Breaking Waves

Check out several new fellowship opportunities, including the newly announced 2014 Knauss Fellowship:  http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/education/fellowships

Current opportunities

• REOPENED:  Oregon Sea Grant Natural Resource Policy Fellowship - Deadline: November 19, 2012.
• NOAA Coastal Management Fellowship – Deadline: January 25, 2013.
• NMFS/Sea Grant Graduate Fellowship Program in Marine Resource Economics – Deadline: January 25, 2013.
• NMFS/Sea Grant Graduate Fellowship Program in Population Dynamics – Deadline: January 25, 2013.
• Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships – Deadline: February 15, 2013.

Want to find out more what it’s like to be an Oregon Sea Grant Scholar? 

• Check out the Scholars Blog where you can read recent entries by our student scholars and their work, such as 2012 NOAA Coastal Management Fellow Kelsey Gianou.
• Also, check out the interview of 2012 Knauss Fellow, Jennifer Dresler in the latest issue of Confluence.
• And be sure to visit the Meet the Scholars page where you can learn about current and recent Oregon Sea Grant Scholars.

Oregon’s Ocean: Bringing the High Seas Home

FLORENCE – The 2012 Heceta Head Coastal Conference brings current ocean science and policy to Oregonians.  Attendees include university scientists, ocean policy agency staff, politicians, students, and the general public.  The conference is co-sponsored by Oregon Sea Grant.

The Pacific Ocean is a dynamic place full of activity and motion.  This year highlights the science of things that float, swim, drift, stowaway, steam, and bob across the Pacific to Oregon’s Ocean.

What to expect: The student poster session is part of a full day program (Saturday, October 27).

A dedicated session allows conference attendees to view posters and interact with student scientists as they explain their research and results.

Why submit a poster?

• Showcase your research
• Gain professional experience
• Practice science communication with a broad audience
• Interact with researchers, decision makers, industry leaders, stakeholders, and other    students
• Awards for top posters (and prizes)!

Submitting a poster: The HHCC invites contributions from advanced undergraduates (juniors or seniors), recent graduates, and graduate students.

The poster submission deadline is September 30. Download the .pdf announcement for details.

For more information on the conference, visit www.hecetaheadconference.org.

Susan Hilber Piacenza, an Oregon State University PhD candidate, has been awarded a prestigious National Marine Fisheries Service fellowship to study population dynamics of threatened and endangered sea turtles.

The fellowship, will provide $115,000 over the next  three years to support Piacenza’s work on the green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas. The turtle, considered threatened or endangered in most US and Mexican waters, appears to be recovering in other parts of the world.  “Not only is this good news for green sea turtles,” Piacenza said, “but it also represents an invaluable opportunity to study what happens to a large vertebrate population as it recovers from serious population decline.”

So far, signs of positive population growth among C. mydas colonies in Hawaii and Florida has been inferred from nesting beach surveys. What’s missing – and what Piacenza plans to study – is broader data on what happens to the animals after they hatch, and throughout their lives, and how that information fits into population estimates and trends.

The research could be useful to biologists and managers seeking to understand how populations of other threatened and endangered animals change over time, and as a population comes back from the brink. Solid, data-driven forecasting could also help scientists and the public understand how different conservation and management strategies might affect threatened animal populations.

Piacenza is working with researchers at the Southeast Fisheries Science Center Turtle Program in Miami, FL, and the Pacific Island Fisheries’ Marine Turtle Research Group in Honolulu, HI. Her PhD adviser in the OSU Department of Fisheries and Wildlife  is Dr. Selina Heppell.

The award is one of five population dynamics fellowships nationwide by NOAA/NMFS this year, and the first ever to an OSU graduate student. Piacenza’s application was sponsored by Oregon Sea Grant.

Learn more about the NOAA/NMFS Fellowships

Applications due April 17, 2012 for the Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholar program for undergraduates. The program will place students in a natural resource management agency and is designed to help prepare undergraduate students for graduate school and careers in marine science, policy, management, and outreach.

Read more at http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/fellowships/summer-scholars

To learn more about the Summer Scholars experience, visit our Sea Grant Scholars blog.

The National Sea Grant Program has set Feb. 17, 2012 as the deadline for applying to the prestigious John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships, designed to give graduate students a year’s experience working on ocean and coastal policy issues in the nation’s capital.

The program,  sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Sea Grant College Program (NSGO), matches highly qualified graduate students with hosts in the legislative and executive branches of government in the Washington, D.C. area, for a one year paid fellowship.

Applications must be made through state Sea Grant programs. Oregon Sea Grant, based at room 322 in Oregon State University’s Kerr Administration Building, will accept applications through 5 pm Pacific time on Feb. 17. Full information can be found on the National Sea Grant Website.

The fellowship, named in honor of former NOAA administrator John A. Knauss – one of the founders of the Sea Grant program – was established in 1979 to provide a unique educational experience to students who have an interest in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources.

Former Knauss fellows from Oregon have gone on to successful careers in federal and state government, fisheries management and marine science.

To learn more about how the Knauss Fellowship program shapes participants’ lives and careers, watch this video from Alaska Sea Grant:

Oregon Sea Grant is soliciting applications for several current fellowship opportunities.

The NOAA Coastal Management Fellowship has just been posted,

two NMFS Fellowship opportunities are open,

and there are two additional NOAA opportunities.

Please visit our fellowship website for more information.

The Oregon Sea Grant College Program is seeking applications for two fellowship opportunities available to graduate students through the 2012 National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)–Sea Grant Joint Graduate Fellowship Programs in Population Dynamics and Marine Resource Economics.

These are national competitions, and applicants should contact the Sea Grant program in their state (or closest to them). See www.seagrant.noaa.gov/colleges for locations of Sea Grant programs and contact information. Oregon applicants may apply through the Oregon Sea Grant Program in Corvallis.

The award for each fellowship is contingent upon the availability of federal funds and will be in the form of a grant or cooperative agreement of $38,500 per year.

Formal announcements of the fellowships have been published in the Federal Register and the complete Federal Funding Opportunity can be accessed through the links provided on the Oregon Sea Grant website.

National Marine Fisheries Service–Sea Grant Joint Graduate Fellowship Program in Population Dynamics
The Graduate Fellowship Program awards at least two new Ph.D. fellowships each year to students who are interested in careers related to the population dynamics of living marine resources and the development and implementation of quantitative methods for assessing their status. Fellows will work on thesis problems of public interest and relevance to NMFS under the guidance of NMFS mentors at participating NMFS Science Centers or Laboratories.

* Applications are due 5 p.m. PST, January 20, 2012

National Marine Fisheries Service–Sea Grant Joint Graduate Fellowship Program in Marine Resource Economics
The Graduate Fellowship Program generally awards two new Ph.D. fellowships each year to students who are interested in careers related to the development and implementation of quantitative methods for assessing the economics of the conservation and management of living marine resources. Fellows will work on thesis problems of public interest and relevance to NMFS under the guidance of NMFS mentors at participating NMFS Science Centers or Laboratories.

* Applications are due 5 p.m. PST, January 20, 2012

If you wish to apply through Oregon Sea Grant, please contact Sarah Kolesar (sarah.kolesar@oregonstate.edu, 541-737-8695) or Eric Dickey (eric.dickey@oregonstate.edu, 541-737-2715) for more information.

This summer a group of nine recent graduates and undergraduate students  participated in the Oregon Sea Grant Scholars Program. The program provides student fellows with a meaningful opportunity to work side-by-side with mentors who are marine scientists, policy makers, and resource managers. One mentor, Steve Rumrill (South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve), highlighted all the students and their experiences in the September newsletter of the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF). Read: CERF_SEPT_11_OSG_Summer_Scholars

Announcing the availability of the Oregon Sea Grant Science Communication Fellowship.  The Fellow will focus on science writing at Oregon Sea Grant Communications, working in a professional office dedicated to communicating science to non-specialists.

For more information: http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/funding/fellows.html

Sea Grant programs in Oregon, California  and Washington have teamed to place four  highly qualified young professionals in a new  West Coast Sea Grant Fellowship to support regional research and information needs and advance elements of the West Coast Governors’  Agreement on Ocean Health (WCGA).

“Sea Grant has a successful record of supporting exceptional master’s and doctoral graduates for marine research and policy fellowships, and the four California, Oregon, and Washington Sea Grant Programs are thrilled to be teaming up for our first-ever regional fellowship,” said Stephen Brandt, Oregon Sea Grant Director.

Beginning this month, the four will spent two-year assignments in federal and state agency offices in California, Oregon and Washington. The fellows will work on a variety of WCGA  initiatives, from developing a framework for coastal and marine spatial planning to advancing regional ocean and coastal research priorities.

Their work will support  the 2008 WCGA Action Plan, which describes seven key priorities facing the West Coast:

• clean coastal waters and beaches
• healthy ocean and coastal habitats
• effective ecosystem-based management
• reduced impacts of offshore development
• increased ocean awareness and literacy among the region’s citizens
• expanded ocean and coastal scientific information, research, and monitoring
• sustainable economic development of coastal communities.

“We’re very excited to have this opportunity to benefit from the academic expertise, experience and enthusiasm of our four new fellows,” said Brian Baird, California’s Assistant Secretary for Ocean and Coastal Policy. “In these difficult economic times, working collaboratively to advance important ocean and coastal initiatives on the West Coast is critically important.”

Todd Hallenbeck will be based in the office of Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, where he will play a key role in coastal-marine spatial planning, a science-based  process for analyzing and planning for ocean and coastal use. He will assist the WCGA   in developing a framework for the process,  including data management, decision support tools, stakeholder engagement and policy aspects. His work will help inform region-wide marine spatial planning  as he interacts with the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, Pacific Fishery Management Council and various federal agencies with responsibilities for ocean and coastal activities, as well as state leadership from the three West Coast states.

Hallenbeck received his undergraduate degree in Marine Science from the Univeristy of California, Santa Cruz,  and recently completed a master’s degree in Coastal Watershed Science and Policy from California State University, Monterey Bay.

Suzanna Stoike is assigned to the Washington Department of Ecology. Her work will focus on sustainable coastal communities by assisting in carrying out the soon-to-be-released implementation plan of the WCGA’s Sustainable Communities action coordination team.  Suzanna will also help connect the West Coast Ecosystem-Based Network, a partnership of six community-based initiatives focused on the successful implementation of ecosystem-based management along the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California, and the NOAA/WCGA Integrated Ecosystem Assessments team.

Stoike is a recent graduate of Oregon State University’s Marine Resource Management master’s degree program, with an undergraduate degree from Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina. While at OSU, she worked with Sea Grant-funded researcher Selina Heppell on a project enlisting fishermen in Port Orford to determine whether different methods of releasing pregnant female fish can help sustain potentially overharvested species.

In addition to Stoike and Hallenbeck, the new fellowship program is placing graduates Alison Haupt with  California Natural Resources Agency, and Alan Lovewell with the  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office in Seattle.

Launched in September 2006 by the governors of California, Oregon and Washington, the WCGA advances regional ocean governance and  underscores the importance of managing activities that affect our oceans on an ecosystem basis. The governors chose the state Sea Grant programs to conduct a three-year public engagement process that gathered comments from all kinds of ocean and coastal stakeholders, public and private, and resulted in a detailed report of their  issues and concerns.

From that, the WCGA team developed a 116-page action plan and eight work plans for dealing with issues as far-reaching as sea level rise, renewable energy and marine science literacy. Those plans are all available for download from the WCGA website.