SFOS Newsletter
Fall 2007
GREETINGS FROM THE DEAN
by Denis Wiesenburg, Dean
UAF School of Fisheries & Ocean Sciences
Welcome to the 2007-08 academic year at the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. I would like to personally welcome our new students who are beginning or continuing their undergraduate or graduate careers with us.
Changes are afoot at SFOS. We are currently recruiting for four new fisheries, three oceanography, and two marine biology positions to expand the opportunities we offer to our students. The construction of our fisheries building at Lena Point in Juneau is progressing nicely. In August, we received news that we were awarded funding for the first phase of the $123-million Alaska Region Research Vessel. We are looking forward to hosting the finals of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, a national event that will bring more than 250 students, volunteers and family members to Seward in April 2008.
Click on the image to download the entire Fall 2007 newsletter as a PDF (Warning: large file, 4.2MB PDF).
The expansion of our fisheries degree program is well underway with financial assistance from the Rasmuson Foundation. Our fisheries faculty are working hard to develop our new bachelor of arts in fisheries curriculum, expand our course offerings and improve our experiential learning opportunities. If you would like to learn more about the expansion of our fisheries program, please visit www.sfos.uaf.edu/fisheries.
We have also completed the construction of a new smart classroom, the O'Neill Learning Center. This classroom, located in the O'Neill building on UAF's West Ridge, features high-tech videoconferencing capabilities to meet the educational needs of our students in various communities across Alaska.
At SFOS, we pride ourselves on the high caliber of our faculty, staff and students. Read on to learn more about not just our major accomplishments as a school, but also the individual achievements of our talented students, faculty and staff as they work daily to advance both fisheries and marine science in Alaska and the waters around the world.
NEWS STORIES
SFOS awarded first phase of
Alaska Region Research Vessel
After 30 years of planning and development, UAF has been awarded the first phase of funding for the construction of the Alaska Region Research Vessel, a 236-foot, $123-million ice-capable vessel to support research in high latitudes. Read more....
Steller's eider duckling makes history
UAF's Tuula Hollmen and the Alaska SeaLife Center have successfully bred threatened Steller's eiders in captivity for what appears to be the first time in North America. Read more....
Website hooks Alaskans into fisheries
FEATURED PHOTO: Jason Waite, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in marine biology, recently returned from three months of field work in the Kuril Islands, Russia. Waite is studying how Steller sea lions and northern fur seals share resources in the same rookeries. While Steller sea lions are endangered in both the U.S. and Russia, the population of northern fur seals in the area have reached an all-time record high. Waite is investigating whether the population increase of the northern fur seals will impact the recovery of the sea lion population by looking at how, when, where and what these animals are eating. Photo courtesy of Jason Waite.
View a photo gallery of our students working outside the classroom at www.sfos.uaf.edu/outside
This summer, SFOS launched a new website to help bring more rural Alaskans and Alaska Natives into fisheries and marine science careers. Read more....
UAF says goodbye to the Alpha Helix
The research vessel Alpha Helix was sold in July to Stabbert Maritime of Seattle. The vessel departed Seward on July 25. Read more....
Oceanographer honored for 50 years of service to arctic science
As an undergraduate studying geophysics in Philadelphia in the 1950s, John Kelley knew he wanted to learn more about the far north. Read more....
Young scientists trained at Nunivak Island
This June, 11 high school students from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta learned fisheries science and techniques at a special summer camp on Nunivak Island in the eastern Bering Sea. Read more....
Dives in western Aleutians yield new species
This summer, scientific divers from SFOS discovered up to three new marine organisms while surveying the western Aleutian Islands. Read more....
Remembering Matt Myers
One of our graduate students, Matthew Myers, 43, died September 25, while completing a scientific training dive in Resurrection Bay. Matt was a doctoral student studying marine biology. At the time of his death, he was working as a researcher at the Alaska SeaLife Center and completing the final edits of his dissertation on contaminants in Steller sea lions. Read more....
FEATURES
FEATURED FACULTY: Michael Castellini
From spying on scorpions with a black light to studying two-ton elephant seals with sleep apnea, Mike Castellini has always wanted to know how animals adapt to their environment. One of the preeminent Weddell seal experts in the world and the associate dean of the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, Dr. Castellini's life reads like a scientific adventure story. Read more....
FEATURED STUDENT: Lisa Kamin
Lisa Kamin loves learning. She is driven to learn as much as she can about fisheries, not for the sake of the science itself, but because she wants to use the knowledge she gains to help people. Lisa is a master's student studying the genetics of Pacific ocean perch (POP) with advisor Tony Gharrett at the Juneau Center of UAF SFOS. She has an impressive academic record as both a master's student and as an undergraduate at the University of Miami. Read more....
SPOTLIGHT on the Seward Marine Center
by Daniel Oliver, Director, Seward Marine Center
The UAF Seward Marine Center is the primary coastal support facility for SFOS. The Center is located approximately 130 miles by road south of Anchorage, at the head of beautiful Resurrection Bay in Seward, Alaska. Read more....