Over the last few months at Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD), one of my focuses has been executing a pilot project in which we audit our permit records. The Ocean Shores team is responsible for regulating development on Oregon’s public beaches, and one major type of development that extends onto the ocean shore is shoreline protective structures. Riprap revetments are the most common type of shoreline protective structure along the Oregon coast and are commonly installed on developed lots that are experiencing erosion. As the main purpose of my role is to organize and geolocate our permit records, we are auditing our new record keeping system to get a sense as to whether we have captured all information during the transition.

The audit consisted of field visits to compare the present site conditions of ocean-fronting properties to our records for riprap revetments. Because patterns of dune erosion and accretion can be cyclical, there are areas of the coast where riprap was installed at a time of erosion but may be buried under the sand of a recently accreted dune. Because of this, if our records indicated the presence of riprap but nothing was visible, it was not assumed that our record was incorrect. In instances where a riprap revetment was visible, we measured it to compare to the conditions which were permitted. While many of the structures we observed were aligned with the permit records we have on file, the process did reveal a few instances in which site conditions did not align as expected with our permit records. Overall, it was a worthwhile exercise and really brought to life for me the revetments and site conditions that I’ve been reading about in our permit records.

The Ocean Shores team is also responsible for coordinating habitat protection and restoration for the threatened western snowy plover, which nests in dry sand areas of our beaches. One of the threats to their habitat has been the proliferation of European beach grass, which grows rapidly and leads to accretion of dunes. I have been lucky to tag along on a couple of trips to nesting areas with teammates who coordinate the restoration of snowy plover habitat. Restoration efforts can include the removal of shore pine and European beach grass and grading of the dunes. After the nesting season concluded in September, we took a trip out to Sitka Sedge State Natural Area to assess maintenance needs for the snowy plover habitat restoration area. Restoration efforts were initiated at this site in 2022, and it was time to assess follow-up tasks. Much of the area was still looking good, but it was determined that more removal of beach grass was needed to maintain conditions ideal for snowy plovers.

On separate visits to the beach at Sitka Sedge this summer, multiple snow plovers were spotted, indicating the habitat restoration is working! Unfortunately, it was a dismal year for nests that fledged across the entire Oregon coast.

Shoreline protection structure permitting and habitat restoration are just two of the many ways OPRD’s Ocean Shores team interfaces with our public beaches in an effort to protect recreational use and vital habitat.

Earlier this year, I attended the World Fisheries Congress in Seattle, WA to present on findings of a recently submitted paper exploring the value of sustainability ecolabels such as the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) towards shrimp production. This research was an extension of my masters thesis, funded by the U.S Department of Agriculture, as well as support from Oregon Sea Grant during my Natural Resource Policy Fellowship. The study focused on consumers in South Carolina and their willingness to pay for locally sourced, sustainably farmed shrimp. Using a choice experiment, where survey participants are given several options with varying attributes and prices, our results showed that consumers were willing to pay 41% more for locally sourced shrimp, in addition to 7% more for ASC-certified farm-raised shrimp. The results of this study are novel in that shrimp that is locally sourced on the Atlantic coast, such as Brown and White Shrimp, is harvested, whereas consumers showed a preference, and were willing to pay more for sustainably grown shrimp. Although land-based, recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) is a nascent industry in the U.S., significant steps are being made federal and state governments to expand this form of aquaculture to meet domestic seafood demands, and in turn move towards more sustainable production of shrimp.

The conference covered many topics, ranging from conservation through marine protected areas, to emerging technologies using artificial intelligence to monitor at-sea activities of fishing vessels. Scientists and policymakers around the world convened to share advancements being made in fisheries management through a series of breakout sessions and keynote presentations. The opportunity to present on findings from my masters was both rewarding and insightful as a diverse audience of ecologists and economists asked questions and provided feedback.

While attending the conference, I was fortunate enough to be part of the first cohort to receive accreditation as a fisheries conformity assessor from MSC. This newly formed course was offered to conference participants with previous experience working with MSC fisheries standards under version 2.01. During the workshop phase, we discussed expectations of the new version 3.0 that is currently being incorporated into certified fisheries across the world. Considering the relevance to Oregon, I drafted a policy brief and accompanying technical overview of meeting MSC fisheries standard version 3.0 for the Oregon Pink Shrimp fishery, which has been certified by MSC since 2007 and continues to be the only MSC-certified shrimp fishery in the world. I look forward to continue supporting the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and it’s partners in meeting these new fisheries assessment standards from MSC that ensure a sustainable and economical Pink Shrimp fishery for years to come.

Hi everyone, I am currently a Natural Resources Policy Fellow working with Oregon Parks and Recreation Department’s (OPRD) Ocean Shore team. I completed my master’s degree in Forest Ecosystems and Society at OSU in 2023. My thesis research was oriented around the human dimensions of Oregon’s marine reserves, which introduced me to some topics of marine resource management. In my fellowship, I am getting even more acquainted with the myriad scientific and policy activities on Oregon’s coast.

Oregon’s beaches, which are all public, fall under OPRD’s jurisdiction and are collectively administered as a state recreation area. The agency’s Ocean Shore team is considered a “central resource” for the agency. While there are many beach and park rangers and managers stationed locally along the entire coast, our team is small, more administrative in function, and focuses on projects, issues, and policies that largely impact the coast as a whole. One of the main functions of our team is to process permit applications for alterations along the coast, such as the construction or installation of accessways (stairways, ramps, etc.), shoreline protective structures (riprap revetments, seawalls, etc.), or other elements that would then have a permanent presence in the public right of way. Aspects of my role include organizing and geolocating these permitted structures, performing an audit for compliance of permissible activities, and analyzing data obtained from these two tasks. As time allows, I will also use these findings to create communication materials for OPRD partners.

Some of my favorite days of my fellowship so far have – surprise! – been those that I get to spend on the beach. So far, I’ve had the opportunity to attend the Navigating Coastal Hazards Workshop put on by Cascadia Coastlines and Peoples Hazards Research Hub (Cascadia CoPes Hub), go on a tour of the north coast, visit a snowy plover habitat management area (we spotted three down near the surf!), and tour marine reserves with partners from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, OPRD, and Oregon State Police. I’ve also made a few visits out to the central coast to kick off my auditing project. More on that next time!

Greetings! My name is Sam Cheplick (He/Him) and I am currently a natural resource policy fellow with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Marine Reserves program. I’m based at the ODFW marine resource programs South Beach office in Newport. A little bit of background on Oregon’s five marine reserves. The reserves range from Redfish Rocks on the southern Oregon coast to Cape Falcon on the northern coast, while the three other marine reserves are situated across Lincoln County on the central coast. They were phased in starting in 2012 until 2016 to conserve a variety of marine habitats while minimizing negative impacts to ocean users and coastal communities. Oregon marine reserves are unique in that they are mandated to monitor both the ecological and human dimensions of protecting nearshore ocean ecosystems, without negatively impacting coastal communities. In my role as a fellow, I’m working with ODFW staff to continue monitoring socioeconomic impacts to communities living in proximity to marine reserves along the Oregon coast.

In 2022, a team of academic scientists conducted a legislatively mandated decadal review of marine reserves that aimed to synthesize existing results and provide recommendations to be considered over the next decade. The primary objective of my work focuses on 1) supporting the development of an updated human dimensions monitoring plan, 2) developing tools that can be integrated into an adaptive management framework for monitoring marine reserves; and 3) assessing the economic impacts of nearshore resource management both within and outside marine reserves. What interests me most about this opportunity is the transdisciplinary nature of marine reserves. Approaches in ecology, economics and social science come together to answer broader questions of the role of protecting marine areas that informs management in the face of increasingly variable ocean conditions.

It’s hard to believe that I have less than two weeks left for my fellowship! I am currently wrapping up all final reports and there’s one in particular I am most excited to see finalized: A Situation Analysis for Oregon’s Emergent Seaweed Aquaculture Industry.

The report explores the restorative benefits seaweed aquaculture can provide, species options, production methods, high potential locations and co-location opportunities, market opportunities, and policy and regulatory considerations. The final stages of edits have involved working with a graphic designer to incorporate some images and a professional layout.

I have also been working with our graphic designer and OSG’s communications specialists to ensure that the public report meets federal accessibility requirements so that we may post it to the NOAA Central Library. This has largely involved making sure that the final PDF will be machine readable, which includes alt text for images that can be read aloud to users by screen reader software.

Overall I want to give a BIG thanks to all co-authors, reviewers, contributors, and our graphic designer for all the help and amazing work they’ve put towards the situation analysis. The report will be public on Oregon Sea Grant’s website in the coming weeks (I’ll follow up in the comments with a link)!