Monthly Report to the Dean - November 2007
December 9, 2007
To: Denis Wiesenburg, Dean, SFOS and Brian Allee, Alaska Sea Grant Director
From: Paula Cullenberg, Marine Advisory Program Leader
Re: Marine Advisory Program highlights, November 2007
Upcoming
- Alaska Young Fishermen’s Summit, Anchorage, December 10-13 www.marineadvisory.org/ayfs
- Alaska Seafood Processing Leadership Institute begins in February, Applications open now. www.marineadvisory.org/aspli
MAP Highlights for November
Coastal Communities and Economies
- Ray RaLonde, with assistance from Glenn Haight, organized and taught a two-day workshop for about 40 shellfish farmers in Anchorage titled “Financial Management for Alaskan Shellfish Farmers.” The workshop is part of a long-term and ongoing effort to assist shellfish farmers with economic efficiency and profitability funded in part by a USDA Risk Management grant. Information from the workshop has been developed into an informational CD mailed to participants.
- Ray RaLonde was chair of a session titled, Alternative Species for Shellfish Aquaculture, at the annual Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association/National Shellfisheries Association meeting in Portland, Oregon. He also presented a research paper, “Purple Hinge Rock Scallop Growout, Results from a Four-year study in Alaska.”
- Terry Johnson organized a seminar series at Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle directed at marine recreational charter operators. The series included five seminars covering topics such as: limited entry for charter companies, salmon production for the future, and new technology. This well-attended series is supported in part from PME and Terry has organized it for a number of years. More information at http://www.pacificmarineexpo.com/07/public/Calendar.aspx?SuperTrackId=&ID=13789&sortMenu=104001
- Terry Reeve coordinated and participated in a series of workshops in Bethel for small business plan developers. Terry offered a class in B&B start-up and participated on a panel of local business leaders discussing general business issues; and was a mentor for students working on tourism issues in the Yukon/Kuskokwim area.
- Paula Cullenberg organized a meeting at SFOS/UAF designed to look at progress and next steps toward increasing rural and Alaska Natives in fisheries and marine science. The meeting was co-coordinated with ADF&G staff member Debbie Hart. About 40 people attended from all over the state and developed a series of recommendations related to K-12 education, university education, and employers. At the end of the meeting, the group decided to formalize and developed a steering committee and gave itself the name, “Alaska Marine Science and Fisheries Careers Coalition.” Heidi Herter also attended and participated in the meeting.
- Sunny Rice answered walk-ins and calls on TAA, AYFS, tides in the Wrangell Narrows for next July, seabird streamer line requirements, and product quality upgrade loans, among others.
Ecosystems and Habitats
- Rick Steiner commented on the Russian oil spill in the Black Sea on NPR. His interview can be found at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16452566 He was also interviewed by the Sacramento Bee about the oil spill in San Francisco Bay http://www.sacbee.com/378/story/496760.html
- Rick was also a guest lecturer during a UAF Rural Development in a Global Perspective (RD 300) class via audio conference.
- Kate Wynne had a manuscript accepted for publication in Marine Mammal Science: “Investigation of foraging habits and prey selection by humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) using acoustic tags and concurrent fish surveys” by Witteveen, B.H., R.J. Foy, K.Wynne, and Y. Tremblay.
- Kate joined ADFG, UAF, and NMFS project collaborators on ship-based marine mammal-prey study in Uganik Bay. Later this month, she conducted day-long survey of Steller sea lions on the Long Island haulout to document the presence of branded individuals.
- Torie Baker attended as a member, the EVOS Trustee Council Public Advisory Committee – reviewed data policy, sample management and grant extension powers of the executive director, project final reports status, 2008 meeting schedules, and supported a request for National Academy of Sciences program review submitted by Rick Steiner.
Fisheries
- Terry Johnson and a number of other MAP faculty (Torie Baker, Terry Reeve, Sunny Rice, Glenn Haight) as well as Greg Fisk and Pete Granger completed a substantial revision of the Fishermen’s Direct Marketing Manual, published cooperatively by Washington, Alaska and Oregon Sea Grant. The publication can be found at http://seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/pubs/MAB-53.html
- Torie Baker, the City and the Cordova District Fishermen United, worked together to convince the Alaska Board of Fish and Game to hold their upcoming 2008 meeting in Cordova.
- Terry Reeve worked with Bethel fishermen on the design of a small-scale, value-added fish plant for the 2008 season.
- Terry Reeve attended the Kuskokwim Management Group's annual fall meeting in Anchorage and delivered a presentation on 'Catcher/Seller & Catcher/Transporter, current status possibilities in the Kuskokwim area for 2008 and beyond'.
- Torie Baker convened a meeting between Leslie Pearson Alaska Dept. of Environmental Conservation, Marine Safety division, and local fishermen regarding spill response to the grounding of F/V Nordic Viking this summer in PWS. Discussion resulted in 1) increased understanding of subcontractor response requirements to non-tanker spills, 2) instigation of a rapid response program development including Cordova-based bowpicker vessels, and 3) plans to orient the fleet and other city personnel to accessing locally-staged ADEC spill response equipment and criteria for use.
- Glenn Haight travelled to Cordova and offered a Business Planning for Fishermen workshop to 14 people. Glenn has now offered this workshop in Nome and Sitka as well.
Marine Literacy
- Heidi Herter sponsored the first in a series of talks in Nome this winter related to the International Polar Year (see attached poster). Susan Sugai, from the UAF Center for Global Change spoke to 56 members of the Nome community about Monitoring Sea Ice.
- During that same week, Heidi co-sponsored the Alaska Ocean Film Festival 2007 with the Alaska Center for the Environment, attended by 75 people.
- Kate Wynne was interviewed/filmed by Sue Piehl, Luminosity Films about gray whale ecology and Kodiak’s gray whale skeletal re-articulation project.
Seafood Science and Technology
- Torie Baker, Paula Cullenberg travelled to Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China with Quentin Fong to tour seafood operations, particularly live seafood markets. We had an amazing tour that highlighted the importance of seafood to the Chinese diet, as well as understanding the large percentage of seafood that is sold live. This poses a significant challenge to Alaskan seafood, except for shellfish. Some Alaskan geoducks were present in the markets. The tour also illustrated how Alaska seafood is small in volume compared to the amount of seafood and people that are found in Asia. Overlooking the largest container port in the world in Hong Kong, we calculated that the entire Alaska salmon harvest would fit in about 20 of the container vessels moored in harbor.
- Don Kramer answered Drying of cod and Pollock, freezing and frozen storage recommendations, smoking fish temperatures for hot and cold smoking, cause of black spots on king crab shell and safety of canned seafood.
University Service
- Heidi Herter made a presentation about the Bering Strait Marine Advisory Program for the Arctic Research Commission’s meeting in Nome.
- Reid Brewer presented a talk/slideshow to the Alaska Sea Grant Advisory Committee entitled, “Marine flora and fauna of the Aleutian Islands.” Paula Cullenberg and Terry Johnson also attended and participated in the Advisory Committee’s annual meeting.
