As 2019 draws to a close, it is time for me to reflect on my year as an Oregon Sea Grant Natural Resource Policy Fellow – and it’s time for me to post my farewell blog! My year assisting the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) to the Ocean Policy Advisory Council (OPAC) has been an amazing opportunity, and I hope that my efforts to assist STAC as they prepare for the upcoming 2023 Marine Reserves assessment will benefit all Oregonians as the process moves forward.

As a fellow, I also had the opportunity to engage in science communication activities like blogging. Instead of my usual blog, I decided to take this opportunity to highlight some of the scientific research I learned about this year in the form of a StoryMap. It would be impossible for me to do justice to all the research that’s happening at Oregon’s five marine reserves, but I attempted to highlight these things I know:

• cool science is happening
• science requires creative and collaborative approaches
• research projects happening in marine reserves are helping to broaden our understanding of Oregon’s nearshore

I can also say the following with confidence: science communication is hard work! I really appreciate all the scientists who agreed to be featured, and I also truly appreciate input and photographs provided by ODFW’s Marine Reserves Program. Any mistakes are mine. Effective scicommers are awesome. While I’m not including myself in the effective scicommers category, I hope that you enjoy my first StoryMap and learn a little about Oregon’s marine reserves in the process.