Vol. 27, No. 8
August 2007
Jiaqi Huang, Sea Grant–funded master's student at FITC, won awards for two of his papers at the July 2007 Institute of Food Technologists Annual Conference, in Chicago. In the Aquatic Food Products graduate student paper competition, he earned first place for "Purifying red salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) oil using a combined neutralization and adsorption process" by J. Huang and S. Sathivel. In the Food Packaging competition he got third place for "Gas permeability of chitosan film and its effect on lipid oxidation of skinless pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) fillets during 8-month frozen storage," by J. Huang, S. Sathivel, Q. Liuc, and W. Prinyawiwatkul. Subramaniam Sathivel, who recently took a position at Louisiana State University, is Huang's advisor.
Alaska Sea Grant–funded graduate student Stan Triebenbach defended his master's thesis, "Compensatory Growth Following Winter Food Deprivation in Hatchery Produced Coho and Chinook Salmon Smolts," on July 6. In his study, coho and chinook smolts subjected to winter food deprivation grew faster in the spring, but the long-term effects on body size are unknown. Thus food restriction may be a way to increase spring growth rates, which are correlated with smolting success and survival in hatcheries. Triebenbach's faculty advisor is Bill Smoker.
Amit Morey, who also has received Alaska Sea Grant funding, defended his thesis July 9, on "Fish Bacterial Flora Identification via Rapid Cellular Fatty Acid Analysis." Morey evaluated the Sherlock Microbial Identification System to identify known bacterial cultures, and conducted fish spoilage experiments to isolate unknown bacteria for identification. He concluded that Sherlock MIS rapidly and accurately identified seafood bacteria in fresh fish, and can be used to monitor quality changes during iced storage of fish. Morey is an M.S. candidate in the UAF Interdisciplinary Program in Seafood Science and Nutrition. His faculty advisor is Brian Himelbloom.
Denby Lloyd, ADFG Commissioner, is a new member of the Alaska Sea Grant Advisory Committee. The annual Advisory Committee meeting will be held Nov. 7–8, 2007, at the National Park Service Regional Office in Anchorage. Speakers will include UAF professor Terry Chapin, an expert on terrestrial ecosystems and Native communities, and Dean Denis Wiesenburg.
An Advisory Committee subcommittee meeting on strategic planning will be held September 7 in Anchorage. Alaska Sea Grant is seeking fresh advice from constituents on goals, themes, and objectives, as well as improving strategic and implementation plans. Attending will be Orson Smith, Arliss Sturgulewski, Dorothy Childers, Jeff Stephan, Molly McCammon, the Sea Grant Management Team, and others. Margo Matthews will facilitate the meeting.
On August 22, Alaska Sea Grant will hold a scientific meeting to brief ADFG regarding the scientific studies on red and blue king crab in 2007. In addition, the science team will review studies planned for 2008. The meeting site is the new Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute in Juneau.
Canada DFO's Anna Epelbaum will report on crab culture in Russia, Brad Stevens will share information on king crab culture worldwide, and Brian Allee will talk about the AKCRRAB grassroots effort. Ben Daly and Celeste Leroux will report on past and present experiments, while Ginny Eckert will discuss future experiments. The AKCRRAB steering committee will meet August 21 in the afternoon.
Alaska Sea Grant has launched a new Web site for AKCRRAB at http://seagrant.uaf.edu/research/projects/initiatives/king_crab/general. Features of the interactive site include blogging, forums, and surveys, as well as learning tools such as audio and video, and links to resources.
Three Alaska Sea Grant publications earned awards recently. The brochure announcing the 2007 International Smoked Seafood Symposium, designed by Jen Gunderson, won a bronze award from the Association for Communication Excellence in the direct mail category. In addition, The Gulf of Alaska: Biology and Oceanography, edited by Phil Mundy, and Common Edible Seaweeds in the Gulf of Alaska, by Dolly Garza, were selected as 2006 Notable Government Documents by the Library Journal. Linda B. Johnson, chair of the Notable Documents Panel offered this congratulatory note, "It is a bit unusual for more than one publication from the same state to be selected so this is a true accomplishment attesting to the importance and quality of your publications. I know that many librarians use the list for selection purposes, thus enriching their collections."
The UA Museum of the North is featuring the exhibit "From Sea to Shining Sea: 200 Years of Charting America's Coasts," celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Survey of the Coast, the predecessor to NOAA, through Dec. 31. The poster exhibit was produced by the Smithsonian Institution. The Coast Survey was originally charged by Thomas Jefferson, to provide a "complete and accurate chart of every part of the coasts" of the United States.
Brian Allee will speak about Alaska Sea Grant at the workshop on NOAA regional outreach collaboration, in Kasitsna Bay, Aug. 15–17. Attendees will represent NOAA units in Alaska, and other Alaska groups with marine outreach activities.
SFOS Ph.D. graduate student Jodi Pirtle will be awarded a research assistantship to work on the Alaska Regional Marine Research Plan, directly with Keith Criddle. Pirtle's faculty advisor is Ginny Eckert.
The mission of the project is to assemble research plans from Alaska resource agencies, and articulate research needs and data gaps from grassroots user groups and stakeholders, to develop a consensus around marine research and information needs for the Aleutian Islands. This project will identify the top 10 management-critical research priorities for interdisciplinary studies in the Aleutian Island ecosystem.