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SFOS Newsletter
Spring 2007

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.

The largest of 27 National Estuarine Research Reserves, Kachemak Bay is a natural laboratory for marine research and education. The region contains multiple national parks, national wildlife refuges, state parks and critical habitat areas. Surrounded by mountains, glaciers and forests, visitors to the area can see active volcanoes across the adjacent Cook Inlet, including Mt. Augustine, which erupted several times last winter, and Fourpeaked Volcano, which recently awakened after a long dormancy.

Kasitsna Bay lab is located on the Kenai Peninsula in southcentral Alaska on the south side of Kachemak Bay in lower Cook Inlet. It is accessible by water and air taxi from the city of Homer, and is nine miles by road from the Alaska Marine Highway terminal in the city of Seldovia.

The laboratory is owned by NOAA and operated in partnership with the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences runs a cold water diving program at the lab as part of its Global Undersea Research Center.

With the recent completion of a $12.5 million construction project, facilities at the laboratory include a new pier and dock, a new laboratory building with a large running seawater lab, a classroom, offices and several dry labs. There is a new SCUBA dive building and two new accommodation blocks with sleeping, kitchen and laundry facilities for up to 48 people. High-speed Internet and cell phone service is available throughout the site.

Drawing on UAF expertise in marine science education and cold water diving, and on NOAA expertise in applying science to coastal management issues, the UAF and NOAA laboratory directors are working to integrate the laboratory into local communities as a lifelong educational resource. Partnership programs with local entities will serve the technical and information needs of coastal communities, and provide access to the intertidal environment for K-12 through college classes, for community groups and for adult learners.

Recent laboratory research topics have included fisheries, mariculture, coastal monitoring, marine biodiversity, trophic dynamics, and oil spill response. Current research projects include studies of kelp habitat use by crab and fish populations, characterization and modeling of seagrass resources and an exploration of the chemical defenses of kelp to gastropod grazing in Kachemak Bay.

Some courses to be held at the lab in 2007 include: