The shells of oysters – a commercially important shellfish whose reproduction and growth is threatened by climate-linked ocean acidification – may help counteract the effects of increased local acidity levels, according to a new study of New England’s Chesapeake Bay by a team of researchers led by Oregon S

“Firewood Buddy,” a smart-phone application developed by Oregon Sea Grant to inform campers about the risks of bring invasive insects into Oregon forests on imported firewood, is going national. Developed last year in collaboration with the Oregon Invasive Species Council, the free application not only educates

An Oregon Sea Grant publication, Mental Models Interviewing for More-Effective Communication, has won a Gold Award in the “Publications/Handbook” category of the 2013 Hermes Creative Awards. Hermes Creative Awards is an international competition for creative professionals involved in the concept, writing, and de

SALEM – The Oregon Senate voted Monday to require that companies experimenting with wave energy in Oregon’s territorial waters show they have enough money to recover their equipment when they’re done with it. The bill’s sponsors say they don’t want the state to be stuck for the cost of removing such ge

BEND – Oregon Sea Grant’s invasive species specialist, Sam Chan, is the featured speaker for the OSU Cascades Science Pub event on Tuesday, May 21 at McMenamins Old St. Francis School in Bend. The informal event runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m and features a full pub menu and no-host bar. Chan, a Sea Grant [...]

EUGENE -  The Fern Ridge Reservoir just west of Eugene, Ore., is a popular recreation spot for boaters and swimmers during the spring and summer months. The marina attracts freshwater sailors and provides ample fishing opportunities for anglers. There’s only one problem: An invasive species is steadily taking over the la

LINCOLN City – More than 100 junior high, high school and college students will converge on the Lincoln Community Center this Saturday (May 4) to compete in the Oregon Regional Marine Advanced Technology ROV Competition – and a chance to advance to the international finals. Teams from Albany, Astoria, Corbett, C

The latest issue of Audubon, the magazine of the National Audobon Society, reports that in the 1970s an Alaskan high school science teacher purchased red-legged frogs from a supply house in the Pacific Northwest. Once the amphibians were no longer needed, the educator released them. Four decades later, studies show that fro

Oregon Sea Grant has published a revised Quests book – The Oregon Coast Quests Book: 2013-14 Edition. Quests are fun and educational clue-directed hunts that encourage exploration of natural areas. In this self-guided activity, Questers follow a map and find a series of clues to reach a hidden box. The box contains a

Welcome the newest member of the Oregon Sea Grant blogging family, WISE, the Watershed & Invasive Species Education blog. Amy Schneider, a graduate student and science writer at the University of Oregon, is working with WISE program coordinator Tania Siemens to develop up-to-date, high-value content to help teachers lea

John Falk and Lynn Dierking, Oregon Sea Grant Professors of Free-choice Learning, are giving an invited lecture April 11 at the National Science Foundation headquarters in Arlington, VA. Their joint lecture, “An Ecological Approach to Understanding Lifelong STEM Learning: A Story in Two Voices” is part of the Di

Scientists at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center are examining a handful of Japanese fish that may have survived a nearly two-year trip aboard a small fishing boat torn off the Japanese coast by the 2011 tsunami. The fish – Oplegnathus fasciatus, known as Barred knifejaw or Striped beakperc

Scientists at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center are examining a handful of Japanese fish that may have survived a nearly two-year trip aboard a small fishing boat torn off the Japanese coast by the 2011 tsunami. The fish – Oplegnathus fasciatus, known as Barred knifejaw or Striped beakperc

NEWPORT, Ore. – Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center invites public to explore its marine science labs and Visitor Center,  “behind the scenes”  on Saturday, April 13, when the Newport facility hosts its annual Marine Science Day. The free event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., will feature

Applications due April 19, 2013 for the Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholars program for undergraduates. The program places students in natural resource management agencies and is designed to help prepare undergraduate students for graduate school and careers in marine science, policy, management, and outreach. Read more at htt

OSU researchers working with the groundfish fishing industry in the Pacific Northwest have tested a new “flexible sorting grid excluder” – a type of bycatch reduction device that shows promise to significantly reduce the incidental bycatch of Pacific halibut from commercial bottom trawl fishermen. In a series

NEWPORT  – When a massive dock drifted across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to the U.S. West Coast after the Great East Japan Earthquake, it brought along more than the invasive “wakame” kelp and mussels that were attached to it. The city of Newport, Oregon, where the docked beached itself last June, noticed the high

Spring Whale Watch Week coincides with spring break for most Oregon schools and universities, and that makes March 23-30 a great time to head for the coast and look for whales. Hundreds of giant gray whales, including females and their new calves, travel past Oregon on their way to their spring and summer feeding grounds [.

Science magazine reports on the declining state of the US marine research fleet: “Fewer scientists are going to sea as a result of a shrinking science fleet, flat budgets, and skyrocketing costs. At the same time, oceanographers are using a growing array of high-tech devices—such as satellites, gliders, and vast net

NEWPORT – Dan Bottom, fisheries biologist with NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, steps up to the bar to talk about salmon at the next Science on Tap event on March 13 at Brewer’s on the Bay. “Celebrating Diversity: Sustaining Pacific Salmon in a Changing World” is Bottom’s theme

Registration is now open for the Free-Choice Learning Professional Certificate, an online program offered by Oregon State University. The program helps museum, zoo, aquarium, and science outreach professionals and volunteers discover more about free-choice learning, the study of what, where, and how we choose to learn over

Sea Grant programs in Oregon, Washington and California are inviting regional research proposals that address topics of social science and human dimensions related to Sea Grant’s national goals for Healthy coasts and oceans Safe and sustainable fisheries and aquaculture Resilient coastal communities and economies Envi

Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) will open an exhibit this month featuring a slice of a dock ripped loose during the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami and washed ashore near Newport last year. An HMSC official says the exhibit is a reminder that a similar earthquake and tsunami coul

NEWPORT – A new tsunami awareness exhibit, featuring a piece of the massive Japanese dock that washed ashore at Agate beach last year, will be dedicated at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in a public ceremony and grand opening on Sunday, March 10. The public ceremony, which runs from 2-4 pm,  marks the two

Rip currents – strong channels of water flowing seaward from the shore - kill more Americans than do hurricanes. Caught off guard, people are swept out to sea, where they exhaust themselves swimming against the pull of the strong, outrushing current, and drown. While scientists and the National Weather Service have m

NEWPORT – Fishermen, restaurants and seafood retailers have until March 4 to take advantage of early-bird registration prices for the 11th annual West Coast Wild Seafood Exchange, coming to Newport on March 20. Originally a direct-marketing conference for independent coastal and Columbia River fishermen, the exchange

TACOMA, WA – Sea Grant programs in Oregon and Washington are bringing a national gathering of coastal and Great Lakes waterfront interests to the Pacific Northwest in March. The third National Working Waterfronts and Waterways Symposium, March 25-28 in Tacoma, Wash., will address challenges facing the nation’s water

Many public officials and community leaders on the Oregon coast believe their local climate is changing and the change will affect their communities. But, overall, addressing the changing climate is not among their most urgent concerns. These are among the findings of a 2012 survey by Oregon Sea Grant at Oregon State Univer

This clever video  uses a catchy rap tune, a wise-cracking puppet and some simple, practical instructions to engage fishermen in protecting rockfish from dying of barotrauma, by reaching them how to return their excess catch to the deeps – alive. Barotrauma results when a rockfish is caught and hauled rapidly to the

After years at sea, sockeye salmon returning to their freshwater homes may be guided by an early memory of the Earth’s magnetic field, encoded at the site where natal streams empty into the Pacific Ocean, according to a an Oregon Sea Grant-supported study published today in Current Biology. Oregon State University’