HMSC Currents

You’re invited! Marine Science Day at HMSC, reminiscent of its predecessor SeaFest, will take visitors behind-the-scenes for an open house. Your hosts will be scientists and educators from the growing marine science community on Newport’s South Beach: Oregon State University and the federal and state agencies of HMSC, as well as the Oregon Coast Aquarium and the new NOAA Marine Operations Center – Pacific. Marine Science Day is Saturday April 14, from 10am to 4pm at the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon.

In addition to special activities in the Visitor Center, including a sea turtle necropsy, visitors will meet scientists and experience cutting edge marine research first-hand in HMSC’s marine research labs and classrooms. Visitors can view a working genetics lab, try their hand at collecting biological data from fish, plankton and even a shrimp parasite, explore novel oceangoing and ocean floor instrument platforms and meet the scientists who designed them. HMSC’s Marine Mammal Institute Director Bruce Mate will give a presentation on how satellite telemetry is revealing the secrets of whale migration. Guided tours will include HMSC’s seawater facilities and the aquatic animal husbandry lab.

Don’t miss this special opportunity to experience the innovation and synergy that makes HMSC unique. More information, including program, tours, and special events, is available at hmsc.oregonstate.edu.

Collaborative HMSC research partners include six federal and state agencies: Oregon State University, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, US Environmental Protection Agency, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Geological Survey, US Department of Agriculture, Oregon Coast Aquarium

by Mark Floyd

CORVALLIS, Ore. – An estimated 20,000 people died or are missing after a massive earthquake-induced tsunami struck Japan on March 11, 2011, yet some 200,000 people were in the inundation zone at the time.

The fact that 90 percent of the coastal region’s residents and visitors evacuated effectively is a tribute to planning and community drills, said Patrick Corcoran, an Oregon State University education and outreach specialist, who just returned from a disaster symposium at United Nations University in Japan. Although some Oregon communities have been proactive, most are so overwhelmed meeting immediate needs that tsunami preparedness is not a priority.

“The small size of Oregon coastal communities relative to the magnitude of the hazard also plays a role,” Corcoran said. “Expecting these small communities to prepare for a level of safety for seasonal homeowners and visitors from throughout the state would be somewhat akin to Portland hosting the Olympic Games. They couldn’t do it alone.”

“To be fair, the Japanese have been dealing with this threat for hundreds of years and it has been on our minds for a decade or so,” he added. “But we had better start taking the eventuality of an earthquake and tsunami a lot more seriously.”

“A vast majority of the fatalities in Japan were among the elderly and a good portion of the others were family members and emergency personnel who went in after them when they realized they hadn’t been evacuated. Traffic jams cost lives.”

Corcoran said state and local agencies in Oregon have begun taking action, including producing new evacuation maps and improving communication and incident command plans. “As good as our local emergency officials are, they will be overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the circumstances,” Corcoran said. “Preparation must begin with the individual, then focus on mutual aid among neighbors, and finally on public aid and assistance. Businesses, too, must support the safety of their employees and customers.”

There are several examples of coastal communities preparing for an earthquake and tsunami.

•   Cannon Beach has commissioned evacuation maps and inundation models, hired a community preparedness coordinator, explored a vertical evacuation structure, and is looking into caching supplies at evacuation sites;

•   The Seaside School District is studying relocating all of its schools on a common campus outside the inundation zone;

•   OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport has increased its educational efforts on earthquakes and tsunamis, and held evacuation drills for employees.

“The question,” Corcoran said, “is whether we are preparing at a level commensurate with the risk.”

Full story

Houses above the inundation zone in this Japanese village survived intact, while everything below was destroyed by the 2011 tsunami. (photo by Patrick Corcoran, Oregon State University, 2012)

The Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center at Oregon State University has received a three-year, $600,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a multi-sensor array to record the interactions – including impacts – of birds and bats on the blades, platforms and towers of wind turbines.

“Unfortunately, the usual way to document the impact of wind turbines on birds and bats is to collect the carcasses,” said Robert Suryan, an OSU seabird expert who is principal investigator on the project. “That would be hard to do out in the ocean. Even on shore, surveys are limited at large or remote facilities and can be compromised by scavengers that remove the carcasses.”

So the researchers are coming up with a different approach – synchronizing an array of sensors that will include accelerometers to measure variations in blade movement from impact, visual and infrared cameras, and acoustic devices to record strikes and identify the bird or bat involved. The monitoring system will be designed to run continuously and on multiple turbines at once to estimate the potential impact of the entire wind farm.

Click here for the full story

OSU Oceanographer Jack Barth kicked off the 2012 “Science on Tap” series, sponsored by HMSC, to an enthusiastic, standing-room-only crowd earlier this week. Rogue’s Brewer’s on the Bay on Newport’s South Beach waterfront hosted the event on January 24th. Rogue generously offered up a Tuesday, their traditional Aloha “Hawaiian Shirt” Night, which made for a tropical atmosphere on what turned out to be another wild and windy Newport night.

Barth’s presentation, “New Eyes on our Changing Ocean: Underwater Robotic Gliders and the Ocean Observatories Initiative” introduced the use of autonomous underwater gliders and other emerging technologies for remote ocean observation and research. Barth brought a rather impressive show-and-tell item – an actual working glider – so audience members could visualize the undersea data collection methods he described. Barth’s research team uses gliders to explore the relationships between ocean circulation and ecosystems in coastal waters, including low-oxygen (hypoxic) zones off the coast of Oregon, and has logged over 51,000 km of measurements over the last six years.

Barth is a Professor of Oceanography and Associate Dean for Research in Oregon State University’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. He presently serves on the Oregon Ocean Policy Advisory Council’s (OPAC) Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee and was a member of NSF’s Observatory Steering Committee that launched the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). For more on Professor Barth’s research, see this recent article in OSU’s research magazine, Terra.

Look for upcoming Science on Tap events, sponsored by the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center, on the HMSC website events list.

For the second consecutive year, an international team of scientists has tracked a whale via satellite from one of the world’s most endangered populations to the West Coast of the United States from the waters off Russia’s Sakhalin Island.

Last year, the saga of “Flex” captured the attention of the public as the male, 13-year-old western gray whale journeyed across the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean to Vancouver Island and down to Oregon before the tag finally quit working.

Varvara is the second Russian western gray whale to visit the North American coast in as many years. (Photo, Oregon State University)

This year, they are tracking “Varvara,” a 9-year-old female western gray whale that has again surprised scientists by not only coming to the West Coast – but by apparently heading for a known breeding ground of eastern gray whales in the San Ignacio Lagoon of the Sea of Cortez. Varvara took a different route across the Bering Sea than did Flex but both moved swiftly down the West Coast upon arriving in North America.

Bruce Mate is the director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, whose team tagged the endangered whale in September and has watched her make the 6,000-mile-plus trek over the past two months. He said her journey is more than a feel-good story, such as that depicted in the new film, “Big Miracle.”

Varvara’s adventure has tremendous ecological and management significance, Mate says.

Read the full story.

In case you’re looking for something to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon, Ten Rivers Food Web is hosting a Sunday film series this month and into February at Oregon Coast Community College (OCCC) in South Beach. It’s focus is local fisheries, farms & food issues.

More information and schedule here.

For more local sustainability information, stop by the HMSC Sustainability Committee website.

A new study by Markus Horning of HMSC’s Marine Mammal Institute and researchers from the Alaska SeaLife Center suggests that the impact of predation on juvenile Steller sea lions in the Gulf of Alaska has been significantly underestimated. The research team implanted transmitters in 36 juvenile Steller sea lions in 2005. During the study period, 12 of the animals died and at least 11 of those deaths were by predation, the researchers noted. “The transmitters are amazing recorders of the life history of the animals, and can tell us in most cases how they died,” Horning said.  The new population model developed by Horning suggests that as Steller sea lion populations decrease, predators may be targeting more juveniles.

Predators increasingly are targeting young Steller sea lions, making their recovery difficult. (photo courtesy of Alaska Sea Life Center)

By Pat Kight, Oregon Sea Grant, http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/breakingwaves/

The Research Vessel Wecoma, which has been serving Oregon State University marine scientists for more than 35 years, is being retired from service and replaced with a somewhat smaller ship from the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System fleet.

The 184-foot Wecoma made her last cruise in November; her replacement, the Oceanus, is expected to dock in Newport in February, after making the long voyage from her former port at the Woods Hole National Oceanographic Institute on the East Coast, down through the Panama Canal and up the Pacific Coast to Oregon. A retirement celebration for the Wecoma will be held at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport in March.

Both vessels are owned by the National Science Foundation, and operated by the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System, a consortium of 60 academic research institutions that operate 16 vessels around the country.

Mark Abbott, dean of the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at OSU, had approached the National Science Foundation for  a rapid analysis of the two ships to see which one would be more cost-effective to operate over the next several years.  A team of technicians returned the verdict – a strong recommendation for the 177-foot Oceanus – after discovering some problems with corrosion and other issues with the Wecoma.

“There are a few differences in science capabilities,” Abbott said, “but Oceanus is very capable and will be more cost-effective to operate over the next five to 10 years, at which point we hope to have a new ship.’

Full story at http://bit.ly/yBl9tb

Congratulations to Nancee Hunter who was awarded the OSU Professional
Faculty Excellence Award at University Day 2011. This award recognized
Nancee for her exceptional service in a non-academic unit or whose academic
service is not defined within the traditional categories of teaching,
research or extension.  In her four years with Oregon Sea Grant, states her
nomination, she led major changes within the Visitor Center and made
significant achievements on all fronts. She built networks and created new
partnerships; examined new approaches and nurtured ideas; leveraged nearly
$3.5 million in funding; built teams; and enhanced programs and learning
experiences for young and old.

President Ray presented the plaque and check at the University Day Awards
Dinner, September 21 and the following day event featured an opportunity to
recognize awardees with a grand round of applause (including a few “whoops”
from the SG staff).

Pictured with Nancee is her fiancé, George Winkler who attended the dinner
awards ceremony, obviously taking pleasure in her big smile as she received
this honor!