Daily Archives: November 2, 2010

Seattle symposium: Energy use in Fisheries

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Federal agencies are teaming with nongovernmental organizations to sponsor a symposium on “Energy use in Fisheries: Improving Efficiency and Technological Innovations from a Global Perspective,”  November 14-17 in Seattle.

Sponsored by NOAA Fisheries Service, NOAA National Sea Grant, Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, the Pacific Marine Expo, the World Bank and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, the symposium will look at  the direct and indirect effects of global energy costs on the seafood harvesting, processing and marketing sectors.

The symposium resulted from planning by the Sea Grant Safe and Sustainable Seafood Supply (SSSS) focus team. More than 90 presentations by experts from all over the world will address local and regional solutions for addressing energy challenges. Participants will identify and discuss management strategies, alternate gear and vessel designs, alternate fuels, vessel operation and maintenance strategies, and a set of metrics to measure the level of energy reduction.

Guest speakers include Jeff Steele, who led a green refit for the F/V Time Bandit, a vessel featured on Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” television show, and Chris Dixon who supplied a South Carolina shrimp boat with waste vegetable oil from the Margaritaville Restaurant.

To register and to learn more: http://www.energyfish.nmfs.noaa.gov/index.html

New HMSC octopus readies for public debut

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NEWPORT – A new octopus will make its public debut on Nov. 13 in the central aquarium at the Visitor Center in Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, and the public is invited to meet the animal and learn its new name. Meanwhile, Web visitors may be able to get a sneak preview of the new star.

The event, called “Octopus Day,” will feature activities for children, a display of a dissected octopus with its internal anatomy labeled, and the official unveiling – and first public feeding – of the new octopus at 1 pm.

From now through Nov. 12, visitors are invited to submit suggested names for the new animal when they stop by the Center, located on Yaquina Bay in Newport’s South Beach area. The person who submits the winning name will receive a prize. Only in-person submissions are being accepted.

This is the latest in a long series of giant Pacific octopuses to greet visitors at one of the Center’s most popular and endearing exhibits. The new animal is the successor to Deriq, the octopus who took the Internet by storm earlier this year when the Visitor Center installed a live, streaming Web video feed dubbed the OctoCam (http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/visitor/octocam).

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