reimers, Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies, OSU—Developing a Seafloor Power Source
Pass-through Funds
Sustainable Development
G. Giannico, Oregon Sea Grant Extension—Restoration Planning for Lowland Tributary Streams in the Coos Bay Estuary, Oregon
Program Development Projects Awarded in 2006
Economic Leadership
Biotechnology
Claudia Hase, Microbiology, OSU—Role of the Primary Sodium Pump NQR for Growth of Vibrio parahaemolyticus
Sustainable Aquaculture
Chris Langdon, Coastal Oregon Marine Experimental Station, OSU HMSC—Genetic Identification of Appropriate Broodstock for Restoration of West Coast Populations of Native Oysters (Ostrea lurida)
Coastal Community Development
Jerry Heidel, College of Veterinary Medicine, OSU—Factors Predisposing Marine Ornamental Fish to Postshipping Death
Annette von Jouanne, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, OSU—3-D Analysis of a Novel Permanent Magnet Helical Screw Drive (PMHSD) for Optimized Prototype Development
Annette von Jouanne, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, OSU—Wave Flume Testing of Direct-Drive Ocean-Energy Extraction Buoy
Annette von Jouanne, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, OSU—Permanent Magnet Helical Screw-Drive Wave-Energy Buoy
Kipp Shearman, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, OSU—Observing
the Evolution and Structure of Bottom Water Temperature on the Oregon Shelf
through Industry-Academic Collaboration: Student Participation
Kipp Shearman, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, OSU—Observing
the Evolution and Structure of Bottom Water Temperature on the Oregon Shelf
through Industry-Academic Collaboration
Revitalize Commercial Fisheries
Vincent Buonaccorsi, Biology, Juniata College, Pennsylvania—Larval Dispersal, Design of Marine Protected Areas, and Investigation of Cape Blanco as a Barrier to Gene Flow in Oregon Copper Rockfish (Sebastes caurinus)
Barbara Shields, Fisheries and Wildlife, OSU—Evaluation of Floodplain Wetland Restoration Projects: Differential Benefits to Stocks of Chinook Salmon
Revitalize Marine Infrastructure
Gail Achterman, Institute of Natural Resources, OSU—Oregon Coastal Coho and the Endangered Species Act: A Case Study in Federalism
Coastal Ecosystems and Public Safety
Coastal Ecosystems
Roberta Hall, Anthropology, OSU—Examine Sea Otter mtDNA and Oxygen Isotopes in Sea Mussels from Archaeological Sites
Habitats
Ursula Bechert, College of Science, OSU—Beavers and Persistent Organochlorine Pollutants in Estuarine and Riparian Ecosystems
Sustainable Development
Gail Achterman, Institute of Natural Resources, OSU—Oregon Coastal Community Water Supply Assessment
Gail Achterman, Institute of Natural Resources, OSU—Columbia Nearshore 2005 “Thin-Layer” Demonstration Project
Coastal and Natural Hazards
Dan Cox, Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, OSU—Numerical and Physical Model Study of Cobble Berms: Design Guidance for a Soft Solution to Erosion of the Oregon Coast
Steve Dickenson, Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, OSU—Program Development for the Center for Port Operations, Risk, and Technology (CPORT)
Education and Human Resources
Olga Rowe, Extended Campus, OSU—Free-choice Mathematics Curriculum (FCMC): Integrating Mathematics with Aquatic and Marine Sciences in Free-Choice Learning at HMSC Visitors Center
Robert Collier, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, OSU—Science
and Math Collaborative Project
Annette von Jouanne, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, OSU—Design
and Implementation of a Wave Energy Demonstration/Exhibit for the Hatfield
Marine Science Center
Andrew Bennett, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, OSU—2005 Summer School in Lagrangian Oceanography
Conference Support
R. Malouf—Marine Ornamentals Conference
D. Bottom—Estuarine Conference
Student Support
Adriana Paulina Guarderas, student, Environmental Science, OSU—An Analysis of Marine Reserves in Latin America: Are They Serving Their Intended Role?
Alicia Christensen, student, Marine Resource Management, OSU—Developing Evaluation Tools Using Whale Watching Spoken Here
Chana Dudoit, student, Zoology, OSU—Japanese Eelgrass
Other Sponsored Activities
- R. Malouf—Knauss Fellow finalist travel to Washington, D.C.
- R. Malouf—National Shellfish Association
- R. Malouf—National Ocean Science Bowl Symposium
- J. Cone—OSU Byrne Lecture Series
- G. Giannico—Travel support
Fellowships
Natural Resource Fellow
Anna Buckley (2005–2006), Portland State University—Oregon Department
of State Lands,Wetland Division
April Snell (2006–2007), University of Oregon—Oregon Water Resources
Department
Undergraduate Research Fellows
Nichole Cespedes, Junior, Environmental Science
Colin Jones, Senior, Biology
Thatcher Jones, Senior, Zoology
Knauss Fellows (Class of 2007)
Michela Burla, Oregon Graduate Institute
Shawn Arellano, University of Oregon
NOAA Coastal Management Fellow
Wes Shawn, Oregon State University—Massachusetts Office of Coastal
Zone Management
Contact Eric Dickey (eric.dickey@oregonstate.edu if you wish to
learn more about any of these fellowships.
Stories of Accomplishment Document Program Results
Stories of Accomplishment, a series of full-color fact sheets highlighting Oregon Sea Grant program successes, are available in PDF format on the Sea Grant Web site at
seagrant.oregonstate.edu/makingadifference/stories/index.html. Presentation copies are also available from Sea Grant Communications. The fact sheets cover four basic thematic areas, plus the program:
- Economic Leadership
- Nanotech gadgets to be built by algae?
- Electrical experts plot ways to use waves’ potential
- Sea Grant research makes connections with prehistory
- Sea Grant research leads to big improvements in oyster production
- Researcher seeks ways to get more value from fewer fish
- Sea Grant research leads to ‘fine-tuned’ heating of wide array of foods
- Researchers discover key to successful abalone cultivation
- Grooming a new generation of scientists
- Seafood Lab researchers demystify histamine-albacore connection
- Researcher probes secrets of rockfish reproduction, sustainability
- Sea Grant research probes fishing communities’ response to change
- Sea Grant outreach examines and advocates for fishing communities
- Coastal Ecosystems
- Watershed Extension program helps citizens implement the Oregon Plan
- Integrating estuaries in a whole watershed perspective on salmon
- Restoring watersheds and salmon habitat
- Ecosystem Health and Public Safety
- Understanding the role of parasites in salmon mortality
- Survey results give insight into public attitudes about coastal issues
- Graduate students explore relationship of salmonids with estuary
- Research explores effects of marine bacteria on toxic algae
- OSU researcher develops test to determine fecal pollution source
- Coastal ecosystems and communities at risk
Sea Grant introduces vessel safety training program to Oregon fishermen
- Education and Human Resources
- Sparking a Business and Information Technology (BIT) initiative
- Developing the art and science of free-choice learning
- Ornamental fish program helps people keep their pet fishes healthy
- Remodeled Visitor Center is strong on hands-on exhibits
- Modest Extension efforts plant seeds which sprout nationally
- Sea Grant Program
- Sea Grant Extension outreach serves broad constituency
- Citizen advisory council offers knowledge and perspective
- Communications office serves program through expertise and innovation
- Sea Grant offers graduate students experience and financial support
- Sea Grant collaboration extends expertise, resources
HMSC Visitor Center News
Wave Energy Presentation Draws a Crowd
A standing-room-only crowd filled the Hennings Auditorium on May 26 to hear OSU Engineering Professor Annette von Jouanne’s presentation on “The Future of Wave Power.” The evening lecture was sponsored by the Friends of HMSC, in cooperation with the Economic Development Alliance of Lincoln County and the Yaquina Bay Economic Foundation.
A new Wave Energy exhibit designed and constructed by a group of OSU engineering students was installed in the HMSC Visitor Center the same week. Some of its components did not stand up to rough handling by some school groups that came through the Visitor Center, but Bill Hanshumaker removed the broken parts and is working with the students to make the repairs. He expected partial re-installation within a couple of weeks.
Las OLAS Day
On July 8, Oregon Sea Grant hosted its first Las OLAS (ocean learning activities in Spanish) Day at HMSC. This is an educational outreach event aimed at Latino elementary and middle school students and their families and is also an opportunity for scientists at HMSC to connect with this community.
“Speaking Spanish is helpful, but not necessary for this event,” explains
Sea Grant educational programs coordinator Melissa Feldberg, “since almost
all of the kids and many of their parents speak English.”
The event was held outdoors on the lawn in front of the Visitor Center
and features a range of fun, hands-on science activities for the participants.
For information on future Las OLAS events, please contact Melissa Feldberg at 541-737-2758, or by e-mail at melissa.feldberg@oregonstate.edu.
Educational Component of AmeriCorps Service-Learning Project on Temporary Display in Visitor Center
AmeriCorps NCCC volunteers produced an informational display explaining the invasive plant-species removal work they did as part of a month-long habitat-restoration project at several sites along the central Oregon coast. The panel is on temporary display in the Visitor Center, next to the Invasion of the Habitat Snatchers exhibit.
What Matters Most
By Bob Malouf
Director, Oregon Sea Grant
Our lead story asks what you were doing 35 years ago on September 17, 1971. I suppose that many of you either weren’t even born yet or were too young to remember.
I, on the other hand, remember exactly what I was doing. A fledgling program called Oregon Sea Grant had supported my work on a master’s degree at OSU, and by 1971 I was with the University of Delaware as a technician working on Sea Grant- supported mariculture research projects in Delaware Bay.
That was an exciting time for Sea Grant. New Sea Grant programs were being established at major universities throughout the U.S., and federal funding was increasing annually. Today there are no new Sea Grant colleges planned, and federal funding is static at best. But the excitement is still there.
At some point along the way, I learned that what is exciting about Sea Grant does not come from growth or funding increases. It comes from the fundamental concepts and the values of Sea Grant and from the people who believe in them. And Sea Grant has something that it did not have in 1971. It has an unmatched record of making good things happen and a reputation for honesty and fairness that could come only from decades of hard work and productivity. But what matters most today is that in the process, Sea Grant has earned an exciting future, where anything is possible.