Monthly Archives: September 2009

NOAA highlights Oregon Sea Grant’s work on climate change communications

Posted on by

It is a common belief that if coastal resource managers and other communicators could just provide the public with information, people would take appropriate actions. But social scientists conducting research for the past 50 years have found this assumption riddled with misconceptions and are shedding light on how communications and outreach can more effectively influence behavior.

—”Helping Managers Communicate Climate Change in Oregon,” Coastal Services magazine, September/October 2009

Among those who are “shedding light on how communications and outreach can more effectively influence behavior,” particularly with regard to climate change, is Joe Cone, assistant director of Oregon Sea Grant. Cone believes that “understanding more about how social science relates to climate science will help us all do our work better and help communities prepare.”

In addition to the Coastal Services article, Cone’s work in this field is featured in several Oregon Sea Grant publications and podcasts.

Fishermen monitor pregnant fish to aid conservation

Posted on by

Port Orford fishermen are working with scientists to find out whether releasing pregnant rockfish can help conserve the resource – and their way of life.

Research assistant with rockfish

Research assistant with rockfish

Fishermen are working with the Port Orford Ocean Resource Team (POORT) and researcher Selina Heppell, of Oregon State University’s Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, on a project to determine whether releasing “big old fat fecund females” (BOFFFs) can contribute to the species’ reproduction and survival, ultimately sustaining the local fishery.

Their efforts, supported by a grant from Oregon Sea Grant, are focused on the live fishery – a market that began in California and expanded into Oregon in the mid-1990s.

Read more: [.pdf] [HTML]

Former Sea Grant Scholar featured on OSU blog

Posted on by
Abigail Brown

Abigail Brown

Abby Brown, Oregon Sea Grant’s 2008 Water Resources Fellow, is featured in a recent post in Oregon State University’s “Powered by Orange” blog.

A master’s student in  water resources policy and management with a minor in women’s studies, Brown spent last year as as Sea Grant Water Resources Fellow at the Oregon Water Resources Department. This fall, according to the OSU blog, she’s in Bangalore, India, working with Arghyam, a non-governmental organization dedicated to financing, evaluating and supporting water projects throughout the country.

Brown is chronicling her experiences in her own blog, Water for the Ages.

The water resources fellowship is one of several offered each year through the Sea Grant Scholars  program, which provides graduate and undergraduate students with opportunities to  learn about resource policy and management by working with selected state and federal resource offices.

Sea Grant is accepting applications through Sept. 18 for the Robert E. Malouf Marine Studies Scholarship, which provides financial support for a graduate student working in a marine studies field compatible with the Sea Grant mission. Learn more about this and other Sea Grant Scholars opportunities.

HMSC Visitor Center launches new Web site

Posted on by
HMSC Visitor Center Web site

HMSC Visitor Center Web site

Planning your next visit to the Central Oregon Coast? Looking for classes you and your children can take to learn more about the ocean and coast? Or maybe you’re just curious about the fascinating creatures that live in the briny deep …

You’ll find all that and more at the brand-new HMSC Visitor Center Web site.

A year in the making, the new site has everything Visitor Center fans might expect – hours of operation, directions, previews of exhibits and programs, a full schedule of Sea Grant marine education programs, classes and camps for kids, families and teachers – and lots more.

You’ll find a new section featuring the popular Oregon Coast Quests adventure activity and a Critter Corner with photos and facts about some of the hundreds of marine animals in our collection. Ask A Scientist gives you a chance to get answers to your questions about the Oregon Coast. And the Fish Health Corner provides a peek behind the scenes at what it takes to keep a world-class aquarium running and its animal residents healthy.

The Visitor Center is managed by Oregon Sea Grant as a central part of the program’s mission to help people understand, rationally use, and conserve marine and coastal resources.