Vol. 29, No. 7
July 2009
Alaska Sea Grant has launched a new audio news and information service, called CoastWise Alaska. Four-minute stories are offered as a public service to radio stations, schools, environmental groups, and others without charge. The audio for several stories is available, on cutting fuel use, rat eradication, marine mammal stranding network, responsible wildlife viewing, etc. More stories will be added soon, focused on the continuing work of the Marine Advisory Program. Visit CoastWise on the Web at http://seagrant.uaf.edu/news/coastwise.
Daniel Okamoto, SFOS fisheries master’s student, recently defended his thesis, Competition and Recruitment of Southeast Alaskan Subtidal Kelps and Marine Algae. Okamoto’s research showed that kelp colonization of bare space in Lynn Canal is strong, rapid, and variable, and also seems to be taxa specific. In addition, the studies demonstrated that algal crusts inhibit kelp colonization by nearly 100%.
Okamoto’s research characterized community structure and variation of subtidal understory kelp forests in a subarctic site; quantified colonization potential of kelp in cleared areas, artificial reefs, and established communities; and determined how timing of space availability influenced kelp colonization. His thesis contributes to the sparse knowledge of subarctic kelp forests, an ecosystem whose temperate counterpart is one of the best known marine ecosystems.
Okamoto, an advisee of SFOS associate professor Ginny Eckert, received funding from Alaska Sea Grant.
Alaska Sea Grant recently published Handling of Fresh Crab and Crabmeat, by Don Kramer, Heidi Herter, and Al Stoner. The eight-page publication tells crab handlers the best methods to use to deliver high quality product. It brings crab fishermen, buyers, and processors up to date on handling crab, using reflex to assess whether a crab will die, rating crabmeat quality, and preventing contamination of crabmeat. The ideal method to keep crabs alive onboard is to hold them in circulating seawater. Fishermen and processors can learn how to predict mortality in the live market, and how to rate the quality of crabmeat during processing. The publication is available online at http://seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/pubs/ASG-48.html.
© Steven Kaslowski/AlaskaStock.comThe Alaska Sea Grant 2010 Alaska Coastal Calendar is now in stock! The 2010 calendar takes you to the Chukchi Sea, Aleutian Islands, Kenai Peninsula, Prince William Sound, and Southeast Alaska to learn about Alaska’s unique seacoast, people, wildlife, and scenery. Color images offer a glimpse of the raw beauty of the Last Frontier, and short narratives give information about the 49th state. The excellent photos are by photographers from SFOS, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA, and other agencies. Price is $14.99. Please see http://seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/pubs/SG-ED-64.html.
The Alaska Sea Grant publication Marine Habitat Mapping Technology for Alaska, edited by Jennifer Reynolds and Gary Greene, won an APEX 2009 Award of Excellence in the Web and Electronic Publications category. Jen Gunderson and Sue Keller worked on publication production. The CD/Web publication was funded by the North Pacific Research Board, and is based on a workshop attended by international experts on undersea mapping technology. APEX awards are bestowed by Communications Concepts.
The 2011 Alaska Sea Grant Wakefield fisheries symposium will have a social sciences focus. The meeting, Fishing People of the North: Cultures, Economies, and Management Responding to Change, will provide a forum for scholars, fishery managers, and fishing families to explore the human dimensions of fishery systems and the growing need to include social science research in policy processes. Attendees will share research and experiences on opportunities and constraints that fishing people in northern countries encounter in a time of significant environmental, social, and economic change.
The aim is to characterize the people and places that depend on the sea in the north, and to investigate how diversity in values and livelihoods can be best incorporated into management processes. We welcome diverse panels and presentations that address sources and effects of external impacts on fishing people and communities across northern countries—how impacts vary, who they affect, and strategies or characteristics of northern people that make them more or less adaptable to change.
The symposium will be held in Anchorage in September 2011. For more information contact Alaska Sea Grant interim director Paula Cullenberg at pcullenberg@uaa.alaska.edu.
In Unalaska, MAP agent Reid Brewer recently helped educate local people about ocean health issues by arranging four outreach events with visiting experts. The experts are eight researchers, outreach specialists, and crew from the 64 foot sailboat Ocean Watch, who are on a 25,000 mile cruise to interact with citizens in North and South America on environmental topics. Brewer organized a science presentation, hands-on dockside activities, a slide show, and video presentation in Unalaska.
Called the Around the Americas project, the Ocean Watch journey began in Seattle in May 2009 and will end in July 2010, taking a route through the Northwest Passage, south along the east coast of North and South America, around Cape Horn and back to Seattle. The vessel also made Alaska stopovers in Juneau, Nome, Barrow, and other sites.
Reid Brewer has been working with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) Air Quality Division in a nationwide effort to evaluate the presence of mercury in the environment and the effects on animal and humans. ADEC will install monitoring devices in Unalaska and Kodiak this month. The locations were chosen to detect atmospheric mercury that is entering Alaska on long-range transport trajectories from China, Japan, Korea, and Russia. The Alaska monitors will be part of the national Mercury Deposition Network (MDN), which collects precipitation samples weekly and analyzes them for mercury. The program is managed by the Illinois State Water Survey, through the University of Illinois.