Alaska Sea Grant Research, Education, and Marine Advisory Program October 2017 Update
Unalaska MAP faculty Melissa Good joined several visiting scientists during the annual weeklong Bering Sea Days on St Paul Island. The event brings scientists to the Pribilof Islands to give students an opportunity to learn about marine science and marine science careers, and to give scientists a chance to interact with K-12 students and test their abilities to present complex concepts simply. Melissa piloted a new blue king crab lesson with 2nd-3rd graders, which will become part of the Alaska Seas and Watersheds curriculum. She worked with Jared Weems, CFOS student and researcher, to develop the lesson. Nearly 70 students participated in Bering Sea Days. “Nudibranchs are awesome!” said one of the kids.
On the schedule: Dec. 6-8: 7th Alaska Young Fishermen’s Summit, Anchorage Jan. 22: Communicating Ocean Sciences Workshop, Anchorage Feb. 5-7: Pacific Fisheries Technologists Conference, Girdwood
October Highlights HEALTHY COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS Ketchikan Marine Advisory agent Gary Freitag performed a monthly COASST bird carcass survey walk with no dead birds encountered. He also collected Luminaria kelp sorus tissue (darker areas of blades in photo) for the OceansAlaska hatchery for seaweed spawning experiments to determine local Laminaria ripeness timing.
Marine Advisory agent Gay Sheffield participated in US Coast Guard flights looking for marine mammal carcasses in the Bering Strait area.
RESILIENT COMMUNITIES AND ECONOMIES Gabe Dunham, Bristol Bay MAP agent, with partners, is hosting a local lunch presentation series focusing on state and federal decisions that impact local communities.
Community resilience specialist Davin Holen helped create a tool to help Cook Inlet oil spill response planners better understand potential event impacts on environment and natural resources, such as commercial fisheries, subsistence uses, and wildlife. KBBI radio aired the story.
Gay Sheffield provided outreach materials and gave a presentation on Bering Strait region marine mammal safety to eight new employees at the Norton Sound Health Corporation medical center in Nome.
ASG-funded investigator Heidi Pearson, a UAS professor with a joint appointment at CFOS, produced a video highlighting her work on “Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Whale Watching in Juneau, Alaska.”
SUSTAINABLE FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE Investigators on the ASG-funded “Graying of the Fleet” project are featuring “Tip Tuesday” videos for commercial fishermen, distributed weekly via Facebook, which began October 24. The one-minute videos share advice from seasoned fishermen and industry experts to help new fishermen with topics such as basic business management, fishing lifestyle priorities, and regulatory processes participation.
Marine Advisory faculty Quentin Fong, Gabe Dunham, Chris Sannito, and Terry Johnson taught 20 online students enrolled in the web course “Starting and Operating a Direct Seafood Marketing Business” via Zoom. This popular five-evening course is limited and has a student waiting list; contact Quentin Fong for details.
ASG-funded researcher Anne Beaudreau, CFOS associate professor in Juneau, wrote two articles for her UAF CFOS Coastal Fisheries Ecology Lab blog on her project: Seining Workout and Why I Love Sculpins.
Seafood Specialist Chris Sannito taught “Smoked Seafood School” at the Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center (15 students) and in Cordova (15 students) this month. Seafoodnews.com, KMXT, and the Cordova Times ran stories on the Kodiak class, which is geared to commercial smoking entrepreneurs. The Cordova workshop (photo), focused on home seafood smoking techniques and food safety, and was coordinated by Cordova agent Torie Baker.
Marine Advisory agents Sunny Rice and Torie Baker were invited to join the steering committee for the 2018 British Columbia Young Fishermen’s Gathering, a new event initiated last year by Canadian alum of the Alaska Young Fishermen’s Summit. The BC Gathering will be held next February in Victoria, BC.
ASG-supported CFOS student Jordan Watson defended his PhD thesis, “Quantifying Fisher Responses to Environmental and Regulatory Dynamics in Marine Systems.”
Gary Freitag attended the Western Regional Aquaculture Association meetings this month in Spokane where he reported on purple hinge rock scallop propagation research begin supported by WRAC.
Marine Advisory agent Melissa Good and other members of the Alaska Ocean Acidification Network’s Fisherman Engagement committee on outreach strategies for new Gulf of Alaska OA research results. Davin Holen, coordinator of the Network’s Tribal Working Group, met with them on OA water sampling and EPA collaboration.
Chris Sannito assisted several processors and entrepreneurs on topics including plant design engineering, king salmon roe, pH analysis of pickled products, pickled product regulations and processing, and process monitoring equipment. Chris provided process authority letters for a dried seaweed product and ginger beer.
Sunny Rice, with the help of several industry partners and MAP agents, finished a new commercial fisheries map section on the ASG FishBiz website. The clickable graphic depicts locations, species, gear, and seasons for different fisheries as well as links to relevant ADFG and NOAA offices and fisheries management plans.
Gabe Dunham taught outboard engine repair and maintenance to 15 Dillingham students and a second class to several New Stuyahok residents this month.
Cordova agent Torie Baker coordinated two Copper River/Prince William Sound Local Advisory Committee meetings. The community stakeholder group is preparing comments on 52 finfish regulatory proposals being considered at the Alaska Board of Fisheries at their December meetings in Valdez.
ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT ASG communications manager Paula Dobbyn and MAP agents Gay Sheffield and Chris Sannito spent a week in Astoria, OR, for the second half of the National Sea Grant Academy, a 2-week professional development opportunity for new Sea Grant agents and staff. The first week of trainings were in Annapolis, MD, in March. Participants continued sessions on fundamentals of Sea Grant extension, and team and individual projects.
In Unalaska, Melissa Good taught a UAF class “Beginning Scuba” to 7 students as they earned their way toward PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) certification (photo).
Davin Holen gave a presentation on the new Adapt Alaska website to a group of educators for a project Marine education specialist Marilyn Sigman is facilitating, called Coast Walk for Alaska.
Gay Sheffield hosted two Strait Science Series presentations in Nome: “Zebras in the Arctic: A Local Approach to a Global Issue” (Kelly Kaspar of the St. Louis Zoo and others; 9 attendees) and “It’s All Different: Making Sense of our ‘New Climate’” (Richard Thoman; 22 attendees). Sunny Rice hosted the Petersburg Science Series, which this month was a kids’ event on bats for Halloween; 15 1-5th graders attended.
During her visit to St. Paul for Bering Sea Days, Melissa Good packed along the Kelp Forests of the Aleutian Islands public exhibit. Over 115 residents viewed the information, with many commenting on how excited they were to see this display in their community.
In October Sunny Rice met 7 times with the Petersburg Science Bowl Team, who will focus on marine winds and extreme rain events for the research component in the upcoming state competition. Sunny participated in a weekend of local fundraising to help pay student travel costs to the Sitka Whalefest next month, where her team will scrimmage with Sitka’s NOSB team. Gary Freitag reviewed climate change materials for the Ketchikan High School NOSB team being coached by local teacher Ann Cross.
NEWS ROUND-UP In addition to above media links, Gay Sheffield was on a call-in show on KNOM-FM fielding questions about the US Fish and Wildlife Service decision not to list the Pacific walrus under the Endangered Species Act. Haiki Magazine featured Gary Freitag’s work helping oyster farmers in California and Washington get oyster seed from Alaska. ASG’s publication Seaweed Farming in Alaska was mentioned in the Alaska Dispatch News, Cordova Times and Alaska Journal of Commerce. ASG’s three new aquaculture grants to OceansAlaska, Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation, and the Pacific Shellfish Institute were highlighted by KRBD Radio in Ketchikan, and appeared in SeafoodNews.com.
Marine Advisory faculty answered public questions on: sea cucumber marketing, octopus processing business plan, seaweed business, fishing operation finance, transferring fishing permits, financing a tender operation, smoked seafood business opportunities, selecting a processing site, smoked seafood class in Fairbanks, source of bulk sodium hydroxide, future technology in the seafood industry, weather reporting ideas, walrus PSP, identify white-spotted greenling, injured boreal owl, beach-cast bone, unidentified ships near Gambell, maritime subsistence–research conflict, federal non-listing of walruses.
COLLEGE OF FISHERIES AND OCEAN SCIENCES
University of Alaska Fairbanks