Oregon Sea Grant to lead regional invasive species effort

Sam Chan at Devil's LakeSam Chan, Oregon Sea Grant Extension’s aquatic invasive species educator,  will lead a two year, $416,000 effort to combat high-priority aquatic invasive species identified by natural resource managers in the Pacific Northwest and Southwest, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Dec. 1.

Chan’s team at Oregon State University will work with Sea Grant programs and others throughout the region to develop a method to better predict the risk of aquatic invasive species and better understand the economic value of early detection and rapid response.

These programs will also develop strategies for managing the risk of non-native mussels invading West Coast waters through long-distance water tunnels and will investigate school classrooms as a potential source of new invasions (via educational aquariums).

OSU, partners to lauch regional climate consortium

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University has received a five-year grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish and coordinate a regional consortium of climate variability assessment, research and outreach.

The funding, which could surpass $3.5 million, will establish the Pacific Northwest Climate Decision Support Consortium – one of six new regional integrated sciences and assessments (RISA) programs funded by NOAA.

OSU researchers will work with colleagues from the University of Oregon, Boise State University, University of Idaho, and University of Washington – as well as the extension programs from Oregon, Washington and Idaho – to address climate assessment needs for businesses, state and federal agencies, municipalities, tribal leaders and non-governmental organizations in the Pacific Northwest.

Oregon Sea Grant expects to play a significant role in the new consortium’s research and public outreach efforts.

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Earth Day 2010 logoFor Earth Day 2010, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is highlighting the  implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

NOAA provided $167 million in Recovery Act funding to 50 high-quality, high-priority coastal restoration projects around the country. The efforts are helping to jump-start the nation’s economy by supporting thousands of jobs as well as restoring fish and wildlife habitat.

In Oregon, the Act is providing $699,000 to the Fishing Industry Restoration Partnership, a project which has recruited commercial fishermen to begin retrieving an estimated 180 metric tons of  lost and abandoned crab  pots and other fishing gear off the central coast. The gear damages marine habitats and fouls fishing lines; its retrieval not only cleans up the seafloor ecosystem, but it also provides work for fishermen and their boats.

The NOAA grant resulted, in part, from a successful 2006-07   pilot project organized by the Oregon
Fishermen’s Cable Committee with funding and technical support from Oregon Sea Grant.

National program offers grants for aquaculture, invasives research

NOAA Sea Grant is offering grants totalling $12.8 million to coordinated research, outreach and education programs designed to create sustainable aquaculture projects and limit the regional spread of invasive species.

Approximately half of the funds are devoted to  a broad national aquaculture  competition open to institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, commercial organizations, state, local and Indian tribal governments and individuals. Dubbed the NOAA Sea Grant Aquaculture Research Program 2010, the competition is aimed at funding economically and environmentally sustainable aquaculture projects across the country in 2010-2011.

The remaining two grants are open to research, outreach and education teams affiliated with one or more of the 30 National Sea Grant College Programs located in US coastal and Great Lakes states (as well as the US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico).  One program will offer up to $4.8 million in grants to help support state and regional aquaculture through outreach and technology transfer; the other devotes $2 million to regional-scale efforts to address marine invasive species issues.

Each of the three grant programs depends on the availability of federal funding. Proposals must be submitted through grants.gov, and application deadlines are in May.

For more information visit the NOAA Sea Grant Web site.

Oregon Sea Grant delivers federal dollars for ocean research, outreach efforts

An ambitious plan to research, understand and inform the public about marine issues ranging from climate change to invasive species will receive nearly $14 million in federal and state dollars via Oregon Sea Grant over the next four years.

“We’re proud to be able to continue supporting an integrated program of coastal science serving Oregon,” said Stephen Brandt, director of the Oregon Sea Grant Program headquartered at Oregon State University. “The research projects, in particular, address some of the critical issues facing Oregon and the coast, and reflect our ongoing commitment to supporting research that addresses current issues of human health and safey, social progress, economic vitality and ecosystem sustainability.”

Oregon Sea Grant recently received the first of four $2.3 million biennial grant installments from its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Half of that money will go to support  the 10 research proposals – among 60 submitted – that made it through Sea Grant’s  rigorous, competitive grant program for 2010-2012. The federal dollars are expected to leverage at least $1.2 million a year in state matching funds.

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Sea Grant shares in public education grant

Oregon Sea Grant’s Free-Choice Learning program will join with the Oregon Coast Aquarium, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the Maryland Science Center and others in a three-year effort to expand professional development opportunities for museum, aquariums, zoo and park educators in an effort to improve informal science education.

The project, known as the Communicating Ocean Sciences Informal Education Network, is funded through a National Science Foundation initiative aimed at fostering and improving the kind of informal science education that takes place at aquariums, museums and other learning centers.

Leading the team for OSU is Shawn Rowe, Sea Grant marine education and learning specialist and an assistant professor with the OSU Department of Science and Math Education. Rowe heads Sea Grant’s Free-Choice Learning program, which studies the kind of learning people do outside the classroom.

Rowe’s program uses the Visitor Center at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport as a living lab for studying various approaches to informal science education, how to engage visitors and what kind of information people take away from their aquarium visits.

The Sea Grant program will receive more than $278,000 from the NSF over the next three years to develop training, workshops and curricula for informal science educators, and to continue work the program has already begun to foster a network of informal science educators and scientists who want to communicate their work to the public.

Read more about Sea Grant’s Free-Choice Learning program here.

Gear Retrieval Project Creates Jobs

marine-debris-projectOregon Sea Grant’s early involvement with a pilot project to retrieve lost crab pots helped lay the groundwork for a $699,000 NOAA grant that will hire commercial fishermen to clean up 180 metric tons of abandoned gear off the Oregon coast.

The 2009 Gear Retrieval Project, announced last week by NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco during a visit to Newport, will employ fishermen during the off-season. Working with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the fishermen will locate and remove discarded crab pots, fishing nets and other marine debris that can  trap and kill marine mammals and fish and endanger fishing activities.

In 2006, Sea Grant collaborated with commerical fishing groups and the Oregon Crab Commission to test whether local fishermen could effectively locate and retrieve lost crab pots. In their first two test runs, fishermen found and hauled in nearly 60 crab pots and more than 600 feet of abandoned trawl cable.

The new gear retrieval project is among $7 million in coastal habitat restoration projects NOAA is funding in Oregon under the  American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Read more about NOAA’s stimulus act projects here.

West Coast research planning document up for public comment

A draft report on ocean and coastal research and information needs on the West Coast is available for public review and comment from the Oregon Sea Grant Web site.  The deadline for comments is Jan. 16, 2009

The report, developed by Sea Grant programs in Oregon, Washington and California after extensive public involvement,  is available for download in .pdf format, along with background documents including more than 5,000 marine research and information recommendations made by stakeholders in public meetings and on line.

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Oregon Sea Grant calls for research proposals

Oregon Sea Grant invites preliminary proposals for research on important marine and coastal issues from researchers affiliated with any institution of higher education in Oregon. Proposals will be entered into a highly competitive review and selection process. Proposed work may begin on either February 1, 2010, or February 1, 2011.

The deadline for submitting preliminary proposals is 5 p.m. February 6, 2009.

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