Vol. 28, No. 11
November 2008
Jeff Stephan of Kodiak chairs the Alaska Sea Grant Advisory Committee. Photo by Doug Schneider.Alaska Sea Grant will meet with its statewide Advisory Committee November 20-21 at the National Park Service building, 240 West 5th Avenue, Anchorage. Topics on the agenda include the 2009-2013 strategic plan; program sustainability; research and fellowships with Ginny Eckert, Meghan Wilson, Knauss Fellow Seanbob Kelly, and BP–Sea Grant fellow Sean Willison; Alaska Sea Grant's role in education and building capacity of our next generation; and a message from Jim Murray, National Sea Grant deputy director. The meeting is open to the public.
Alaska Sea Grant is pleased to have three new Advisory Committee members: Robert Winfree represents the National Park Service, Bruce Bustamante represents Princess Tours, and Geoff Haskett is the designee from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Member John Shively has changed his affiliation to the Resource Development Council for Alaska. For the full 26-member roster please see http://seagrant.uaf.edu/about/advisory.html.
Alaska Sea Grant will hold an open house, along with University of Alaska Press and University Marketing and Publications, December 11, 2-6 pm, at the Wells Fargo Building, 794 University Ave., 2nd floor, Fairbanks. Join us for refreshments, and browse the book and video displays for holiday gifts. Visit Sea Grant’s holiday gift Web page at http://seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/holiday/holiday2008.php.
UAF is searching for an enthusiastic and forward-thinking person to lead the Alaska Sea Grant College Program. The executive-level position provides leadership for the program and manages a total annual budget of approximately $3.5 million. Among the director’s responsibilities is management of a competitive grant program of approximately $700,000 annually. Alaska Sea Grant is a statewide program that supports research, education, and marine extension to help people understand and conserve ocean resources and coastal communities. The director reports to the Dean of the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, UAF. For more information see http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/employment.
The Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program seeks qualified candidates to apply for the marine education specialist position. As a faculty member, this person will help create a Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence in Alaska (COSEE Alaska), funded by a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation. Located in Anchorage, the specialist will develop educational and outreach connections and tools for scientists, and communicate knowledge of Alaska’s ocean science and ocean climate change worldwide. For more information go to http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/employment.
Alaska Sea Grant published the new CD-ROM, Marine Habitat Mapping Technology for Alaska, edited by Jennifer Reynolds and Gary Greene. A product of the Marine Habitat Mapping Technology Workshop for Alaska (April 2007), the volume has 17 papers written by international experts. With nearly 100 high-resolution visuals, the publication is geared to the broad community in marine resource management, as well as researchers and technicians who need mapping knowledge, in Alaska and worldwide. The North Pacific Research Board (NPRB) funded the workshop and CD-ROM. The publication with high-resolution graphics is available on the no-cost CD. Free, downloadable low-resolution versions of the articles are available at http://seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/pubs/AK-SG-08-03.html.
Glenn Haight and Sunny Rice edited the second issue of the newsletter Fish Entrepreneur, with articles on developing pricing strategies for direct markets; an interview with a Cook Inlet set net direct market operation, Alaska Blue Harvest; and a new, reliable technique to pressure-bleed salmon onboard. Part of the Alaska Sea Grant MAP FishBiz program, the newsletter provides resources for Alaska's direct seafood marketers. The newsletter is available free online at http://seagrant.uaf.edu/map/pubs/fishentrepreneur.html.
Renowned Ketchikan artist, Ray Troll, created original art for the cover to our shark/skate/ratfish field guide.The authors of Field Guide to Sharks, Skates, and Ratfish of Alaska will be at Pacific Marine Expo again this year to sign copies of the book. Duane Stevenson, James Orr, Gerald Hoff, and John McEachran will be at the Author’s Corner, booth #747, Qwest Field Event Center in Seattle, at 11 am, November 20.
The user-friendly guide is the most comprehensive overview of Alaska’s cartilaginous fishes available. In the year since Alaska Sea Grant published this book, more than 1,000 copies have been distributed. The books are used for reference on commercial fishing vessels and charter boats, in libraries, by fisheries observers and seafood processors, for research and teaching, in ADFG at-sea surveys, by shark conservation organizations, and as gifts. To get your copy, go to http://seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/pubs/SG-ED-57.html.
Graduate students, add rocket fuel to your career! The Sea Grant Knauss Fellowship in marine policy, and the NOAA Fisheries Sea Grant Fellowships in population dynamics or resource economics, could be just the career opportunity you are looking for.
Knauss Fellows work on national resource policy issues in congressional or federal agency offices in Washington, D.C. The deadline to apply to Alaska Sea Grant for the 2010 fellowship is February 20, 2009; fellowship begins February 2010. NOAA Fisheries Sea Grant Fellows, as doctoral students, spend the school year at their university and summers immersed in real-world, hands-on research and training with a mentor at one of NOAA's Fisheries Science centers or laboratories. NOAA fellowships begin summer 2009, and deadline for application is January 20, 2009. For more information see http://seagrant.uaf.edu/research/fellowships.html.
A photo of an octopus, kelp holdfasts, and pink corraline algae, featured
in Diver Magazine. Photo by Reid Brewer.Reid Brewer published an article in the October 2008 issue of Diver Magazine, to increase interest and tourism in the Aleutian Islands. Brewer wrote the article, “Alaska’s Aleutian Islands: It’s Not the End of the World but You Can See It from There!” on the 2006-2007 EMAP research cruises (Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program), with a focus on encouraging divers worldwide to consider diving in Alaska.
In July 2006 Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation project leaders, along with a crew of ten scientists and specialists, Reid Brewer among them, embarked on an Aleutians monitoring and assessment project, part of a nationwide effort to monitor water quality on the U.S. coastline. Stops along the way were Attu, with its western Pacific species of fishes, corals, and algae; Kiska, with shipwrecks and other war relics; and Amchitka, site of nuclear testing, where species diversity and diving conditions rival any of the 50 sites they dove in over the two-year period. Continuing east the crew visited Adak, noted for excellent diving; the volcanic Islands of Four Mountains, where they discovered a new algae species; Unalaska, where diving is quite popular already; and on to Akutan, once a whaling station.
Photos by Brewer and others illustrate the article. Diver Magazine covers scuba diving and underwater research in the Pacific Northwest, and has a broad readership worldwide. Brewer’s story was highlighted by Diver Magazine at the 2008 Divers Equipment and Marketing Association meeting, attended by more than 10,000 divers.