So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish!

As our fellowship year comes to a close this week, we'd like to give a big thanks to all of our host offices, and state and national Sea Grant program staff who have made this experience such a positive one.  We have all learned valuable lessons and made strides toward shaping our next career steps.  Biggest congratulations to all those fellows who have (at least temporarily) figured it out!

•  Andy Coleman continues to work on sea turtle conservation at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies,
• Hannah Dean and Joe Fillingham are returning to their ivory towers to work towards their PhDs,
• Chelsea Combest-Friedman is traveling to Mexico for an extended visit where she will continue to apply for jobs and soak up the sunshine,
• Jenn Cudney, Rosa Gonzalez, and Amanda Keledjian will be staying on with the Offices of Sustainable Fisheries and Protected Resources to continue growing their fellowship portfolios and developing relationships within NOAA Fisheries, 
• Nikki Teutschel, Nicole Rohr, and Kristen Bor have secured awesome jobs on the Hill,
• Olivia Lee will be staying on with NSF and continuing to look for post doc positions around the world,
• Emily Gamelin, Katrina Phillips, and Megan Mueller are looking to stick around and do great things in OAR,
• Josh Stoll, after much internal debate, has decided to continue work in NOAA Fisheries Policy and begrudgingly give DC another year of his life,
• O.J. heads back to Michigan to wow the midwest with his knowledge in evolutionary genetics,
• Ayana Johnson will be working as an ocean envoy for the Waitt Foundation, traveling the world investigating innovative fisheries practices,  

• Ben Carswell will be flying south to put his expertise to work on Jekyll Island and finish his thesis,
• Becky Blanchard is taking her grace, style, and interdiscplinary know-how to Oregon, where she will work as an Adjunct Professor and finish her PhD dissertation,
• Colin Hume takes our favorite Knauss spouse all the way to Washington State, where he'll be working  in Seattle and encouraging us to come visit,
• Christina Hoefsmit and Abby Graefe are moving to Rhode Island and Chicago, respectively, where they plan to enjoy friends and find an awesome jobs,
• Caitlin Frame heads to Europe for travel and a post doc position in Switzerland - awesome!
• Amy Scaroni will be partying in Australia for a month and then returning to finish up projects in Sea Grant,
• Lauren Land will be finishing up projects in Sea Grant before moving to begin her new position coordinating sustainability projects for the Louisiana State Sea Grant program - Geaux Tigers!
• Anna Coffey will be using what she learned this year to continue working for the Department of Energy, and
• Heidi Geisz is finishing up her fellowship and enjoying time with her new little one.

Phew!  Think about all the great work we have done and will continue to do with our new-found appreciation for the challenges that surface at the interface of science and policy!  I know I speak for more than myself when I say that we are all excited to be joining the ever-expanding community of Knauss alums.  Wishing everyone the absolute best in their future endeavors.

Book Review: Storm World

Interested in learning about the politics and science of climate change?  Always wondered how and why science messages (particularly about climate) get boggled and twisted and miscommunicated to the public?  What about how the media impacts decision-makers in this complex debacle?  If these issues have ever plagued you in the past, check out Chris Mooney's Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming for an informative (and at times disheartening) journey through the history of climate science and the trials and tribulations of communicating from the frontlines.

Mooney, the ambitious author of Republican War on Science and Unscientific America begins with the origins of climate science to show the crazy and rapid evolution of what has arguably become one of the most contentious fields of science.  From flying through hurricanes in storm chasers, developing radar technology, and tracking pressure systems around the world, Mooney introduces readers to the scholars and meteorologists studying the question of whether storms have become more intense with changing climatic patterns.  Through his research, Mooney comes to the conclusion that while climate nerds predict conditions that may be conducive to stronger storms in the future, no specific hurricane can be blamed on climate change. 

Tracing the political backlash of clarifying this simple distinction (of the chicken or egg variety) sees Mooney conducting interviews with congressional staff, commenting on local news articles, getting lost in the blogosphere, and investigating academic literature.  Through it all, he distills this complex situation down to a set of interconnected relationships formed between politicians, journalists, and scientists, which shed light on why communicating science should be seen as an art.  A big thanks to Chris Mooney for fearlessly untangling these and other contentious issues, and we greatly look forward to the next installment!  You can follow more of his work at The Intersection.

Strategically Speaking: The National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants, Climate Adaptation Strategy

Today, Matt Lettrich (NOS Estuarine Reserves Division) brings us a guest blog post about climate adaptation strategy, hot off the press and ready for public comment.  What he doesn't say though, is that this has been accomplished largely through his hard work throughout the fellowship year.  Way to go, Matt!

 

After much hard work and with over 100 researchers and managers from across the country contributing, the draft National Fish,Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy (NFWPCAS or Strategy for short) has been released for public comment. This draft national strategy will help decision makers and resource managers prepare for and help reduce the impacts of climate change on species, ecosystems, and the people and economies that depend on them.

With a changing climate, we must develop new (and adopt some not-so new) techniques and approaches to ensure that our natural resources will remain for future generations.  The Strategy represents a draft framework for unified action to safeguard fish, wildlife and plants, as well as the important benefits and services the natural world provides the nation every day, including jobs, food, clean water, clean air, building materials, storm protection, and recreation.

The draft Strategy includes:

• Descriptions of current and projected impacts of climate change on the eight major ecosystems of the United States, the fish, wildlife and plant species those ecosystems support, and the vital ecosystem services they provide;
• Goals, strategies, and actions to reduce the vulnerability and increase the resilience of fish, wildlife, plants, and the communities that depend on them in the face of climate change;
• Collaborative strategies and actions that multiple sectors can take to promote adaptation of fish, wildlife and plants, and utilize the adaptive benefits of natural resources in their climate adaptation efforts; and
• A framework for coordinated implementation of the strategy among government and non-governmental entities from national to local scales.

Read up on this strategy and submit public comments here through March 5, 2012.  

Race to Rio: Each Summit 2012

This coming summer, world leaders will gather in Brazil for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development to mark the 20th anniversary of the first Earth Summit held in Rio in 1992.  This year, meeting attendees will focus on building capacity for sustainable development and taking advantage of green economic opportunities for improving sustainability and eradicating poverty.  Nonprofits and resource management agencies look to this gathering of political leadership to gauge the amount of commitment being directed toward various issues facing society and the environment.  The Natural Resources Defense Council has been working diligently on their "Race to Rio" campaign, where they are advocating for more than just another treaty.

A gathering of this nature with 150 national leaders and over 50,000 people of course requires careful planning, but the NRDC has been preparing in a different sort of way.  They are looking for a commitment to action from industry, communities, corporations, and civil society.  Actions taken on short-term improvements for climate and energy, public health, and food security can support existing initiatives and stimulate new ideas for governance, monitoring, and enforcement of environmental law and policy.  Because the world is a big place, it is difficult to identify tangible actions to implement on a meaningful scale, but these agreements and gatherings do have the potential to positively impact the planet with enough public support.  

So, where do the oceans fit into all of this?  The oceans present an immediate conservation and management challenge in that territorial laws cannot apply to the high seas or the fluidity of marine resources that migrate, drift, or circulate around the world.  These issues will be prevalent in Brazil, but three key areas for oceans at Rio+20 include  implementing international governance on the high seas, motivating political accountability through modern communications, and incorporating conservation priorities into sustainable development goals.  But... how does that UN-speak translate into real issues we can relate to?  At the most recent panel discussion of the D.C. Marine Community, speakers focused on issues such as regulating seabed mining, sharing data on biodiversity and oceanography, and reviewing the accomplishments of the Regional Fisheries Management Organizations around the world.  Climate change (including ecosystem shifts, warming, and acidification) is quickly overtaking overfishing as the biggest marine conservation challenge we face, and witnessing how the world's leaders plan to overcome it would certainly be an eye-opening experience. 

Let us know if you're lucky enough to attend!

Book Review: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

A soon-to-be novel turned blockbuster movie, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is an artful portrayal of the numerous (and often times humorous) challenges of resource management.  In his debut novel, Paul Torday uses different communication media to construct an exciting and heartfelt story around a fisheries scientist, Dr. Alfred Jones, who gets sucked into the adventure of a lifetime involving a wealthy shiek, a lovestruck young woman, reconstructed deserts, the war in the Middle East, misguided British politicians, and best of all, salmon.

The most surprising and satisfying aspects of Salmon Fishin in the Yemen are how quickly the reader is drawn into the story and Torday's seemingly effortless prose.  When Dr. Alfred Jones is first forced to devise a plan for the unthinkable task of introducing salmon into hot, dry riverbeds, he is disgusted and insulted, which is well-aligned with any reader's skepticism.  However, even before our protagonist becomes a believer, readers have already been presented with multiple perspectives from different characters who logically see the benefits of such an effort.  So, despite the insurmountable challenges, strange moral dilemma, and potentially disastrous environmental consequences, readers find themselves routing for the project's success.  And, even once the situation spirals comically out of control, Torday's natural and fluid prose slowly awaken readers to a much broader and holistic notion of what "success" even means.

So as not to spoil the ending, I will just say that Torday brings the story to a close and aptly shows readers why resource management is so difficult.  One development project might simultaneously be politically contentious, disliked by multiple stakeholder groups, and have economic, human health, or religious implications, not to mention any actual design or implementation costs and challenges.  As a society, it is important to remember and even appreciate how much coordination effort, political will, and physical labor is invested to create everything that we see around us every day.  This flow of energy toward the status quo might also make it particularly difficult and time-consuming to create change.  But taking cues from Dr. Afred and his wise friends, we learn that sometimes "success" isn't what or where you thought it would be.    

Certainly a fun and light-hearted read and I highly recommend reading it before the movie comes out.  Let me know if you want to borrow it!

Knauss Brown Bag

Come on down to the NOAA Central Library this Thursday to support your fellow fellows in the last seminar lecture from 2011 Knaussers!

This week, we'll first hear from Christina Hoefsmit in her talk entitled, Do You Have a Flag?  ARctic Governance and the Perceived "Race" for Resources.  She has put her background in climate change law and policy to good use this year working for the U.S. Coast Guard within the Marine Transportation System Directorate and will teach us all about the geopolitical challenges of decreasing sea ice coverage in the arctic and how those issues are relevant to management in the Southern Hemisphere.

Next, we'll here from Becky Blanchard in her discussion of Danger, Desire, and Governance: A Political Ecology of Vibrio vulnificus.  Her work with an oyster community in Florida exemplifies interdisciplinary study and will certainly help us learn about the social impacts of management decisions and lethal bacteria!


As we get ready to wrap up the fellowship, use this opportunity to recognize all of our great accomplishments - past, present, and future!

See you there!

Oceans and Public Health II: Seafood Safety

Over the last several decades, seafood safety has been called into question throughout ugly controversies that have tainted some of the best edibles that nature has to offer.  Fish can no longer be mentioned without conjuring mental images and sound bytes of mercury poisoning and FDA warnings.  Despite the debates, it is now commonly accepted that pregnant women should avoid these types of fish entirely, just based on how much heavy metal contamination accumulates at the top of the food web. As consumers are becoming more aware of these problems, sellers have had to show greater accountability for how and where their fish are caught and processed (Trader Joe's being the most famous for suffering bad press in 2009).  So, what can we eat and where can we buy it?

As always, the simple answer is that it depends.  For salmon, wild caught is the best, with aquaculture farms receiving high doses of pollution in near-shore waters, among other recent concerns such as the salmon anemia virus.  According to the EPA, consumers should be mindful about their consumption of shellfish as well: as living biofilters, these bivalves are the first ones to see the pollution!  Additionally, lingering seafood concerns surround products caught in the Gulf of Mexico after the oil spill, but NOAA and the EPA insist that we should grab a fork, because we'd all have to consume over 80 pounds of seafood per day for a few years before approaching a consumption level of concern!

And of course, when it comes to seafood, quality concerns must be paired with environmental concerns about damaging fishing practices.  While Trader Joe's is an example of a company that prides itself on providing organic, high-quality products, that is a tall order in many cases.  What is "high-quality" and how do we measure it?  The Greenpeace study, Carting Away the Ocean, relied largely on a company's response to their surveys, and when no response was recorded, that was an automatic failing score.  While transparency is important in any business, everyone deserves a chance to get on the sustainability bandwagon.  After the controversy, Trader Joe's has joined other companies such as Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, and Walmart in their efforts to green their supply chain.

No company, certification, or consumer can make perfect policies or choices.  So, what can you do?  Ask questions.  Ask your lifeguards, ask seafood providers, ask workers at the grocery store, and even better - check out DC's local seafood market to get your dose of healthy omega-3s from the nearest catch of the day!

Oceans and Public Health I: Water Quality Connections?

Did you get your flu shot this year?  If only promoting the health and wellness of our oceans was as easy as being inoculated against the flu virus.  We often forget how strongly public health issues are tied to the environment.  Our mental well-being, for one thing, is always improved after a day at the beach or an afternoon hiking through the forest.  But, the issues run much deeper than that.  From recreational safety to hygienic products and cancer, we rely heavily on the oceans for production of goods and ecosystem services that are essential to maintaining healthy communities and lifestyles.

Health-related concerns stemming from poor water quality include PCBs in fish and wildlife, the spread of infectious diseases, harmful algal blooms, and the interconnectedness of contaminants and immune functioning.  Dr. Gulland, head veterinary doctor at The Marine Mammal Center in California, has dedicated much of her life's work to studying the impacts of pollutants on seals, sea lions, and whales on the U.S. west coast and around the world.  Recently, her team has been investigating the apparent connection between genetics, pollutants, and an epithelial cancer diagnosed in a staggering 17% of stranded California sea lions.  They have learned that these animals have lower genetic diversity and are exposed to PCB pollutants in utero, meaning pups are born with it already in their tissues.  In addition to cancer and pollutant exposure, these animals are all infected with a type of herpesvirus that is similar to the virus that leads to Kaposi's sarcoma in humans.

Putting the pieces of this puzzle together, researchers are studying how these genetically predisposed animals whose immune system is compromised by pollutants are being infected by a virus and developing cancer.  Phew, what a diagnosis!  One of the most fascinating, and at the same time terrifying, aspects of this research is how informative it can be for human health.  They are mammals just as we are, living at the interface of water and land, so what affects them can also affect us.  After a strong storm when all of our pollution rushes to the ocean, disoriented animals wash ashore just as avid surfers can contract bacterial infections or stomach viruses.  As we often gaze out across a beautiful ocean, it is important to remember that we cannot see what goes on beneath the surface.  It is difficult to know how close we are to worrisome thresholds that lead to irreversible changes in the future.  Wonder how your local waterways are doing?  Check out Surfrider here in DC to find out what you can do!

A Tsunami of Questions: Marine Debris

Nine months ago, the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan raised countless immediate concerns about radiation, fisheries, and human loss, but in case the tragedy had drifted to the back of your mind, the media has stirred up controversy and brought it back to the forefront of public concern.  This time, many worry that we will be reminded of the tragedy through the physical debris caused by the natural disaster.  NOAA's Marine Debris Program is working hard to collaborate with ocean modelers to determine the facts of the situation and to appease public concerns.  This situation highlights the challenges of making high-profile predictions when so much remains unknown.

Shortly after the tsunami struck the coast, the wave of physical debris was visible from outer space.  Now, months later, the evidence of destroyed buildings, cars, schools, and farms has been dispersed by ocean currents or has sunk to the sea floor.  Current models predict that debris might begin washing ashore this winter and then hit the west coast of the U.S. in 2013.  Because the Pacific Ocean is a gyre (made famous by the ocean garbage patch), the debris would circle back to the Hawaiian Islands by 2015.  One of the biggest concerns is that larger items might cause damage to sensitive coral atolls or disrupt regional fishing activities.  Less known impacts include concerns over toxic chemicals accumulating in the food web, navigation hazards, or interference with coastal recreation.

Predicted path of the debris

NOAA is collaborating internationally and with various industries and research institutions to ensure that misconceptions are kept to a minimum.  With concerns over radioactivity and questions of how many tons  of debris were actually swept to sea, the communications team has their hands full.  As with most public health concerns, the media can often blow things out of proportion.  Head on over the the Marine Debris Program's website to track the tsunami debris and for more information, podcasts, videos, and FAQs.  Make sure you're a source of truthful facts when these issues come up at happy hour, or among friends, family, and colleagues.  Even better, ask our very own Ben Carswell for insider information!

Book Review: Voyage of the Turtle

It's not every day that a prominent marine scientist publishes a compilation of engaging tales about the trials and tribulations of conservation around the world.  But that is just what Carl Safina has done in the Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur.  Readers follow Safina onto nesting beaches, up in helicopters, and into conversations with countless sea turtle experts along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.  As a successful author and ocean advocate, Safina is among those exemplary scientists such as Sylvia Earle who effectively engage audiences for a cause.  Founder of the Blue Ocean Institute, Safina inspires the public to learn about conservation, sustainable seafood, and climate change through literature and art.

In the Voyage of the Turtle, Safina shows readers the complexities of conservation projects focused on one of our world's most charismatic and unique species.  The leatherback turtle represents one of the oldest evolutionary links to prehistoric creatures and is the only surviving species of its genus.  The largest of all sea turtles, the leatherback's soft carapace allows it to dive deeper than any whale into cold waters of the world's oceans.  Its life history traits and dispersed nesting areas create conservation challenges on both coasts of the U.S.  

The future of these animals is inextricably linked to human activities in that survival depends greatly on successful conservation initiatives.  A surprising recovery along the Atlantic coast contrast a worrisome and dramatic decline in the Pacific.  Safina highlights cases of unexpected consequences, such as turtles selectively nesting on Florida beaches in front of hotel resorts that have instituted low light policies because those areas are actually darker than the nature reserves that have the city's distant glow in the background.  From shrimp fishermen in the gulf to helicopter surveys in the mid Atlantic, Safina's flowery metaphors remind readers to appreciate the beautiful places and animals that people work so hard to use sustainably.  All-in-all, a good read for anyone looking to learn more about the successes and challenges of ongoing sea turtle conservation!

Visit the Sea Turtle Conservancy or ask our very own Katrina Phillips to learn more about our worlds turtles, where they go, and what we still don't know about them!

Fish News: Some Like it Hot, Part II

A few months ago, our attention was drawn to the fish in Australia that can thrive in warmer temperatures as long as they were spawned in those warmer waters.  This week, scientists have discovered another example of surprising climate adaptation: a hybrid shark!  This new fish subspecies is direct evidence that changing oceans have given rise to uncharted reproductive territory.  Species that normally do not come into contact with one another are not only coexisting, but are actually mating and shaking up the evolutionary genetics of the shark world.  

Distribution of the common blacktip

Interestingly enough, like our last climate change story, this one also comes from James Cook University in Australia.  They've proven that Australian blacktip sharks have been intermingling with the common cosmopolitan blacktip shark.  Hybridization naturally occurs at very low rates and it is uncommon to actually find multiple hybrid generations in significant numbers.  Researchers think that this phenomenon is not simply coincidence or happenstance because these two species have very specific temperature ranges.  One likes it cold, and the other prefers warmer waters, leading experts to believe that these hybrids might have a larger tolerance for temperature extremes.

Not only are these new creatures fascinating local and global shark geneticists, but the situation has caught the attention of Australian resource managers because of its implications for the shark fisheries.  If the hybrids are disproportionally caught, or if they are more vulnerable to predation pressure, or if they reproduce less often, the fisheries will risk miscalculating their allowable catches in any given season.  In other words, these hybrids introduce a large degree of uncertainty into the equation, which generally leads to smaller, more conservative quotas.  At this early stage, everyone will have to hold their breaths to see what happens next!

Stay tuned for more stories of climate adaptation from around the globe.  So far, it looks like fishy things are happening in Australia!



 

Book Review: Sea Cows, Shamans, and Scurvy

If you consider yourself an explorer and have an adventurous spirit, this is a book for you.  Ann Arnold takes us back to the late 18th century in the North Pacific Ocean in her story of Georg Wilhelm Steller, Sea Cows, Shamans, and Scurvy: Alaska's First Naturalist.  Arnold departs somewhat with literary conventions to bring us a story filled with illustrations, ship logs, and diary excerpts that give readers an intimate sense of Russian and European culture blended with a young man's irrepressible love of scientific discovery.

Steller got his start in science the way many of us do: by being studious and ready to sign on to the next and nearest adventure.  Unlike today, there was less of a demand for budding scientists and Steller had better luck working as a physician for diplomats.  After earning the good favors of high-ranking members of the Academy of Sciences, he was finally assigned a professorship on Bering's ongoing expeditions through Siberia and beyond.  Arnold takes readers through the trials of exploring uncharted territories in one of the harshest environments in the world.  On the one hand, we learn about the devastating impacts of provisioning and supplying these armies in the name of claiming land and national pride.  On the other hand, Arnold portrays Steller as the gentle naturalist who befriended the natives and spent hours cataloging wildflowers.

As the expedition made it's way east over the course of ten years, the sailors and their captains were eager to determine whether there was a passage into the Arctic Ocean or whether Russia was in fact attached to the Americas.  Meanwhile, Steller continued to document each plant and animal he encountered along the way.  Readers travel with Steller throughout Siberia, onto the Kamchatka peninsula, over to the Kuril Islands and Japan, and through the Sea of Okhotsk.  In the Barguzin Mountains, he discovers Lake Baikal and it's landlocked seal inhabitants.  As any naturalist throughout history, Steller struggled against those that saw his endeavors as a waste of time.  When his demands to find cleaner drinking water along the Aleutian Islands were ignored, his crew suffered.  In time, his reputation improved when he saved many of the sailors from scurvy with herbs that the natives had shown him.  Eventually, after surviving the winter on Bering Island, Steller was well-respected for his contributions and described countless species we still know today, including the extinct sea cow, Steller sea lions, and numerous birds and fish.

Through this incredible story of an early explorer, Arnold reminds us of the humble origins of ocean exploration and the inevitable politics surrounding the countries involved.  By reading these compiled journal excerpts and quotes, we can imagine the heart-stopping storms and Steller's enduring spirit.  Her playful story-telling style makes this a book that I would highly recommend for anyone looking to learn more about a bright mind living through a unique and trying historical time period.

What have you read recently?

Resolution #1: Find Job

For many Knauss fellows, January is crunch time on the job front.  Still haven't landed your dream gig?  Don't worry, you're not alone.  The lean budget climate and the holiday festivities have dampened the job search and many of us are still anxiously awaiting to hear what interviews and excitement January will hold.  We're all so excited for those among us who have accepted offers (congrats Andy, Colin, and many others who have made steps toward securing contracts with their hosts!) and no longer have to worry!  If that isn't true for you, never fear - job hunting tips are here!

• Develop a top-notch resume: if you missed the career development workshop in September, ask around and find someone to forward you the information.
• Be strategic: if you are braving USA Jobs, don't forget to match your resume to the words in the job announcement.
• Use RSS feeds to your advantage!  Did you know that not only can you create email notifications in USA jobs, but you can even get RSS feed updates to your Google (or other internet) Reader.  Use this technique on the job pages of other nonprofits in the area.
• Share information: talk with your friends, family, peers, and colleagues about what you're thinking, what you've seen open, and who you haven't heard from.  It's always good to sympathize with others sharing your stresses.
• Cast a wide net and think outside the box: don't limit yourself to your comfort zone - the walmarts and Exxon-Mobils of the world need smart and environmentally-minded employees too!
• Remember to dress and act the part: always live the job that you want next.  
• Create incentives: when reaching out to your network of contacts that we have all worked so hard to nurture, remember to offer something in return (coffee, lunch, secrets of the trade, etc). 
• Think before you leap: we've all worked really hard to imagine and then position ourselves into a dream job, so don't be too hasty to settle for something less.  If you're not sure whether you could enjoy the job, ASK if there is room to explore your passions and grow within the office. 
• Lastly, always stay positive - nobody wants to hire a sourpuss!

Cheers to the search, and let us know when you hear about your next steps so we can celebrate.