SFOS Newsletter
Spring 2007
NEWS STORIES
SFOS begins fisheries program expansion
$5 million award letter from the Rasmuson Foundation arrives at UAF
With a $5,000,000 grant in hand, the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks is poised to elevate its fisheries program to one of national prominence. The six-year grant from the Rasmuson Foundation will allow SFOS to develop a new undergraduate fisheries curriculum and expand the opportunities currently available to fisheries students. Read more....
NOSB to hit Seward in 2008
Click on the image to download the entire Spring 2007 newsletter as a PDF (2.44MB PDF).
UAF to host national finals of ocean sciences bowl
The National Ocean Sciences Bowl, a high school ocean science competition, will be hosted by the University of Alaska Fairbanks on April 25-27, 2008 in Seward, Alaska. Read more....
Wakefield estate leaves $850,000 to SFOS
When Frankie Wakefield, the widow of Lowell Wakefield, died last fall, she left a gift of over $850,000 to the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences to continue her family’s longtime commitment to the wise management of Alaska’s marine resources. Read more....
Nome gets first Marine Advisory Program agent
SFOS alumna Heidi Herter has been appointed as the first Marine Advisory Program agent for the Bering Strait Region. Located in Nome, Herter will work with commercial and subsistence fishermen, seafood processors, and others to expand economic opportunities that make use of the region’s cod, halibut, herring, salmon, and crab fisheries. Herter’s position is a new one, and represents a unique partnership between the Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation, the UAF Northwest Campus, SFOS and Alaska Sea Grant. Read more....
FEATURED PHOTO: According to Stephen Jewett, SFOS professor of marine biology and an officer in the UA Scientific Diving Program, this jellyfish is most likely a sea nettle. Photographed by Jewett in the eastern Aleutians last summer, it is among the largest jellyfish found in the area. The sea nettle can get up to about 12 inches wide and has long, translucent tentacles that divers are often unable to see. The stings from the sea nettle are quite painful and divers often use "bag balm" to protect their exposed skin.
SPOTLIGHT on Kasitsna Bay Laboratory
by David Christie, Director, Global Undersea Research Center and West Coast & Polar Regions Undersea Research Center
The Kasitsna Bay Laboratory is a marine research and education facility where individuals and groups can learn about subtidal, intertidal and terrestrial communities in beautiful Kachemak Bay, Alaska. The 25-foot tidal range in Kachemak Bay is among the largest in North America and provides access to diverse marine habitats, from kelp forests and rocky substrates to seagrass beds and extensive mudflats. Read more....
FEATURES
Featured Faculty: Amanda Rosenberger
by Carin Bailey, SFOS Public Information Officer
Amanda Rosenberger was recently hired as an assistant professor of fisheries at the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences as part of the new fisheries program expansion. Dr. Rosenberger specializes in fish ecology and conservation. She begins teaching two courses this fall, including a new year-long course for undergraduates called “Fisheries Techniques” that she is co-teaching with the new SFOS fisheries undergraduate coordinator, Trent Sutton.
Below is a transcript of my interview with Amanda. Read more....
Featured Student: Jodi Pirtle, Ph.D. Fisheries
by Torie Baker, Marine Advisory Program Agent
Jodi Pirtle has all things fish in her blood. As a child, she fished salmon openers on her family’s gillnetting boat out of her hometown of Cordova and waded around Prince William Sound’s tide pools with her grandfather, a state fisheries biologist. Jodi is now pursuing her Ph.D. in fisheries at the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences program in Juneau.
When Dr. Bill Smoker, director of the SFOS Fisheries Division, notified me that Jodi had been awarded two prestigious national awards to support her research on groundish habitat in Southeast Alaska, I caught up with Jodi to get an update on her life since leaving Cordova. Below is a transcript of my interview with Jodi. Read more....