Vol. XXV, No. 5
May 2005
Unalaska MAP agent Reid Brewer initiated a biweekly newspaper article series called "Octopus Ink," featuring research in the Aleutians. The first appeared in The Dutch Harbor Fisherman on April 14. The article is on the medical research of Vladimir Malinovskii, who collected the hepatopancreas from 100 Alaska red king crabs harvested in the Unalaska fishery. Malinovskii, from the University of Miami School of Medicine, is seeking a source of collagenase to treat severe skin damage in burn victims. The crab hepatopancreas may prove to be a cheaper source than isolating collagenase from microorganisms, as is currently done.
Alaska Sea Grant has published a new 2006 Alaska Coastal Calendar. Spectacular photographs include whales breaching in Prince William Sound, commercial fishing boats in the Sitka Channel in Southeast Alaska, Margerie Glacier calving in Glacier Bay, and a view from Fossil Beach on Kodiak Island. The wall calendar also has natural history information about Alaska's coasts and important dates in the state's maritime history. At $12 each, it makes a great gift or a memento. See http://seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/calendar2006/samples.html for a peek at inside pages. A Made in Alaska product.
Dillingham MAP agent Liz Brown has coordinated the design of a poster showing the annual harvest cycle of subsistence plants and animals in the Bristol Bay region. The project culminated in the May 3 judging of eight poster designs created by students enrolled in UAF's Art 472, taught by Miho Aoki. Each art student gave a presentation about his or her poster to the judges—Deborah Mercy, Dixon Jones, Kurt Byers, Liz Brown, and Wanda Chin, all of UAF, and John Chythlook, Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Poster creations by students Brett Boyette, Ryan Brown, Dan Bruington, Ryan Long, Frankie Mercado, John Neubauer, Elizabeth Perry, Rita Reid, and Lisa Ward are viewable at http://www.art.uaf.edu/471/sp05/calendar/.
The project originated when two student interns were hired through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Subsistence Management, Partners for Fisheries Monitoring. In summer 2004 the interns worked for the Bristol Bay Native Association, while enrolled in UAF's Fish 395. They compiled a list of the plants and animals used for subsistence foods in the Bristol Bay area, when they are available, and the Latin names and the Yup'ik names. Alaska Sea Grant will print and distribute the poster, after the design is selected from the creative and colorful works.
Kathy Kurtenbach has accepted the Alaska Sea Grant position as marketing/sales coordinator. She will spend her time promoting Sea Grant publications and videos to educate the public on marine resources. Kurtenbach has served as publishing coordinator for Sea Grant since 2001. The marketing position is the first of its kind in the National Sea Grant network.
Although she officially started the new job May 2, Kurtenbach has already increased Sea Grant visibility via several marketing projects. She coordinated a vendor fair booth at the April Outdoor Show in Fairbanks, attended by 8,000 people, where $2,000 worth of Sea Grant products were sold. At the IDEA (Interior Distance Education of Alaska) homeschoolers' fair in Fairbanks, families purchased the Sea Week curriculum, youth safety curricula, fish identification books, and Common Edible Seaweeds in the Gulf of Alaska, by Dolly Garza.
In other promotional efforts, UA Press will show three Sea Grant books in their fall catalog, and several Sea Grant publications will be promoted on 40 Holland America tour buses this summer.
The "Managing Fisheries-Empowering Communities" conference was held April 21–23 in Anchorage. About 145 people participated, representing small Alaska communities, charter businesses, agencies, fishermen, and others.
Among the many well-received talks were the keynote, by Ross Shotton of FAO, on how communities can empower themselves in local fisheries management; Shotton's presentation on international perspectives on community-based fishery management; and Hubert Saulnier's talk on community-based management in the fixed gear groundfishery off Nova Scotia.
MAP leader Paula Cullenberg played a key role in developing the program and making the meeting a success. Sherri Pristash, Alaska Sea Grant meetings coordinator, received many thanks from participants for helping to organize the meeting.
PowerPoint presentations from the conference are posted on the Web, accessible from http://seagrant.uaf.edu/conferences/fish-com/agenda.html. A proceedings book will be published in September 2005.
The meeting "Copper River Salmon Workshop No. 1" took place April 12–14 in Anchorage. Ninety people participated, with communities on the Copper River well represented. The meeting was held to foster a broader understanding of the natural and human-influenced processes affecting wild salmon stocks in the Copper River watershed. Attendees—watershed stewards, resource managers, scientists, residents, and resource users—felt the meeting was a success and they look forward to the second Copper River salmon meeting in November 2005. A summary document will be made available on the Web this month.
Kurt Byers, Terry Johnson, Sue Keller, Kathy Kurtenbach, Tatiana Piatanova, and Doug Schneider have been awarded the Outstanding Professional Skill Award for Publishing, by the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE). The gold award winners from each class in the publishing category were measured against each other, and Alaska Sea Grant's book, The Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands: Region of Wonders, was judged the "best of the best." The book won two gold awards from ACE—for graphic design and overall production. The awards will be presented at the annual ACE meeting next month in San Antonio.
MAP agent Torie Baker coordinated a net mending/net hanging class with gear supplier LFS in Cordova. Baker used the Sea Grant/MAP publication Gillnet Hanging, by Paula Cullenberg, for the class.
MAP agent Terry Johnson was promoted to UAF professor of fisheries.
Rick Steiner organized and made three presentations at a three-day workshop in Mauritania titled "Offshore Oil and the West Africa Ecoregion," sponsored by Fondation Internationale du Banc d'Arguin, IUCN, and World Wildlife Fund.
Quentin Fong, MAP seafood marketing specialist, helped the U.S. Coast Guard, Kodiak Air Station, host a fisheries law enforcement delegation from the People's Republic of China. The delegates are interested in studying how the United States conducts fisheries management and enforcement. NOAA funded the group's visit.
Kodiak specialist Kate Wynne is chair of an SFOS committee to plan for "Faculty of the Future." Dean Wiesenburg established the school-wide committee to develop a plan for hiring new SFOS faculty, to assure the school will hire new faculty in disciplines to allow effective delivery of academic programs to the next generation of students. The committee will meet over the next few months and make a recommendation August 22–23 in Fairbanks.
NOAA announces the Ernest F. Hollings scholarship to provide undergraduates with opportunities in oceanic and atmospheric studies. Applications for the scholarship are due May 23, 2005. Eligible undergraduate students must be a U.S. citizen, enroll as a junior-level, full-time student in fall 2005; have a 3.0 grade average; have taken courses in the major field of study; and declared a major in oceanic and atmospheric science, research, technology, or education. For more information see http://www.orau.gov/noaa/HollingsScholarship/.