Vol. 29, No. 3
March 2009
Kate Wynne recently traveled to Senegal to train fisheries observers for NOAA, and meet with Senegalese researchers. The Senegalese have had observers on foreign fishing vessels in their waters for many years, and they believe their presence helps monitor illegal fishing. But they want additional observers on domestic boats, and asked for training for turtle and mammal identification, fish sampling, and marine safety.
For ten days Wynne trained 35 Senegalese observers and one Cameroonian, as well as two graduate students. "It was particularly helpful to have fishery folks from neighboring countries attend to share regional concerns and lay the groundwork for future trainings, perhaps Cameroon," she said.
Wynne rates the training as a vital step toward sound management in the world's oceans. Observer programs are among the more visible, manageable, and quantifiable means of monitoring fish harvests, documenting previously unreported fishing and bycatch. In addition to improving fisheries management, U.S. Agency for International Development workers at the West African Trade Hub in Senegal believe that having an observer program to verify the origin of fish harvests will benefit Senegalese efforts at marketing "sustainable" fish resources.
NOAA joined forces with the Senegal Ministry of Fisheries to conduct the training. The U.S. Navy provided logistic support and housing on the USS Nashville. The Senegal training session was NOAA's second effort to assist a West African country to promote sustainable fisheries, as mandated by the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Wynne trained observers for NOAA in Ghana, in 2008.
Alaska Sea Grant MAP welcomes Marilyn Sigman in the new marine education specialist position. As UAF's first marine education faculty member, Sigman will help create the Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence in Alaska (COSEE Alaska), funded by a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation. Located in the Anchorage MAP office, Sigman will develop educational and outreach connections for scientists, and communicate knowledge of Alaska's ocean science and ocean climate change worldwide.
Sigman served as executive director of the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies for eight years. She was a founder of the Alaska Natural Resources and Outdoor Education Association, and served as a board member and president of the Alaska Natural History Association. She has trained numerous teachers and naturalists, and written several curricula, including the Sea Grant's Alaska Seas and Rivers. She won the Jerry S. Dixon Award for Excellence in Environmental Education in 2008. Sigman and Kurt Byers coproduced one of Sea Grant's most popular videos, Life on the Beach: Among Friends and Anemones.
Sigman earned her B.A. from Stanford University, and her M.S. in wildlife management from UAF. She will begin work March 16.
The Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program, Ecotrust, and Gulf of Alaska Coastal Communities Coalition sponsored a workshop on creating community quota entities (CQEs), in Anchorage in February. More than 50 people from Southeast Alaska, Kodiak Island, and other small communities along the Gulf of Alaska attended the workshop.
The CQE program allows coastal communities to boost their economies by gaining back fisheries quotas. Forty-two communities on the Gulf of Alaska, with populations under 1,500, can purchase halibut and blackcod commercial fishing quota, and then lease it to resident fishermen. Twenty CQEs have been set up for 21 communities so far, and they are looking for capital to purchase quota.
At the workshop Jessica Gharrett, of NOAA Fisheries Restricted Access Management, outlined six steps to make the CQE system work: (1) form a nonprofit, (2) certify the CQE, (3) transfer quota share by buying it on the market, (4) lease quota to fishermen, (5) file annual reports to NOAA, and (6) sell quota share if necessary. According to Gharrett, success will depend on the "imagination and hard work of the communities and the organizations they form to represent them." For more information see http://seagrant.uaf.edu/map/workshops/2009/cqe/index.html.
The call for papers has been extended to March 20 for the Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference to be held in Nome April 6–10, on "energizing our future." On April 9, Nome MAP agent Heidi Herter will chair a session on applied fisheries and marine research. Also on that day a workshop will be held to increase applied fisheries and marine research in the Bering Strait region, by identifying research priorities and encouraging interagency collaboration. Hosting the workshop will be the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program, Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation, ADFG, and Kawerak.
Register for the conference and the Applied Fisheries and Marine Research Workshop at http://www.uaf.edu/waisc/. For travel support information contact ftci@uaf.edu.
Alaska, and many parts of the world, are burdened with a marine trash overload. In the Pribilof Islands alone, up to 30 tons of debris are removed from a portion of the coast annually, with more than 99% of the debris nonlocal derelict fishing gear.
Recent efforts by NOAA to attack the debris problem include a 2008 workshop at the Alaska Forum on the Environment, and the resulting book, Marine Debris in Alaska: Coordinating Our Efforts, published by Alaska Sea Grant. Edited by Mike Williams, NOAA Protected Resources Division, and Erika Ammann, NOAA Restoration Center, the book summarizes current cleanup programs and discussions on coordinating debris prevention and cleanup. Expert information is from NOAA, conservation groups, tribal organizations, removal technology, recycling industry, and the UAA Chemistry Department. For more information see http://seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/pubs/AK-SG-09-01.html.
With funding from the National Sea Grant Law Center, Alaska Sea Grant is helping the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council mark the 20th Anniversary this month of the Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS). Sea Grant is sponsoring presentations Thursday March 19 in Fairbanks, and Tuesday March 24 in Anchorage, by the 1989 Alaska Sea Grant Legal Research Team, and state officials who collaborated with them to improve Alaska's system for prevention and response to hazardous spills. For information see http://seagrant.uaf.edu/conferences/2009/evos-anniversary/index.html.
Alaska Sea Grant–funded master's student Celeste Leroux defended her thesis "Nutrition and Technique for Large Scale Larval Culture of the Red King Crab and Blue King Crab," on March 6, 2009. Her faculty advisor is Ginny Eckert. Leroux's research shows a progression of knowledge through the first two years of the Alaska King Crab Research, Rehabilitation and Biology program, to investigate the feasibility of stock rehabilitation. Leroux reared red and blue king crab larvae in experiments on the effects of diet on health, growth, and survival. She demonstrated enhanced survival in king crab larvae fed a San Francisco Bay strain of Artemia brine shrimp enriched with fatty acids, and explored the biochemical content of both species of king crab larvae. Leroux's degree is in marine biology.
Bill Bechtol defended his Ph.D. thesis on "Abundance, Recruitment, and Environmental Forcing of Kodiak Red King Crab." To better understand the rise, collapse, and continued depleted status of red king crab stock around Kodiak Island, he conducted a retrospective analysis. His results indicate that, while high harvest rates likely contributed to the historical decline, increased abundance of Pacific cod and a nearshore change in the distribution of these predators associated with the late 1970s climate shift, has impeded crab stock rebuilding over the past 25 years. Bechtol's advisor is Gordon Kruse.
A reception was held at the MAP office in Anchorage, to thank Princess Tours for their $100,000 contribution. The gift will provide salary and administrative support for MAP agents in several Alaska coastal communities, over three years. Arliss Sturgulewski and Molly McCammon attended the reception, from the Alaska Sea Grant Advisory Committee. Also present were UA President Mark Hamilton, UAF Interim Chancellor Brian Rogers, and SFOS Dean Denis Wiesenburg.