Ocean & Coastal Topics
Ongoing changes and challenges continue to confront communities, managers, and natural resources along the coastline of Oregon, the region, and the marine world beyond.
Sea Grant provides competitive, peer-reviewed grants that allow top ocean and coastal researchers to apply their skills to these challenges. Urgent issues, such as the state of the Pacific Northwest groundfish fisheries and the increasing threat posed by aquatic invasive species, help drive Sea Grant’s research priorities.
The results of that research, in turn, are extended to the public - industry, government agencies, and the public at large - through a robust outreach and education program involving marine Extension, communicators, and collaborators near and far.
Among Sea Grant's strengths is its ability to respond quickly and in depth to emerging issues related to our marine research and outreach mission. A large group of Sea Grant Extension faculty with a wide range of interests and expertise gives us the flexibility to step in and take leadership when the occasion demands, and brings depth and breadth to our work in topical areas of importance to the region, the nation and even the world.
- Climate change - Perhaps nowhere is the threat of climate change more sharply felt than on the coasts. Oregon Sea Grant, partnering with NOAA and its sister program in Maine, is learning more about ways to inform and involve coastal communities on issues related to climate change and variability.
- Marine invaders - Extension specialist Sam Chan is part of an international network of scientists and outreach specialists working to educate people, businesses, and governments about the need to identify, limit and mitigate the effects of non-native plants and animals that can destroy local habitats and outcompete native organisms.
- Free-choice Learning - Free-choice learning is a way of talking about the kinds of learning that occur when people believe that they have a choice over what, when, how and why to learn. Through our "living lab" at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, and a sponsored professorship with the OSU College of Science, Sea Grant is exploring how people learn outside the classroom.
- Pathways to Resilience: Sustaining Pacific Salmon in a Changing World - With more than three decades of research and outreach on salmon-related issues, OSG is helping lead discussion of the concept of resilience and its application to ecosystem management in general and salmon recovery in particular.
- Ornamental fish health - Veterinarian Tim Miller-Morgan, Sea Grant's "fish doctor," is known internationally for his work with breeders, importers and aquarium owners on the health and husbandry of ornamental fish such as koi.
Oregon Sea Grant regularly collaborates with other Sea Grant programs across the country, and with outside organizations, on projects of significance to the region and the nation, including:
- West Coast Regional Research and Information Planning - Sea Grant programs in Washington, Oregon, and California are collaborating on a first-of-its-kind effort to assess the long-term marine research and information needs of the entire West Coast of the United States.
- Marine Reserves Outreach - In 2008, Sea Grant Extension was asked by the state's Ocean Policy Advisory Council to quickly develop and conduct public outreach and engagement activities that would help the state make more informed decisions about the controversial question of establishing no-take reserves off the near-shore Oregon coast. The program continues to assist the Governor's office and state Department of Land Conservation and Development in communicating with the public on marine reserves.
Visit our Research and Outreach pages for more information about Sea Grant's work on additional ocean and coastal topics, from wave energy to aquaculture to tsunami preparedness.