Monthly Archives: June 2010

Two Oregon Sea Grant publications win Apex awards

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Oregon Sea Grant has won two awards in the 2010 Apex Awards for Publication Excellence: a Grand Award (first prize) in the Brochures, Manuals, and Reports category for The Oregon Rain Garden Guide; and an Award of Excellence in the Design and Illustration category for the Oregon Sea Grant 2010-2013 Strategic Plan.

Of the Rain Garden Guide, judges commented: “This well thought-out and well-done guide offers practical advice on building rain gardens to capture, treat, and use storm water runoff. Excellent use of photos, illustrations, charts, and typography reinforce the clear, easy-reading text.”

The Oregon Rain Garden Guide was written by Robert Emanuel and Derek Godwin of Oregon Sea Grant Extension, and Candace Stoughton of East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District. It was designed by Patricia Andersson and edited by Rick Cooper, both of Oregon Sea Grant. Other contributors include (alphabetically) Neil Bell, Angela Boudro, Heidi Brill, Teresa Huntsinger, Joy Jones, and Linda McMahan.

The Oregon Sea Grant 2010-2013 Strategic Plan was written and edited by Oregon Sea Grant staff and designed by Patricia Andersson.

There were 3,711 entries in 127 categories in this year’s Apex competition, 100 of which received Grand Awards and 1,132 of which received Awards of Excellence.


New video showcases Cummins Creek Wilderness

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Cummins Creek on the central Oregon coast is perhaps easy to miss. Where it enters into the ocean about three miles south of Yachats, it’s just a modest stream. But those who know it consider it a hidden gem, as Congress recognized in 1984 by protecting the forest that surrounds the creek in order to “preserve in a wilderness state the last remaining virgin stands of Sitka spruce, western hemlock, and Douglas fir in Oregon’s coastal lands.”

This short video highlights not only the beauty of the place but the role of the Sitka spruce forests in both Oregon history and environmental understanding.

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Seen any jumbo squid? Scientists want to know

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Humboldt squid necropsyCORVALLIS – Scientists tracking the northward migration of Humboldt squid into Oregon’s offshore waters are enlisting commercial fishermen to help them keep count of the tentacled predators – and what they’re eating.

Led by marine fisheries ecologist Selina Heppell, a professor in Oregon State University’s department of Fisheries and Wildlife, and graduate student Sarikka Attoe, the team is attempting to learn more about the squid, whose historic range has followed the Humboldt current in the eastern Pacific waters from the southernmost tip of South America to California.

Since 2002, the squid – Dosidicus gigas, also known as the jumbo squid – have been found in increasing numbers in the waters off Oregon, Washington and as far north as Alaska. Normally deep-diving, the animals are turning up in shallower coastal waters, sometimes in very large numbers. Aggressive feeders, they are known for swarming feeding frenzies when they come upon prey (usually small fish, crustaceans and other squid).

With funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through Oregon Sea Grant, Heppell is attempting to map the distribution of catches of jumbo squid off the Oregon coast, identify correlations between squid catch and oceanographic variables, and determine what the squid are eating as they pass through Oregon’s offshore waters – particularly whether they’re dining on such commercially fished species as hake and salmon.

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Calling Northwest film makers: Stories from Our Watershed

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watershedWhat does watershed restoration mean to you? How and why does it inspire you? If you have an idea and a video camera, The Whole Watershed Initiative wants to hear from you.

“Stories From Our Watershed” is a contest offering a total of $3,500 in prize money to digital film makers of all ages for short (10 minutes or less) videos focusing  “on the human, ecological and economic benefits of whole watershed restoration in the Northwest” — Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

There are two categories:  one for film-makers 21 and older and another for those 20 and younger. The deadline for submission is 5 pm July 19.

Special consideration will be given to films that feature restoration happening in priority basins including Oregon’s north and south coasts, John Day, Lower Columbia, Puget Sound and Upper Columbia.

Portland-based Ecotrust is managing the contest for the initiative, a collaborative effort involving with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, the Bureau of Land Management and others. The  initiative supports  the restoration of  streams and fish and wildlife habitate in the region’s high-priority basins.

For details about the contest and how to submit your videos, visit the Ecotrust Web site.

Sea Grant director to take part in “rapid response” study of Gulf fish ecology

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Stephen Brandt

CORVALLIS, Ore. – An Oregon State University researcher who leads the Oregon Sea Grant program will take part in a rapid response team studying how the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is affecting fish and other marine life in the Gulf of Mexico.

The National Science Foundation has announced that the team, including OSU’s Stephen Brandt, will receive $200,000 to support a week-long research cruise this September to collect data about the conditions of fish in the northern Gulf. The new information will be compared with baseline data the team has recorded in multiple cruises of the same region dating back to 2003.Funds come from the NSF’s RAPID program, which supports quick-response research into the effects of natural and man-made disasters and other urgent situations.

Brandt, the director of the Oregon Sea Grant program at OSU, is an oceanographer and freshwater scientist with a long history of studying fish ecology around the world, including the Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay and the Adriatic Sea. Before coming to OSU in 2009, he was director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Michigan.

He is part of a research team that has conducted seven research cruises in the northern Gulf of Mexico since 2003, collecting detailed data about temperature, salinity, oxygen, phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish, and analyzing the effects of human activity on marine fish ecology. The result is what Brandt calls “an extremely valuable data set” to compare the possible effects of the BP oil spill on the pelagic ecosystem of the northern Gulf of Mexico. The team also plans to make its historical data available to other Gulf researchers via the NSF’s Biological and Chemical Oceanography Database.

“We’re proposing to conduct the new cruise in September because that’s the same time of year when we conducted our previous studies,” Brandt said. “That will allow us to compare the new data with comparable periods from past years, which should give us a good picture of how the spill is affecting the marine environment.”

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OctoCam: Live, streaming octopus!

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NEWPORT – An iconic celebrity of the central Oregon coast is ready to writhe and wiggle his way onto a computer screen near you.

Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center this week unveiled its new OctoCam, streaming live video of the Visitor Center’s resident giant Pacific octopus to the world at:

http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/visitor/octocam

Employing two Webcams – one outside and slightly above the tank and one inside the tank – OctoCam treats visitors to a live 24-hour show featuring the resident cephalopod interacting with tank mates and curious on-lookers. Viewers also have the option of watching archival footage of the octopus investigating the camera when it was first installed; more more archival footage will be added periodically.

The giant Pacific octopus, Enteroctopus dofleini , occupies a central spot among the Visitor Center’s many aquatic animal exhibits. The trademark critter has been a favorite of visitors almost since Science Center opened its doors in 1965. Of course, it hasn’t been the same octopus; typically an adult octopus stays in the tank for between six months and two years. Younger octopuses, often donated by local crabbers, are cycled into the tank to replace the older animals, which are then released back into Yaquina Bay to find a mate and spawn.

Many people plan their HMSC visits to coincide with the animal’s thrice-weekly live crab feedings so they can watch this marine predator stalking and pouncing on prey while learning a bit about octopus biology and behavior. Feeding dates and times vary from season to season, and the current schedule is posted on the Center’s Web site (hmsc.oregonstate.edu/visitor).

Getting the octopus on the web took the combined efforts of nearly every program at the Visitor Center as well as OSU Media Services.

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Archival footage: Deriq investigates the Webcam:

Newport celebrates NOAA fleet move

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NOAA R/V Miller FreemanNEWPORT – The impending arrival of  the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific research fleet is being celebrated in Newport this week with ceremony, festivities – and visits from a pair of the vessels that will eventually be berthed here.

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Congressman Kurt Schrader were among the officials expected on hand to break ground for the new facility, dubbed “Marine Operations Center – Pacific” – or NOAA MOC-P, in government parlance.

The ceremony was also expected to mark the end of a bureaucratic battle with the state of Washington, which has raised numerous objections to NOAA’s decision,  announced last year, to move its operations center from Seattle to the central Oregon coast.  Governor Kulongoski and others said they expected to get the final word that the agency had affirmed its decision just before this morning’s groundbreaking.

The $35 million, five-acre facility is scheduled to open in June 2011, with a staff of 175, including 110 officers. It will be home port to four ships and host visiting ships, as well. It will mean hundreds of family-wage jobs for the Newport area, and it’s expected to pump $19 million a year into a local economy hit hard by fishing cutbacks and the global economic slump.

The Port of Newport was able to make the winning bid largely because the state had offered $19.5 million in Oregon Lottery funds to the project, allowing the port to offer a 20-year lease for only $2.4 million.

This weekend’s celebration includes a family-style “welcome” picnic from 1-4 pm Sunday under a a tent at the construction site, just west of Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center. The event, open to the public will include live music and  refreshments, and a chance for local residents to meet some of the team charged with getting the new operations center up and running.

In addition, if weather permits, two of the NOAA research vessels that will be relocating to Newport are expected to visit this weekend. the R/V Miller Freeman is expected to arrive Saturday afternoon, followed on Sunday by the R/V Bell M. Shimada, with an honorary Coast Guard escort and vessels from the Newport commercial fishing fleet on hand to welcome the ships and their crews.

(Photo of R/V Miller Freeman courtesy of striatic)