Check out this lively video from PROMISE interns Dulguun Baasansuren and Noelle Moen, recounting how they spent a busy summer working with Oregon Sea Grant’s aquatic invasive species program:
The 2015-16 edition of Oregon Sea Grant’s popular Oregon Coasts Quests Book is now available for sale. This 216-page, spiral-bound book features:
Directions for 24 Quests
Updates to existing Quests
Two brand-new Quests
Ten Quests created by youth
Quests in four Oregon counties (Lincoln, Coos, Curry, and Benton)
One Quest with directions in both English and Spanish
The book retails for $10 and is being sold by booksellers around the state. To find out where you can buy a copy, visit the booksellers page on the Quests website: http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/quests. If you happen to be or know of a bookseller interested in selling Quest books, please contact OregonCoastQuests@oregonstate.edu for ordering information.
Find us on Facebook
Oregon Coast Quests now has a Facebook page, where you can get updates, “like” the page, and share your Questing adventures with friends and neighbors: https://www.facebook.com/OregonCoastQuests
Happy Questing!
(This post was co-written by Kelsey Adkisson, Oregon Sea Grant Marine Policy Fellow and Ivan Kuletz, Oregon Sea Grant Marine Policy Intern. )
Oregon doesn’t stop at the beach. In fact, the shoreline is just the beginning of an incredibly complex and thriving marine environment full of colorful rockfish, towering kelp forests, expansive sandy flats, jagged rocky reefs, and a diversity of unique invertebrates.
To ensure this environment remains healthy and vibrant, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and Oregon Sea Grant (OSG) teamed up and developed a successful partnership that focuses on enhancing the intersection of science and management. This partnership has fostered fellowships and scholarships that support science-based resource management issues. As part of this collaboration, two OSG Fellows, Kelsey Adkisson and Ivan Kuletz, worked with ODFW on a great example of Oregon’s support for science-based ocean resource management- the Oregon Nearshore Strategy.
The Oregon Nearshore Strategy is a set of prioritized recommendations for conservation, management, and research of species and habitats that occur within state waters. Oregon’s nearshore environment is home to a vast array of species and habitats. All of which are integral components of a complex nearshore ecosystem. This ecosystem is interconnected through food webs, ocean currents, and a multitude of other biological, physical, chemical, geological and human use factors.
Originally developed in 2005, and currently undergoing a ten year revision, the Nearshore Strategy was created via a collaborative process led by ODFW. Members of the public, ocean-related businesses, recreational interests, conservation groups, government agencies, tribes, universities, and many other sectors helped contribute to the Strategy.
“At its core, the Nearshore Strategy is intended to contribute to the larger domain of marine resources management and focus actions towards priority issues and areas that have not already received the attention they deserve,” explained Caren Braby, the ODFW Marine Resources Program Manager. “Ultimately, the Strategy’s effectiveness hinges on public input, which helps shape the document, and also ensures that diverse perspectives, values, visions and concerns for the nearshore environment are represented.”
As part of the 2015 revision process, Kelsey and Ivan worked with ODFW Project Leader, Greg Krutzikowsky, to review and update the enormous body of scientific knowledge that underpins the document. This information was used to develop recommendations that support Oregon’s diversity of marine life. As Sea Grant Scholars, it was a unique experience to be part of something that is used by such a broad variety of interest groups, including federal agencies, policy makers, citizen groups, fishermen, conservation organizations, and researchers.
The Nearshore Strategy is currently undergoing public review and the update is due to be completed by October 1, 2015. Public input is essential to shaping and prioritizing resource needs for the next ten years and ODFW is seeking input on the Strategy. To review the Oregon Nearshore Strategy, provide input, or find out more about the revision process please visit the ODFW Oregon Nearshore Strategy website: (http://www.dfw.state.or.us/MRP/nearshore/index.asp).
Learn more:
(Photo credits: Janna Nichols)
Shark Day 2011
NEWPORT – Did you know more than 30 species of sharks can be found off the Pacific Northwest coastline? Learn more about them this Saturday, Jan 24, as the Hatfield Marine Science Center celebrates our annual Shark Day!
Stop by the Center between 10 am and 4 pm for shark-themed exhibits, biofacts, films and kid-friendly activities related to these fascinating sea creatures.
Afraid of sharks? How about vending machines? You might be surprised to learn which is more dangerous to humans!
Make sure to be here at 1:30 pm. to watch and listen as Dr. Bill Hanshumaker, Oregon Sea Grant’s chief scientist at the Visitor Center, conducts a necropsy on a salmon shark and talks about the animal’s biology, life cycle and habits.
R/V Oceanus crew launches Waldport High’s drifter (photo by Jeff Crews)
WALDPORT – Students at Waldport High School are excited about today’s successful launch of their unmanned sailboat, Phyxius, near the Equator by OSU’s R/V Oceanus, as part of a long-term national project to better understand ocean currents and transport patterns.
The project, organized by Oregon Sea Grant and the Oregon Coast STEM Hub, is part of NOAA’s Educational Passages program, which enlists science, technology, engineering and math classes to build the miniature vessels and set them loose in ocean and coastal waters – and follow them via a NOAA tracking site to see where they go. More than 40 of the drifters have been launched since the program began in 2008.
The unmanned mini-sailboats are self-steering and equipped with GPS tracking devices to study ocean and wind patterns and much more. The five-foot vessels sail directly downwind month after month. As these boats travel the oceans, students can track them via http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/drifter/ and learn and improve their skills in map reading, geography, earth science, oceanography and more.
Waldport’s is just the third drifter to be launched in the Pacific. Most of the others have been launched into the Atlantic, Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico. Drifters have landed in Europe, the Caribbean, Cuba, Bahamas, Panama, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia as well as many other places. Some have left Portugal and closely duplicated Columbus’s route to the new world, and another spent time on display in an Irish pub.
NEWPORT – Oregon Sea Grant and the Oregon Coast STEM Hub are partnering with the Oregon Coast Aquarium and Lincoln County School District to run the annual COASTALearning Symposium in Newport on October 9 and 10.
This professional development event is expected to reach 350 teachers and administrators on the Oregon Coast and focuses on using marine science and coastal natural resources as a context for learning across grades and subjects. Breakout sessions include topics such as Marine Debris, Fish Habitat and Passage, Ocean Engineering, Watershed Studies, Stewardship Projects, and more.
Cover by artist Earl Newman
Climate change: Some people feel overwhelmed by it, others argue about it. Oregon Sea Grant researchers, Extension specialists and communicators, meanwhile are working to better understand what a changing climate is already doing to the ocean and coast – and helping coastal communities better prepare themselves for higher and more damaging waves, stronger storms, rising sea level and other anticipated changes.
The latest issue of OSG’s Confluence magazine examines some of the issues coastal Oregon faces, and ways in which Sea Grant is helping citizens and scientists address them, from anticipating the effects of climate change to building resilience in the face of them – and better understanding how people with different backgrounds and philosophies can even communicate about the topic.
Other articles in this issue include
NEWPORT – Oregon Sea Grant is partnering with the Lincoln County School District to create a new Oregon Coast Regional STEM Hub to serve coastal communities from Astoria to Coos Bay.
The effort, under a $644,000 grant from the Oregon Department of Education, will be based at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center under the guidance of Sea Grant’s marine education team. The goal is to help equip teachers to better provide STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education to k-12 students.
The grant is to the Lincoln County School District, which is partnering with Sea Grant, Tillamook School District and the Oregon Coast Aquarium. The new STEM Hub is one of six across Oregon intended to foster 21st Century career skills, particularly for historically under-served student populations. The new Oregon Coast Regional STEM Hub will help provide coastal schools and educators with the tools and support necessary to deliver world-class STEM instruction to rural students.
A new curriculum from Oregon Sea Grant uses lessons from the 2011 Japanese tsunami – and subsequent arrival of large docks and other artifacts of the disaster on US shores – to teach about science, engineering – and the risks posed by foreign species hitching a ride on floating debris.
Developed by Sea Grant’s Watershed and Invasive Species Education (WISE) program, the curriculum was tested at several workshops this year where teachers had a chance to experience activities focused on getting students and teachers excited about STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) learning. Along with teaching about marine invaders, the activities looked at the power of tsunami waves, and how engineering can make shorefront communities more resilient to such disasters.
The entire curriculum is available, free, from Oregon Sea Grant’s Website.
Learn more:
Oregon Sea Grant has been awarded the APEX 2013 Award of Excellence in the “One-of-a-Kind Education & Training Publications” category for its work on The Oregon Coast Quests Book, 2013-14.
APEX 2013, the 25th Annual Awards for Publication Excellence, is an international competition that recognizes outstanding publications from newsletters and magazines to annual reports, brochures, and websites.
According to the APEX 2013 judges, “The awards were based on excellence in graphic design, quality of editorial content, and the success of the entry in conveying the message and achieving overall communications effectiveness.” This year’s competition was “exceptionally intense,” drawing 2,400 entries in 12 major categories.
Quests are fun and educational clue-directed hunts that encourage exploration of natural areas. In this self-guided activity, Questers follow a map and find a series of clues to reach a hidden box. This edition of the Oregon Coast Quests Book contains 26 Quests in three counties (Lincoln, Coos, and Benton), including six brand-new Quests and one in both English and Spanish.
The Oregon Coast Quests program is coordinated by Oregon Sea Grant Marine Educator Cait Goodwin, who also oversaw production of the book. Oregon Sea Grant Managing Editor Rick Cooper performed the editing and layout.
You can order copies of The Oregon Coast Quests Book here.