Four West Coast Governors’ Agreement (WCGA) Sea Grant Fellows, hired in the spring of 2011 for two-year assignments, have launched a blog at www.westcoastoceans.wordpress.com to share their perspectives and relevant news about the region’s coastline and marine resources. The blog launches with several articles, ranging from coastal and marine spatial planning to the WCGA meeting held in Seattle in June of 2011 to a National Ocean Council listening session held in the state of Washington.
Daily Archives: September 8, 2011
Outside magazine profiles Sea Grant’s Pat Corcoran
PITY POOR CASSANDRA, blessed by Apollo with the power of prophecy, cursed with the fate of disbelief. She tells the people what’s coming. She suffers their laughter, absorbs their scorn. Then she watches her prediction come true. Yeah, you told us so, they’ll say as they bury the dead. Congratulations, jerk.
Patrick Corcoran feels her pain. It’s his job. Every day, he rises at dawn and goes out into the world to tell people to prepare to meet their doom. Or, rather, to prepare to escape it.
Corcoran is a professional geographer in Astoria, Oregon, a misty fishing port where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. He’s a high-energy guy, 50, with a little Billy Bob Thornton to his look. Loves his job and loves his coffee. Drives around in his Toyota Tacoma all day with an 11.5-foot-long Takayama paddleboard strapped to the rack. He’s a coastal natural-hazards specialist with Oregon Sea Grant, a marine version of an agricultural extension service affiliated with Oregon State University. Corcoran prophesies earthquakes and tsunamis five days a week. …