My project is to look at the changes in various water conditions at the Tillamook Estuary. We are predominantly interested in ocean acidification and how the pH changes over time, but we are also looking into dissolved oxygen, salinity, and nutrient load. My project is focused on writing a code in R that allows us to analyze multiple datasets that have been accumulating data for the past three years. My project is fully remote, so having a routine is key. I start my day with some exercise since the rest of my day is spent sitting behind my computer. As you can see in my photo, I have a lot of furry friends to keep me company while I work. The place I am staying at has four cats and two dogs (one of which is only five months old!) so they help make sure I take breaks here and there to give them some pets. Since the majority of my work is spent trying to figure out how to properly format codes, taking many short breaks is necessary to avoid succumbing to frustration.

I meet with my supervisor twice a week and have a team meeting with the other intern involved with the project, McKenzie, once a week. McKenzie started her project shortly after mine so I’ve only just met her, but it is nice to have someone to share codes with and help troubleshoot problems we’re having. Having another person to share the challenges of coding with also helps keep me motivated, which is certainly more difficult given the current state of things. The main downside of my COVID-19 routine is not having the quiet workspace that I am used to having during the school year. I usually do all my work in a library or café, but with the stay at home order, it is increasingly difficult to separate my workspace from my rest space. Although, there are certainly positives to this situation. I love the fact that I can work whenever I want and take breaks when I feel like it. When I did my work at a library, I would usually try to power through it in order to get home as soon as possible. Now that I do my work at home, I’m able to work more at my pace and I’ve found that I am much more productive this way (even if it takes more time overall). I am also able to give in to my night owl tendencies and am realizing I am most productive in the evenings, which is not something I am able to do with in-person work.

Since my last blog post, I have spent much of my time coordinating and preparing for summer science camps at the South Slough. After assisting in the first summer camp two weeks ago, which was virtual, I have worked closely with my mentor, Jaime Belanger, and other members of the education team to create activities for the next camp, which is an in-person camp that starts this upcoming Tuesday, the 14th. Due to regulations intended to prevent the spread of Covid-19, preparations for this camp have been very tedious. It was only yesterday that we finally worked out every last detail regarding how to sanitize all the materials and environments that the children in the upcoming camp will interact with on a continuous basis. Although COVID-19 has limited what our education team can do with the kids at camp, it has also forced us to be adaptable and creative in this time, which in my opinion, is going to be helpful in the long run.

Though I have been working on logistical planning for much of the past two weeks, I have also had the opportunity to assist in upland forest biomonitoring in that time, lead educational hikes through the South Slough Estuary, and continue my work on an extensive plant identification guide for the South Slough. This variety is more indicative of my daily-routine (or weekly routine) at the South Slough. During a given week, I usually spend time assisting the science team conduct fieldwork near the OIMB, coordinating events for the South Slough education team, and working on projects (such as the plant identification guide) at the South Slough Visitor’s Center.  My hours and location vary with the day, but all of my work so far has been in-person. I work Tuesdays-Saturdays with work days that are usually around 8 hours, though some days require longer hours and some require less. On days that I assist the science team conduct fieldwork that is dependent on the tide, my day may start very early in the morning or end late in the evening. 

One special aspect of my work has been that whether I am at the Visitor’s Center or out in the field, I always have the opportunity to be active during these strange times. When I’m in the field, I often go home physically exhausted (which is a good thing!) and when at the Visitor’s Center, I always have the opportunity to hike trails or collect materials out in the marsh if I start feeling antsy from computer work. 

Another special aspect of working at the South Slough is that within the education team, I feel like an important member. While I am an intern and am directed to take care of various tasks, I am also given much freedom to influence the educational materials and camps as I like. I speak with my mentor and the other team members frequently every day. I also participate in team meetings and feel grateful that the ideas I come up with are not only considered, but also often implemented. Overall, my time so far at the South Slough has been great. I have been learning valuable skills while getting to do lots of fun work! It’s awesome!

Since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic this Spring, many of our professional and personal lives have changed dramatically. If we are lucky enough to still be employed and healthy, those of us in the policy realm are likely working from home, somewhat settled in a new ‘normal,’ and wondering just how long we are going to be feeling the impacts of COVID-19.

My position as a fellow has always been remote, because working with the West Coast Ocean Alliance (WCOA) and West Coast Ocean Data Portal (WCODP) entails working with (and finding creative ways to communicate with) state, tribal, and federal government agencies along the West Coast of the U.S. In other words, I used Zoom before it was cool— so the past few months haven’t been terribly different for me (unless you count the pervasive sense of doom).

However, many of our WCOA members are busy overseeing changes to the way their agency regularly operates, responding to COVID-19 related issues in their region, and planning for impacts that will extend well into the future. While the capacity of these members to engage in regional discussions with the WCOA and WCODP has not been too diminished, there are a few distinct ways that the pandemic has affected our member entities and the work of the WCOA, and will continue to do so moving forward.

Shifting Focus

When coronavirus cases began to climb in the U.S. and West Coast states issued stay-at-home orders, many of our WCOA members had to spend time equipping their employees to telework and assessing the risks of continuing field work and shipboard programs. For example, several research cruises that were scheduled for this year and that contribute to long-term monitoring efforts on the West Coast have been suspended, and in March NOAA Fisheries issued an emergency action to waive observer coverage on fishing vessels on a case-by-case basis, which is still in place. For some of the WCOA’s tribal members, such as the Quinalt Indian Nation, decisions were made to close tribal land to all visitors until deemed safe to reopen.

All of the time and effort needed to respond to the challenges presented by COVID-19 necessarily took time away from individuals’ ability to engage in specific regional projects, and despite the fact that connecting on remote platforms was not new to us, the advent of COVID-19 led to a lot of confusion and frequently changing policies about which platforms different members were allowed to use! However, the regular meetings of the WCOA during this time have provided an excellent forum for comparing impacts and responses to coronavirus across the region, sharing updates about changes that could affect other member entities, and providing reassurance that this has been a difficult time for everyone to adapt to.

Shifting Finances

Our state and tribal partners rely on diverse sources of revenue to fund their governments, including tourism, commercial fishing, and annual fees for activities like recreation access. All of these activities and the funds they provide have been curtailed significantly this year, and many of our members are facing budget deficits, hiring freezes and furloughs in their entities. Washington State is expecting an $8.8 billion budget deficit through 2023, and Governor Jay Inslee recently announced that he would be requiring mandatory furlough days for state agencies at least through this fall. California recently had a hotly contested budget debate, and Oregon may still hold a second special session for state legislators later this summer, to deal with the economic impacts of coronavirus to the state.

The WCOA and WCODP do not rely on financial contributions from member states and tribal governments in order to operate, but instead have multiple different funding streams from federal and foundation sources. In this way, funding for the WCOA and WCODP will not be directly affected by coronavirus for the near future. However, fewer resources and staff for our members will impact the capacity they have to continue with our regional efforts, and some federal agencies and private foundations are likely to have less money to distribute and / or more applicants for opportunities in the future.

Looking Ahead to New Methods of Coordination

The WCOA and WCODP use their funding streams to pursue a variety of projects according to the needs and preferences of their members. As we face the reality that out-of-state travel and meetings may be severely limited for at least the next couple of years, we have been thinking about how we may need to prioritize some projects over others and how we might adapt some of our regular practices based on this changing landscape.

For example, the WCOA and WCODP have long been considering a spatially-enabled database tool to facilitate communication and identify key contacts as they relate to ocean and coastal projects developing on the West Coast. Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has eliminated many opportunities for in-person communication on this subject, the WCODP plans to push the development of this tool throughout the rest of 2020.

The WCOA and WCODP also strive to hold an in-person meeting for their members annually, rotating between the three West Coast states of Washington, Oregon, and California. With a 2019 meeting in Tacoma, WA under my belt, I was looking forward to planning an engaging event in Oregon this year. However, like many large meetings and conferences slated for 2020, we are now brainstorming ways to host a productive remote gathering at the end of this year.

Since beginning my fellowship last June, a sentiment that I have heard over and over again from WCOA and WCODP members is that the true value of a regional coordinating group like the West Coast Ocean Alliance is found in the personal relationships it creates. These relationships lead to information-sharing and collaboration on research and policy, and can contribute to conflict resolution when some entities don’t see eye-to-eye. Our members may not meet up in person this year as often as they have in the past, but I am certain that these relationships and their value will endure. Perhaps, moving forward, regional coordination will become even more important in order to leverage resources for positive outcomes for our coasts and oceans. As a coordinating body, the WCOA will continue to remain flexible, react to the needs of our members, and see where the next several months take us.

The majority of my summer will be spent learning R which is a computer programming language used for statistical analysis. After learning R, I will go through a substantial amount of data and look for any significant trends in water parameters near Tillamook Bay. By analyzing the data at Tillamook Bay through R, we can visualize how ocean conditions, such as pH, dissolved oxygen, and temperature, have changed over the past few years. The data set is very large, so using a coding program like R will allow us to better organize the data and take out bad data points.

Once we have an understanding of these ocean trends, we can compare our results to other estuaries and see how this could affect oyster growth. Keeping track of how estuaries are responding to anthropogenic stressors, like excess carbon, is vital for maintaining the resilience of these ecosystems so they can continue to support the coastal community. This is essential to the Environmental Protection Agency’s mission, which works towards protecting both human health and the environment through writing, interpreting, and enforcing regulations. We hope to see how badly Tillamook is affected by ocean acidification which will allow policymakers to make informed decisions on how to combat the adverse consequences of climate change.

The current pandemic and stay-at-home orders have disrupted so many plans and events, but the crab chronicles continue! (Thanks for the cool name, Stephanie!) I am fortunate to be writing this from the safety of my home, where I’ve slowly been adjusting to this new normal. My work remains much the same, with the majority of my time dedicated to drafting a conservation plan for the Dungeness crab fishery to reduce the risk of whale entanglements in crab gear. While the conservation plan timeline itself remains uninterrupted, there have been impacts to other aspects of the state’s whale entanglement management timeline and certainly impacts being felt throughout the crab and broader fishing industry.

One activity related to whale entanglements that is unfortunately being impacted by current events, is a collaborative research project that has been working to collect whale distribution data in Oregon waters since 2019. The project is a collaboration between Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), Oregon State University, and the U.S. Coast Guard, funded during its first year by the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission and through Section 6 grants under the Endangered Species Act since. The study is utilizing bi-monthly aerial surveys to collect whale presence and absence data over a two year period. However, surveys have not been able to be conducted since March due to the current public health crisis.

The impetus for this project was a significant information gap identified early on by the Oregon Whale Entanglement Working Group (OWEWG), which was convened in 2017. The OWEWG found that knowledge of seasonal whale distribution in Oregon waters is lacking and must be addressed to better understand the spatial and temporal patterns of whale entanglement risk in Oregon. By combining improved data on whale distribution with relatively high-resolution data on fishery effort from ODFW fishery logbooks, maps of entanglement risk can be developed and used to guide more targeted management. In the meantime, preliminary presence/absence data have already been used to inform ODFW staff recommendations for risk reduction management measures that are being proposed to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission this year.

Additionally, the project involves a citizen science outreach component which encourages ocean users, including fishers, to participate in reporting opportunistic whale sightings through a Whale Alert mobile application. Aerial survey data will inform predictive distribution models describing species distributions relative to environmental conditions, and citizen science data will contribute to model validation. Additionally, vessel-based photo identification and tissue sampling will provide information on whale population structures.

The whale distribution study is critical to making informed management decisions in the future that maximize effectiveness of protecting whales while minimizing impacts to industry. It is also a great example of a collaborative approach to address a challenging issue. I hope that surveys are able to resume soon, when it is safe to do so, to continue collecting this critical information.