Salmon Mashup: Rare Celilo Falls Film & Radio Chronicle

Celilo Falls fishery, early 1950s

Celilo Falls fishery, early 1950s

Twenty-five years ago, in 1990, salmon populations from a variety of locations in the Pacific Northwest were being considered for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act. “Listing” of salmon was going to have serious implications for the region, and Joe Cone, then the science reporter for Oregon Sea Grant, developed a series of 14 radio feature stories to help listeners understand the issues and hear from the newsmakers and scientists involved.

The programs were broadcast on public radio stations in Oregon. Collected on an audio cassette at the time, these programs, recorded between November 1990 and August 1991, have been out of circulation for years. Since Northwest populations of salmon are still listed, receive protections, and have been the focus of attention for many people, Sea Grant Communications has been reviewing the recent history. In 2014 we published Salmon Abundance and Diversity in Oregon: Are We Making Progress? — a report and accompanying video, featuring OSU Prof. Court Smith. Now Cone’s 1990-91 broadcasts have been digitized, and some are online.
Mashed up with this historic audio is rare color-film footage of the great Indian fishery at Celilo Falls on the Columbia River. That silent film footage is courtesy of the Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District. The combined audio and video is available on the Oregon Sea Grant Vimeo channel. The program is also available on YouTube.
The four radio stories are 1) How the Salmon ESA decision was made, with Merritt Tuttle of NMFS; 2) An interview with Bill Bakke of Oregon Trout, an ESA petitioner; 3) Trying to help migrating salmon at Bonneville Dam, with OSU biologist Alec Maule; and 4) an Indian view of the salmon crisis, with Ted Strong of CRITFC. The announcer presenting the intros to each feature is Janine Kobel. Transcripts of the radio programs are available on request from Oregon Sea Grant Communications.

Videos of Critical Issues in Adapting to Climate Change

Crashing waves

A set of three short videos highlights some critical issues related to climate change at the Oregon coast. Those issues are flagged by the video titles:

How Soon Do We Have to Think Differently?

. . . How Should We Adapt?

. .  and the overarching goal of having Community Resilience.

The videos, intended primarily for those involved in or concerned about the issues that adapting to climate change presents for coastal areas, were produced by Oregon Sea Grant with the cooperation of a range of climate researchers and coastal professionals who are interviewed on camera. The themes of the videos emerged from surveys, interviews, and workshops conducted by Sea Grant and partners in the last few years.

Coastal professionals in other states, as well as in Oregon, may find the perspectives and insights of these videos useful or provocative.

In addition to the high definition versions on Vimeo.com linked above, the same videos are on YouTube, where closed captioning is available:

 How Soon Do We Have to Think Differently?

How Should We Adapt?

Community Resilience  (Neskowin, Oregon, is the focus.)

NB: The URL for the last video above has been corrected (1/28/15)

 

 

Salmon: Are We Making Progress in Oregon?

A new short video interview with Prof. Court Smith discusses his recent OSG publication, Salmon Abundance and Diversity in Oregon: Are We Making Progress? Smith, an OSU anthropologist and longtime scholar of the Oregon salmon fishery, talks with editor Rick Cooper about why he wrote the publication and what insights it offers. While salmon abundance in Oregon has improved somewhat in recent years from historic lows, concerns remain about how sustainable that abundance is and how it’s affected by diversity.

The video interview, shot and edited by Joe Cone, is available on the OSG YouTube channel, with captioning, and our Vimeo channel, in high definition.

Prof. Court Smith and the salmon publication

Prof. Court Smith and the salmon publication

The publication itself, written for a non-specialist audience, is available for free download.

Rare Holiday Fare: Authentic Lutefisk Recipe

Bill Wick, ca. 1980

Bill Wick, ca. 1980

Back in 1991, the former Oregon Sea Grant director, William Q. (Bill) Wick, sent around the attached description  of how to prepare lutefisk, the Norwegian version of what to do with dry salted cod to make it edible—even, to some, tasty and delicious. Wick, of Danish/Norwegian heritage, was a World War II veteran before becoming an Extension agent and then Sea Grant director, and he navigated academia with practical common sense and good humor. This practical bent and dry humor are apparent in the recipe, which he no doubt hoped would cause others to appreciate this Scandinavian delicacy: as he writes, “there’s no such thing as ‘bad’ lutefisk.”

To Prepare Foolproof Lutefisk (.pdf)

New Video: Responding to the Risks of . . . Japanese Tsunami Marine Debris

Marine debris – trash, refuse, stuff lost at sea — can often seem like a problem that’s difficult to make headway against. New short videos produced by Oregon Sea Grant can change that impression.

Responding to the Risks of Marine Debris: Japanese Tsunami Marine Debris, documents the aftermath of the devastating 2011 tsunami that washed millions of tons of personal belongings, along with other industrial and structural debris, in to the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan. Since then, Japanese tsunami marine debris both large and small has come ashore along the U.S. West Coast, providing a unique window on the ways in which debris moves throughout the oceans, the risks associated with marine debris, including invasive species, and the responses people — from scientists to citizens — are making to marine debris.

The 10-minute documentary video is online at the Oregon Sea Grant Vimeo channel in high definition at vimeo.com/98582981

. . . and on our YouTube channel (where closed captioning is also available):

This video was produced by Oregon Sea Grant in a cooperative project with NOAA West and the West Coast Sea Grant programs.

 

New Videos: Derelict Fishing Gear: Oregon fishermen interviews

Extended interviews are now online with two Oregon fishermen, Al Pazar and Nick Furman, who reflect on derelict gear programs with the Dungeness crab fleet in which they were directly involved.

The interviews are in high definition at the Oregon Sea Grant Vimeo channel:

Al Pazar, former chairman, Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission

Nick Furman, former Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission exec. director

The videos were produced by Oregon Sea Grant in cooperation with NOAA West, the NOAA Marine Debris Program, and the Sea Grant programs of Washington, California, and the University of Southern California.

New Video: Responding to the Risks of Marine Debris: Derelict Fishing Gear

Marine debris – trash, refuse, stuff lost at sea — can often seem like a problem that’s difficult to make headway against. New short videos produced by Oregon Sea Grant can change that impression.

Responding to the Risks of Marine Debris: Derelict Fishing Gear, highlights the dramatic success that the Washington-based Northwest Straits Foundation has had in removing lost commercial fishing nets in the Puget Sound vicinity.

The six-minute documentary-style video is online at the Oregon Sea Grant YouTube channel (where closed captioning is also available):

Oregon Sea Grant Presents: Derelict Fishing Gear

. . . and in  high definition on Vimeo:  Derelict Fishing Gear (Vimeo HD version)

The documentary was produced by Oregon Sea Grant in cooperation with NOAA West, the NOAA Marine Debris program, and the Sea Grant programs of Washington, California, and the University of Southern California.

Stay tuned for additional videos in coming days.

National Science Foundation hosts Free-choice Learning Lecture

John Falk and Lynn Dierking, Oregon Sea Grant Professors of Free-choice Learning, are giving an invited lecture April 11 at the National Science Foundation headquarters in Arlington, VA. Their joint lecture, “An Ecological Approach to Understanding Lifelong STEM Learning: A Story in Two Voices” is part of the Distinguished Lecture Series hosted by the NSF Directorate for Education and Human Resources.

Using examples from their own research, Dierking and Falk plan to “discuss how they reframe STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, Math] learning research to better acknowledge and describe STEM learning as a cultural activity: a set of activities situated within a complex ecological community that affords myriad opportunities for STEM experiences of widely varying content, depth, quality, and accessibility.”

Falk and Dierking, internationally-known experts in free-choice learning (how people learn in out-of-school settings), serve in other leadership roles at OSU: Falk as director of the Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning; Dierking as Associate Dean for Research in the College of Education. They are professors in the College of Education.

Dr. John Falk

Dr. Lynn Dierking

Summer Scholars’ Experiences Profiled

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

YouTube: Putting on a Survival Suit

Clip from survival suit video Immersion suits, also called survival suits, have helped saved hundreds of lives, largely because they provide protection from hypothermia. However, the protection of a survival suit is only good if it’s on; and during at-sea emergencies, there may be only seconds to put the bulky items  on. This video shows the proper techniques for donning immersion suits and entering the water.

This video is one of a growing number of short explanatory or information videos on the Oregon Sea Grant YouTube Channel.