Tammy Hoem.
SFOS Newsletter
Fall 2010
Ray RaLonde (left) and Stuart Thomas (right) collect oysters in Kachemak Bay.
Katie Moerlein.
STANDOUTS
Student News
• Uinniq Ahgeak, B.S. fisheries, was a participant in the Multicultural Initiative in Marine Sciences: Undergraduate Participation (MIMSUP), where she conducted research with a scientist at the Shannon Point Marine Center at Western Washington University. Ahgeak's project was on hypoxia and its influence on benthic infauna in Bellingham Bay.
• Tammy Hoem, Ph.D. fisheries, published an article called "Gambling salmon: Estuaries teach how salmon hedge their bets" in the Alaska Department of Fish & Game's Alaska Fish & Wildlife News.
• Kristen Shake, M.S. oceanography, and Mike Kong, Ph.D. oceanography, were on board the USCGC Healy for the NASA ICESCAPE (Impacts of Climate Change on the Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment) cruise earlier this summer.
• Shelley Woods, M.S. fisheries, gave a presentation in Barrow on salmon identification in support of advisor Courtney Carothers' project called Subsistence Use and Knowledge of Beaufort Sea Salmon Populations.
• Melissa Rhodes-Reese, B.S. fisheries, and Sara Carroll, M.S. marine biology, earned awards at the first-ever UAF Campus Research Day held in April. Rhodes-Reese tied for third place for her presentation on crab camouflage at the Campus Research Day's Undergraduate Research Symposium. Carroll won second place in the graduate student poster competition for her poster on foraging records in ice-seal claws.
• This summer, Stuart Thomas, an M.S. fisheries student at the Fishery Industrial Technology Center, conducted the second of two sampling trips at an oyster farm in Kachemak Bay. His project compares the quality of molluscan broodstock oysters raised in Kachemak Bay versus those raised in other northwest U.S. locations.
• At the Western Groundfish Conference held in April in Juneau, Elizabeth Siddon, Ph.D. fisheries, earned the best student oral presentation award for her talk titled, "Communitylevel response of ichthyoplankton to environmental variability in the eastern Bering Sea.
• The best student poster presentation award was given to Laurinda Marcello, M.S. fisheries, for her poster titled, "The effects of gadoid fishes and the environment on snow crab recruitment."
• Katie Moerlein, M.S. fisheries, was awarded a George Melendez Wright Climate Change Fellowship from the National Park Service to support her thesis research on climate change and subsistence fisheries in Noatak, Alaska.
MESAS and SELMR students, faculty hold retreat
MESAS and SELMR faculty and students met in Gustavus and Glacier Bay Aug 29-31 to discuss research, internships, future courses and program activities. The retreat brought together 15 graduate students and 12 faculty from both Juneau and Fairbanks. "It was a wonderful time to network and share experiences," said MESAS Director Ginny Eckert.
MESAS (Marine Ecosystem Sustainability in the Arctic and Subarctic) is an NSF IGERT program that provides graduate students with a broad education in all aspects of marine ecosystems, including the biological, chemical, physical and human factors that affect ocean life. The program trains students in ecosystem-based approaches to the sustainable use of marine resources.
SELMR (Sustainable Ecosystem-Based Management of Living Marine Resources) is also NSF-funded and is closely associated with the MESAS program. SELMR students receive interdisciplinary training in fisheries science, oceanography, ecology, economics, management, marine policy and anthropology through courses and seminars which highlight limitations of traditional management paradigms and challenge students to consider innovative approaches to real-world problems.
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Click on the image to download the Fall 2010 newsletter (16 MB PDF).
Greetings from the Dean
It has been an amazing summer for SFOS with many changes, advances and new and exciting opportunities. In late spring, we learned that Dean Denis Wiesenburg was going to be leaving us at the end of May to become the Vice President for Research at the University of Southern Mississippi.
UAF establishes Ocean Acidification Research Center
UAF has created a new research center dedicated to studying ocean acidification in Alaska. Jeremy Mathis, assistant professor of chemical oceanography and an ocean acidification expert, is the director of the center.
New sea star species named after Howard Feder
One of the new species discovered by Stephen Jewett, Heloise Chenelot and Max Hoberg in the Aleutian Islands in 2006-2007 has been named after SFOS professor emeritus Howard Feder.
Weingartner wins Usibelli award for research
In April, Tom Weingartner, professor of oceanography at SFOS, received the 2010 Usibelli Distinguished Research Award.
New energy device to power oceanographic equipment
After two years of design and development, oceanographers at UAF have installed a new alternative energy device along the arctic coast of Alaska.
Cordova Marine Advisory agent recalls trip to Louisiana oil spill
by Doug Schneider
In 1989, Torie Baker was a commercial salmon fisherman in Cordova, Alaska, when the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, spilling 11 million gallons of heavy Alaskan crude oil onto some 1,500 miles of Alaska beaches.
Hollmen named interim science director at Alaska SeaLife Center
Tuula Hollmen, research associate professor at SFOS, has been appointed the interim science director for the Alaska SeaLife Center. Hollmen has worked as an SFOS faculty member at the Alaska SeaLife Center for eight years.
John Kelley retires after 40 years at UAF
John Kelley, professor of chemical oceanography at SFOS, has retired after 40 years of teaching, research and service at the University of Alaska.
SFOS remembers Senator Ted Stevens
by Michael Castellini, Interim Dean
We at the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences were saddened to learn of the death of former Senator Ted Stevens in August. It is difficult to enumerate the many contributions Senator Stevens has made over the years to fisheries and fisheries science in Alaska.
FEATURED FACULTY – Franz Mueter, Assistant Professor of Fisheries
Franz Mueter has been an assistant professor of fisheries at SFOS in Juneau since 2008. He received his Ph.D. in fisheries oceanography from UAF, where he studied changes in the groundfish communities in the Gulf of Alaska over time. He also received master's degrees in statistics and biological oceanography from UAF.
STANDOUTS – Faculty and Staff News
SFOS faculty to participate in Census of Marine Life final celebration
It has been a "decade of discovery" for the Census of Marine Life and several SFOS faculty who have worked on various Census projects over the years.
Marine Advisory Program secures funding
by Doug Schneider
Five Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program offices that faced an uncertain future earlier this year will stay open, and a sixth position will be filled, since Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell signed the state's 2011 operating budget.
FACILITY SPOTLIGHT – Freshwater fisheries lab opens in Fairbanks
In July, UAF celebrated a ribbon-cutting for a new fisheries laboratory complex in the west wing of the Arctic Health Research Building.
DEVELOPMENT – Why Give, How You Can Make a Difference, and How to Go about Giving
by Teresa Thompson, Development Officer
Crowley donates $20,000 to SFOS, UAF for scholarships
Crowley Maritime Corporation has donated $20,000 to the University of Alaska Foundation to fund four $5,000 scholarships.
Gliders pass test in Southeast Alaska, make history in the Chukchi Sea
Underwater gliders may change how scientists track fish.
Scientist says Chatanika whitefish are making a comeback
Humpback whitefish in the Chatanika River are recovering from a population crash in the 1980s, according to a scientist at UAF.
R/V Sikuliaq Update
by Daniel Oliver, Director, Seward Marine Center
FEATURED STUDENT – Miranda Westphal, M.S. Fisheries
by Tara Borland, Proposal Coordinator
Miranda is a fisheries student working toward her master's degree in fisheries. Miranda earned a bachelor's degree in marine science at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Florida. She came up to Alaska in 2008 to research juvenile red king crabs.
STANDOUTS - Student News
MESAS and SELMR students, faculty hold retreat.
BON VOYAGE – Congratulations to our spring, summer 2010 graduates!
FEATURED ALUMNUS – John Hilsinger
by Tracy Kalytiak
Nearly 40 years ago, John Hilsinger listened as one of his friends talked about how he wanted to attend graduate school in UAF's fisheries program. John Hilsinger is the director of the Alaska Department of Fish & Game's Commercial Fisheries Division.
FEATURED PHOTO
Graduate students Jesse Coleman and Christine Woll work in the field on the Kulukak River in southwest Alaska. Coleman and Woll are collaborating on a juvenile salmon habitat mapping project while working towards their master's degrees in fisheries with advisor Trent Sutton. Photo Courtesy of Jesse Coleman.
School of Fisheries & Ocean Sciences Newsletter
Managing editor and designer: Carin Bailey Stephens
The SFOS Newsletter is published in the spring and the fall. To submit your news to the SFOS Newsletter, e-mail news@sfos.uaf.edu. For more information about what's happening at SFOS, visit our website at www.sfos.uaf.edu or contact Carin Stephens, SFOS public information officer, at 907-322-8730 or via e-mail at stephens@sfos.uaf.edu. Follow SFOS news on Twitter at www.twitter.com/CarinStephens/.
The UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences conducts world–class marine and fisheries research, education and outreach across Alaska, the Arctic and Antarctic. More than 60 faculty scientists and 160 graduate and undergraduate students are engaged in building knowledge about Alaska and the world's coastal and marine ecosystems.
