Breaking Waves

Welcome Oregon Sea Grant’s Free-Choice Learning Lab to the blogosphere! The lab, based at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, employs cutting-edge research tools and technologies to study informal science learning. The knowledge will be put in practice in the form of  new and improved exhibits in the HMSC Visitor Center, which is managed [...]

A massive trail of debris from the devastating tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 is slowly making its way across the Pacific Ocean en route to the West Coast of the United States, where scientists are predicting it will arrive in the next two to three years – right on schedule. The mass of [...]

NEWPORT – Oregon State University geoscientist Peter Ruggiero will speak at the Hatfield Marine Science Center tonight (Oct. 25) on “The Role of Sea Level Rise and Increasing Storminess in PNW Coastal Change and Flood Hazards.” The talk starts at 7 pm in the Hennings Auditorium at the HMSC Visitor Center. Ruggiero is part of [...]

Invasive crayfish are spreading in Oregon, and Sea Grant’s Sam Chan has put together a handy photographic guide to distinguishing three common invasive varieties from American signal crayfish, which is native to the state. A recent KTVZ report on the invaders prompted several commenters to ask for photos to distinguish them from the native species, [...]

Oregon State University will continue to host and lead a federal federal/academic research partnership to study marine resources in the Pacific Northwest, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced yesterday. The award means that NOAA will continue funding the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resource Studies (CIMRS), which was established at Oregon State in 1982, for [...]

NEWPORT – News these days from the Oregon State University seems to have taken its cue from Jules Verne. There’s talk of underwater gliders, ocean observatory platforms and coastal profilers. This, however, is no sci-fi plotline, but the Ocean Observatories Initiative, the largest ocean science project ever funded by the U.S. government – and a [...]

Dr. John Byrne, president emeritus of Oregon State University and former administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will tie together themes that emerge at the seventh annual Heceta Head Coastal Conference in a presentation called “Discovery, Learning and Engagement for Tomorrow’s World.” Dr. Byrne is a late addition to this year’s conference, [...]

Bill Hanshumaker, Sea Grant’s marine educator at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, is blogging from sea off the Pacific coast this week as he travels with scientists seeking to learn more about seafloor geology and earthquakes. The team is traveling aboard OSU’s R/V Wecoma with a crew from the Cascadia Initiative, an onshore/offshore seismic and [...]

Registration is now open for the OSU Marine Council and Oregon Sea Grant sponsored Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning Science Workshop. The workshop will be held November 29-30 at the OSU Alumni Center, and is open to all Oregon academic faculty. You can find out more information, register for the workshop, and register to give [...]

Immersion suits, also called survival suits, have helped saved hundreds of lives, largely because they provide protection from hypothermia. However, the protection of a survival suit is only good if it’s on; and during at-sea emergencies, there may be only seconds to put the bulky items  on. This video shows the proper techniques for donning [...]