Vol. 27, No. 10
October 2007
Alaska Sea Grant is organizing the North Aleutian Basin Energy/Fisheries Workshop, a public event to be held March 18–19, 2008, in Anchorage. The purpose is to open a dialogue between offshore oil and gas interests and fisheries stakeholders in the North Aleutian Basin, which includes Bristol Bay. A federal offshore oil and gas lease sale is proposed for the southwest corner of the basin in 2011.
A 23-member steering committee will meet October 19 to set the agenda for the March workshop. The steering committee represents fishermen and seafood processors, Native and community leaders, energy and fishery regulators, environmentalists, the energy industry, UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, and Bodø University in Norway. The October steering meeting will be facilitated by Alaska Sea Grant director Brian Allee and Bodø University associate professor Jan Soernes. Because offshore oil and gas development and commercial fishing have successfully coexisted in Norway for 40 years, discussion that has taken place there will be helpful for Alaskans.
The U.S. Minerals Management Service estimates the North Aleutian Basin may contain as much as 750 million barrels of oil, and nearly nine trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The proposed lease sale lies within some of the world's most lucrative commercial fisheries and pristine wildlife habitat. Organizers hope the March 2008 workshop will help people learn about energy development plans, discuss concerns, and find common ground.
Alaska Sea Grant's best-selling book Guide to Marine Mammals of Alaska, by Kate Wynne, is now out in its third edition. The 2007 edition of this award-winning book has been brought up to date with the latest range and population information, and features outstanding artwork by Pieter Folkens and 25 new photos. Price of the 80-page book, printed on waterproof paper, is $25.
Alaska Sea Grant recently published Community-Based Coastal Observing in Alaska: Aleutian Life Forum 2006, edited by Reid Brewer. In August 2006 Brewer organized the second Aleutian Life Forum in Unalaska, inviting experts on coastal monitoring to make presentations. Brewer's goal was to increase community coastal monitoring in Alaska in face of climate and other changes. The book has information about seabird monitoring, detecting invasive species, addressing marine debris problems, and managing resources and coastal economies. Experts also authored papers on rigorous scientific information collected by local citizens, upper-grade students taking long-term coastal data, community volunteers recording coastal changes, and community-based water quality monitoring. Price of the 111-page book is $15.
KTOO public TV in Juneau will air statewide several Alaska Sea Grant MAP videos on their new program, 360 North. The program will include the videos Sea Lions, Fishermen and Fish; Sharing the Seas: Alaska's CDQ Program; Wolf Control in Alaska; Alaska's Onshore/Offshore Tug of War; Salmon Farming, Boom or Bust; and ANWR: Wilderness Oil Reserve. KTOO will also show the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association/MAP safety videos It Could Have Been Prevented, Fishing Vessel Stability, A Matter of Survival, Rescues at Sea, Beating the Odds, and When Seconds Count. The UAF Geophysical Institute and the UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research also are being tapped for public education programming.
At Sea Grant 2007 in San Diego, the biennial meeting of the nationwide Sea Grant network, awards were presented to Alan Sorum, city manager of Skagway, Alaska; Rusty Gaude, Louisiana Sea Grant; and Eric Olsson, Washington Sea Grant. The three received kudos for their work moving a Marine Travelift boat hoist from Valdez to Louisiana in 2006. Olssen and Gaude were honored with the Sea Grant Assembly special achievement award, and Sorum received an award plaque and gift book from the assembly. Louisiana fishermen used the boat hoist to rescue boats damaged during Hurricane Katrina.
Kurt Byers suggested the award to Sea Grant leaders, introduced the award event, and showed slides of the boat hoist as it was moved across the continent, to the accompaniment of a prerecorded KUAC radio interview with Sorum. Byers also read a recent congratulatory letter from Sen. Lisa Murkowski at the ceremony.
In August, marine mammal specialist Kate Wynne studied humpback whale foraging ecology in the Kodiak area. She identified 200 humpbacks from photographs, and tagged four whales with acoustic transmitters to determine their dive profiles, foraging depths, and relationship to prey fields in Marmot and Chiniak bays. She also restarted Steller sea lion scat sampling after the Humane Society's legal challenge to sea lion research was settled.
Wynne recently took on student intern Chris Ford, of Kodiak College, to assist with harbor seal research and foraging ecology for the fall semester. Wynne will guide Ford in developing an independent research project on harbor seal behavior. In addition, Wynne presented a three-hour marine mammal training class for 38 NMFS groundfish observers at the UAA Observer Training Center.
In August, Reid Brewer taught classes at the tenth annual Qawalangin Tribe's Camp Qungaayux, attended by 62 people. At the camp, Aleutian children are taught cultural values and skills and an introduction to Western science, by elders and mentors. As a mentor, Brewer taught several classes combining traditional information and Western scientific ideas. Brewer's topics were marine safety and survival, intertidal ecology, PSP sampling, and marine mammal anatomy during a sea lion butchering.
Brewer also hosted Jane Dolliver from the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST) who trained seven Unalaskans on how to survey beaches for dead and/or stranded seabirds. The training is part of a coastal monitoring program aimed at using birds as indicators of ecosystem health. Students were taught how to identify, photograph, measure, and report bird strandings. The network of volunteers will walk one kilometer stretches of beach to document "natural" rates of bird mortality to establish a baseline for comparison in case strandings increase.
Brewer hosted several FOAMI talks (Forum of Alaska Marine Issues) in Unalaska over the summer, taking advantage of the annual influx of researchers. Talks included killer whale research in the Pribilofs, by Kelly Newman (SFOS, UAF); Alaska underwater photos, by Don Kramer (MAP); life after cattle, and plant communities of Attu Island, by Steven Talbot (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service); mosses of Unalaska, by Wilf Schofield (University of British Columbia); and the why and how of counting squid, by Kirsty Anderson and Sandra Parker-Stetter (University of Washington).
Along with Unalaska tribal member Caleb Livingston, Brewer flew to Atka Island in August to investigate a dead stranding of four Stejneger's beaked whales. They photographed and measured the whales, and took tissue samples including skin and heart for DNA; blubber for biotoxins; and heart, lung, liver, fat, and lymph nodes for toxicology and pathology. They gave sections of stomach to local Unangans for drums, and intestines for parkas, and froze stomachs for content analysis. The effort was in partnership with the NOAA Office of Protected Species, NOAA Center for Marine Animal Health, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska, and the community of Atka.