Forum of Alaska Marine Issues: FOAMI
2004
Lectures held at Musueum of the Aleutians.
May 13, 2004
Octopus Ecology
Reid Brewer, Assistant Professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks with the Marine Advisory Program in Unalaska, AK.
Reid’s interests include octopus behavior, predator-prey interactions, marine ecology, invertebrate zoology and scientific diving.
This talk was about the interesting and secret life of octopus. Subjects covered included the basic biology of octopus, foraging and defensive behaviors, as well as some of the current research being done on octopus around the world. The talk also looked into the role the octopus play in the Alaskan food web.
http://www.uaf.edu/map/staff/brewer.htmlReid Brewer (MAP- UAF) brewer@ims.uaf.edu, 907-581-1222
May 24, 2004
Necropsy of Eyak.
Donna Willoya (TASSC)
Donna is the research coordinator The Alaska Sea Otter and Steller Sea Lion commission. TASSC is a tribal consortium with tribal members throughout the state that promotes Alaska Native involvement in policy decision pertaining to sea otters and sea lions.
This talk was about the necropsy of an orca or killer whale (Orcinus orca) that beached himslef and died on July 11, 2000 just outside of Cordova, AK. Donna talked about how to define strandings, how to photograph and identify a killer whale, as well as talking about some killer whale biology. This talk was only open to a few community members due to the graphic nature of the necropsy.
http://www.seaotter-sealion.org/commission.html
May 28, 2004
Determining the value of habitat to juvenile rockfish in the Aleutian Islands.
Chris Rooper ( AFSC, NMFS)
Chris is Fisheries Scientist at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center which is part of the National Marine Fisheries Service based out of Seattle, WA.
This talk was about how researchers are attempting to determine the relationships between rockfish and different marine habitat types. Using multi-beam and side-scan sonar, researchers are able to observe how certain habitats affect both survival and growth of rockfish. Trawls, traps, and sediment grabs were used as comparisons against sonar imagery. In the past, rockfish appear to congregate around sponge-covered habitats and not over bare-rock or sand bottoms.
Chris.Rooper@noaa.gov
June 3, 2004
Giant Squid in Pacific Waters
Elaina Jorgensen
Elaina is Fisheries Scientist at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center which is part of the National Marine Fisheries Service based out of Seattle, WA.
Elaina is a die-hard cephalopod biologist. She is currently working on a putting together a field guide that will list all of the cephalopod species in Alaska waters, quite an undertaking.
This talk was about some of the species of cephalopods (octopus and squid) that are found in and around Alaskan waters. Elaina talked about several taxonomic groups of cephs and showed some interesting pictures of deep sea animals that few people have ever seen.(AFSC – NMFS) elaina.jorgensen@noaa.gov, (w) 206-526-4562 (h) 206-985-0460 (Seattle, WA)
elaina.jorgensen@noaa.gov
June 30, 2004
Social behavior and activity of New Zealands Dusky Dolphin
Tim Markowitz
Tim recently graduated from Texas A&M Galveston with his Phd. Most of his work on Dusky Dolphins took place in New Zealand.
This talk was a summary of Tim’s Phd work in New Zealand. Tim talked about how Dusky dolphins are the cousins to the Alaskan Pacific White-sided dolphin. Of all of the Delphinidae, the Dusky dolphins are the most acrobatic, exhibiting some of the most interesting group behaviors in the ocean. Tim talked about how these dolphins would do “noisy” leaps, “re-entry” leaps, or “acrobatic” flips to convey signals to other dolphins.
tim_markowitz@yahoo.com
July 7, 2004
Biological response to catastrophic events in the Aleutian Islands.
Tony Rathburn (Indiana State University)
Tony is a professor at Indiana State University in the Department of Geography, Geology, and Anthropology
Tony’s interests include: Paleoceanography, Paleoecology, Micropaleontology, Geobiology and Biogeochemistry of methane seeps.
In his talk, Tony discussed the foraminiferal recovery of disturbed areas such as those on the seafloor off Unimak Island, Alaska. He used the ROV JASON to survey and collect samples on transects across this disturbed area. The purpose of his study is to characterize the catastrophic disturbance recovery rates of various seafloor organisms.
http://levin.ucsd.edu/people/rathburn.htm
July 14, 2004
Satellite tagging of Pacific Halibut
Andy Seitz (SFOS, UAF)
Andy is a 2nd year Phd student at UAF. Andy is continuing some work that he started with the US Geological Survey. He has done tagging work with several species of fish including Tuna.
In this talk, Andy discussed the Pacific Halibut satellite tagging program conducted by the US Geological Survey-Alaska Science Center, International Pacific Halibut Commission, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Andy described how satellite tags work and the information that is gained from them. Andy tagged four fish at Attu, four fish at Adak, and sixteen fish in the Gulf of Alaska. These satellite tags measure depth, temperature and light every 2 minutes as well as the end location and records the information on a micro-hard drive.
http://www.absc.usgs.gov/staff/MFEB/aseitz.php
July 17, 2004
Alan Springer (UAF)
Sara Iverson (DU)ReFER :Seavirds and Fur seals in the East Bering Sea, University of Alaska
Alan is a Professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks interested in matters of scale in time and space of large marine ecosystems and of variability in production at various trophic levels.
Sara is a Professor at Dalhousie University whose interests concern how animals adapt to and exploit their environments.
Alan and Sara talked about how some populations of seabirds at colonies in the Bering Sea have fluctuated markedly during the past few decades. One hypothesis to explain these changes is that seabird populations are responding to long-term changes in food supply that are part of a natural ecosystem response to changes in ocean climate regime.
Alan’s webpage: http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/directory/faculty/springer/
Sara’s webpage: http://is.dal.ca/~fatlab
ReFER webpage:
http://www.absc.usgs.gov/research/seabird_foragefish/products/newsletters/food-stress/99report.htm
July 24, 2004
The Earthquake of 1946: an investigation intothe cause of thedisastroust sunami that followed.
Gerard Fryer (UH)
Gerard Fryer is an Associate Geophysicist in the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics & Planetology, a unit within the School of Ocean & Earth Science & Technology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Gerard talked about the eastern Aleutian earthquake of 1 April 1946 as perhaps the greatest enigma of seismology. The earthquake had a magnitude of "only" 7.1, yet it produced a tsunami almost as large as that from the Great Chile Earthquake of 1960 (magnitude 9.6). His explanation was that the source was not an earthquake at all but a landslide.
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/gerard/
August 12, 2004
Slideshow of Beaked Whale stranding near Cape Cheerful
Reid Brewer, Assistant Professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks with the Marine Advisory Program in Unalaska, AK.
Reid talked about the stranding of a Bairds Beaked whale that occurred a few miles from Unalaska/ Dutch Harbor, AK. Reid basically described, via a slide-show, all of the events that took place regarding this marine mammal including: initial findings, measurements, decapitation, identification and storage, necropsy, de-articulation, and final disposition. The purpose of this talk was to bring community members up to date on what happens when a marine mammal gets stranded.
http://www.uaf.edu/map/staff/brewer.html
strandings website:
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/prot_res/PR2/Health_and_Stranding_Response_Program/mmhsrp.html
August 16, 2004
Humpback and Right Whale research in the Bering Sea.
Paul Wade (NMML)
Paul is the head of the Cetacean Assessment and Ecology Program, National Marine Mammal Laboratory, NOAA Fisheries.
Paul’s research interests focus on the population dynamics and ecology of marine mammals, the conservation biology of marine vertebrates, and the use of modeling and quantitative methods, particularly Bayesian statistics, in conservation and management. He is a member of the U.S. delegation to the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission, the Cetacean Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, and has participated in several ESA recovery and review teams.
Paul’s talk was based on ongoing research on cetaceans in Alaska. He talked about Humpback and Right Whale research in the Bering Sea and showed some pictures of a very rare Right Whale sighting taken just days before the talk.
24 August 2004
The role of Alaska Sea Grant in the next decade.
Brian Allee
Brian is the Director of the Sea Grant/ UAF. He is responsible for overall program strategic planning, program development, implementation and monitoring.
Brian talked about the future role of Sea Grant and interacted with local community members on marine issues that affect Unalaska. Brian’s reason to visit was to help to identify Alaska's critical marine resource problems and to nurture collaborative partnerships between the university, state and federal agencies, the fishing industry, and coastal communities and constituencies to contribute to the solution of Alaska's marine resource problems.
http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/staff/allee.html
September 8, 2004
Jellyfish Ecology
Reid Brewer
Reid Brewer is an Assistant Professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks with the Marine Advisory Program in Unalaska, AK.
This talk was about the interesting and often misunderstood life of jellyfish and other Cnidarians. Reid talked about the defining characteristics of this phylum as well as some of the taxonomic variety that exist within different classes. Reid discussed basic Cnidarian biology, life-cycle, foraging, reproduction and movement. Finally Reid talked about research that is currently being conducted on these organisms, and lets not forget those “Freaks Of Nature!!!”
http://www.uaf.edu/map/staff/brewer.html(MAP- UAF) brewer@ims.uaf.edu, 907-581-1222 (Unalaska, AK),
22 Sept 2004
Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) in Alaska
Brian Himelbloom (FITC, UAF)
Brian is an Associate Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. Brian is a microbiologist that works out of the Fisheries Industrial Technology Center in Kodiak, AK.
Brian discussed the dinoflagellate that carries PSP and talked about the life-cycle of Alexandrium. He also talked about what PSP is, where it has been reported, what it looks like, and finally the symptoms and treatments are.
PSP websites: http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/issues/PSP/psp_page.html
http://ioc.unesco.org/hab/
http://www.whoi.edu/redtide/
Brian’s email: ffbhh@uaf.edu
12-23-04
Barbara Callahan
International Bird Rescue Research Center
Barbara's presentation outlined the present effort underway to save oiled wildlife effected by the resent grounding of the Selendang Ayu on Unalaska Island. Barbara also gave a overview of the IBRRC's more recent challenges worldwide, with bird rescues and oiled wildlife clean up.
IBRRC/Alaska
IBRRC/Alaska Wildlife Response Center
6132 Nielson Way
Anchorage, Alaska 99518
Contact: Barbara Callahan 907-230-2492
Barbara Callahan, Director of Response Services
12-30-04
Anne Morkill
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Anne's presentation was an overview of the Aleutian Wildlife Refuge, with highlighted concerns about the resent grounding of the Selendang Ayu on Unalaska Island. The FWS research vessel M/V Tiglax will be conducting a 60 day pre-assessment of affected areas of the AMNWR on Unalaska Island.
Anne Morkill, Deputy Refuge Manager
Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
95 Sterling Highway, Suite 1
Homer, AK 99603Phone: 907-235-6546
Fax: 907-235-7783
Lecture organizer assistants by
Zoya Johnson; Director Museum of Aleutians, 907-581-5150
Ried Brewer (MAP- UAF) brewer@ims.uaf.edu, 907-581-1222 (Unalaska, AK)
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