Hi everyone! My name is Keiko Nomura and\nI am currently a second-year Master\u2019s student studying Marine Resource\nManagement at Oregon State University. I am a Malouf Scholar this year, and my\nthesis research focuses on understanding the resilience of fisheries to\nenvironmental change. For my first blog post, I want to introduce myself, my\npath here, and a bit about my work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\ngrew up in Southern California, where I was lucky enough to be able to take occasional\nday trips to the beach. This is definitely where my love for the ocean\noriginated. However, I also remember noticing how people changed the natural\nenvironment around them: housing developments, pollution, even habitat\nrestorations both intrigued and bothered me. I became profoundly curious about\nthe interactions between people and their environment, particularly the ocean. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As\nan undergraduate, I pursued this curiosity by working in marine ecology and\ntoxicology labs focused on anthropogenic impacts to coastal organisms. These\nearly research experiences affirmed my passions for marine science. However, I started to become interested in more interdisciplinary,\npolicy-relevant research questions. Around this time, I studied abroad in Costa\nRica taking a class on ecotourism. This time spent abroad broadened both my personal\nand professional perspectives. I witnessed many impressive conservation and\nsustainability initiatives. But I also saw the jarring realities of current\nunsustainable practices – disturbed sea turtle populations, overflowing\nlandfills, displaced fishermen. Each of these issues, and success stories, was\nmore complex than I originally thought, and the important interrelatedness of\nsocial, ecological, and economic elements in overall sustainability became\nabundantly clear to me. I returned home with a newfound drive to seek out\nbroader research perspectives and integrative solutions to marine issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon\nthereafter, I discovered the fields of marine spatial planning and policy\nthrough an NSF REU internship. I instantly became hooked. It was exactly what I\nwas looking for, and my sights were set for pursuing this sort of work in\ngraduate school. Before entering my current graduate program, I worked in several\ninformal environmental education jobs. I learned to engage with people of all\nages about ocean topics ranging from tidepool ecology and oyster restorations\nto marine protected areas and climate change. After working as an educator, I\nknew I somehow had to incorporate science outreach into my future research\ncareer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of this has led me to where I am today at the\nMarine Resource Management program. My thesis work focuses on the resilience of fishing communities to\nenvironmental change. Global oceans are changing in unprecedented ways. People\nand society are going to need to respond accordingly to maintain human\nwell-being and healthy ocean ecosystem services. Fishing is one such activity\nthat can help bolster food security and local economies. But changing ocean\nconditions may alter the health and distributions of fish populations,\nresulting in fishery closures or delayed starts. Career fishermen and seafood\nprocessors in these circumstances therefore have to deal with less work and\nincome. My project seeks to answer the question: When fishermen cannot catch\nwhat they normally catch, what do they do? Some options include increasing\ntheir fishing effort, fishing for a different species, or, in some cases,\nleaving fishing altogether. Throughout my time in my graduate program, I have\nworked on developing methods for assessing the resilience of small-scale\nfisheries in Baja, Mexico, by using fisheries logbooks and environmental data. I\nalso will create an infographic to communicate these results. Moving forward, I\nwill apply these methods to study the resilience of commercial fisheries along\nthe U.S. West Coast, particularly in Oregon and Washington. I look forward to\nmaking progress with these projects and reporting back to share with you all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hi everyone! My name is Keiko Nomura and I am currently a second-year Master\u2019s student studying Marine Resource Management at Oregon State University. I am a Malouf Scholar this year, and my thesis research focuses on understanding the resilience of … Continue reading