Marine scientists from Oregon State University are all over the news this week:

The Oregonian reports on so-called “sneaker waves”: Whether or not they’re a distinct phenomenon, the fact remains that sudden high waves on the Pacific coast can be deadly.  As OSU oceanographer Robert Holman explains:

“When you get into the beach, especially when you get into complicated areas like the rocks, you can get feedback – the previous wave changes the condition for the next wave. If you had a previous wave that washed down at just the right time, that would reinforce the next wave. That can produce things that truly are dangerous and not expected.”

KATU-TV reports on OSU’s plan to expand a fleet of “undersea gliders” – small, autonomously operated devices that gather data about undersea conditions. Thanks to funding from the national Ocean Observatories Initiative, the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Services plans to add 12 more gliders to its fleet over the next year, bringing the total to 21 and   dramatically increasing the opportunities for scientists to gather information about Pacific Ocean conditions.  Oceanographer Jack Barth explains:

“In more than half a century of work, OSU scientists have recorded about 4,000 profiles of the near-shore from ships. During the past five years, our gliders have logged more than 156,000 profiles – nearly 40 times what six decades of shipboard studies have provided.”

In British Columbia, the Vancouver Sun chronicles the travels of “Flex,” a highly endangered western Pacific grey whale. The animals summer off the Russian coast, and this one was tagged last summer by a team of US and Russian scientists trying to learn where the Pacific greys spend the winter. They thought it might be the South China Sea – but were surprised when the tagged whale, dubbed “Flex,” took off across the Bering Sea  and Gulf of Alaska and then down the west coast of North America.

Bruce Mate, head of OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute (and a pioneer in tracking whales via small, embedded satellite transmitters), is mapping the animal’s journey on the Institute’s Web site.