Squid Ink

Pacific Ocean Library Featured in New Blog

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2011-11-17 12:01
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The Pacific Ocean Library blog will spotlight new additions to the library’s collection of news articles, academic papers, and other materials useful to both researchers and general readers with an interest in Pacific Ocean issues. This debut post features a paper covering a key concern for marine conservation planning.

Not Your Parents' Water Pollution: Clean Water Act Failures in a New Climate

Submitted by bhooton on Tue, 2011-10-18 12:53
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Photo: MSVG, Flickr Creative Commons

by Ryan P. Kelly and Margaret R. Caldwell

This week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave California some tough love in the form of a ghastly report card on water quality along our coasts and in our rivers and streams: the state’s water pollution seems to have gotten much worse, with the number of polluted water bodies skyrocketing between 2006 and 2010.  Some of this change is due to more aggressive testing; the blame for the rest is solely our own.  And while this news is bad enough on its own, what’s often not discussed is that all of that polluted water ends up downstream in the coastal ocean, already hard hit by decades of abuse.

Te Mana o Te Moana - The Spirit of the Sea

Submitted by bhooton on Thu, 2011-08-11 09:29
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The seven vaka of the Pacific Voyagers. (photo: Ron Hagg  Oceanic Nature Film Productions)

 by Brynn Hooton-Kaufman, Science Communication Intern

Look for their vibrant sails dotting the horizon – red, yellow, and orange,  the colors of a sunset.  Hopefully full of wind, these sails will be speeding along seven vaka, Polynesian voyaging canoes, toward their next anchorage in Monterey Bay.   They’re  crewed by the Pacific Voyagers, who hail from island nations flung across the southern Pacific – Aotearoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, and Samoa just to name a few.  Read more...

FishNET Project Semifinalist for 2011 Gulfstream Navigator Award

Submitted by bhooton on Tue, 2011-08-02 11:43
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Imagine a system that would utilize stakeholders to report illegal fishing activities via the web, SMS text messaging, phone, and other sources, while simultaneously using observation technologies such as acoustic monitoring, inexpensive radar, and unmanned aircraft to do the same.  The system could help replace expensive  military surveillance currently used to monitor illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing at a fraction of the cost.  The system could also greatly improve our ability to observe and collaborate data on IUU fishing, while taking action to stop its threat to our oceans.  Read more...

FishNET Technology

 

Stanford Researchers Compute Grazing Rates on Coral and Temperate Rocky Reefs

Submitted by bhooton on Mon, 2011-06-27 18:19
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By using the control volume approach and carefully integrating physical and biological sampling, a team of researchers including COS’ Brock Woodson, Stephen Monismith, Jeff Koseff, and Fiorenza Micheli are tackling the computation of grazing rates on coral and temperate rocky reefs.  Read more...

Stanford a “Plastic Bag-Free Zone,” Students Urge

Submitted by eloury on Tue, 2011-05-17 15:48
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Ethan Estess, the Stanford Bag Project's design team member, shows off the latest shipment of reusable totes. (photo: S. Aguilera)

Katie Jewett  by Katie Jewett, Stanford University

Plastic bags floating in the sea are a major threat to marine life. Now, a small group of locally-minded students has come together under the auspices of Stanford’s chapter of The Coastal Society to establish the Stanford Bag Project which will work to make Stanford a plastic bag-free campus by providing environmentally conscious alternatives. With funding from the Center for Ocean Solutions and others, the Stanford Bag Project will target undergraduates with reusable tote alternatives to plastic bags.  Read more…

National Geographic Spotlights Ocean Acidification

Submitted by cosedit on Mon, 2011-03-21 18:01
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National Geographic writer Elizabeth Kolbert dives into the Tyrrhenian Sea not far from Naples to see firsthand the lethal effects of carbon dioxide that has been absorbed into the ocean.  Ocean acidification is an important subject for Center for Ocean Solutions' work on climate change and communicating climate change adaptation strategies.  "The Acid Sea" records the author's personal discovery of how man is changing the environment.

COS Influences Final Report to Obama on BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster

Submitted by cosedit on Fri, 2011-02-25 17:15
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Assessing the Final Report of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling

Kimi Narita  By Kimi Narita, Center for Ocean Solutions Legal Intern

Back in early August 2010 Meg Caldwell, Executive Director of the Center for Ocean Solutions (COS), was asked to testify before the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling (Commission).  Her testimony would address the statutory and regulatory framework for outer continental shelf (OCS) leasing and would identify potential changes to both minimize the likelihood of another catastrophic oil spill occurring and prepare the nation should another disaster occur.  August was a busy month for the COS staff, particularly myself and Meg Caldwell, as we conducted research, corresponded with other ocean experts, and drafted her testimony.  Caldwell flew to Washington D.C. and presented her testimony to a very appreciative Commission on August 25, 2010, and we assembled her written testimony the following week.  Caldwell’s testimony stressed that the current laws and regulations are written and administered in a way that leads to poor environmental review and minimal inter-agency consultation.  Read more...

Dr. Susanne Moser named Google Science Communication Fellow

Submitted by cosedit on Wed, 2011-02-16 11:29
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Dr. Susanne Moser, a social science research fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Center for Ocean Solutions at Stanford University, was selected to be one of only 21 Google Science Communication Fellows. Moser and others were nominated by leaders in climate change research and science-based institutions across the U.S. to be part of this inaugural group of early to mid-career Ph.D. scientists named to the program.  Read more...

An Academic and Municipal Partnership Tackles Local Land-Sea Policy

Submitted by eloury on Tue, 2011-01-18 17:25
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Workshop participant Helen OBrien from UC Santa Cruz works between sessions (photo: A. Abeles).    by Julie Stewart, MARINE curriculum intern

It’s not every day that the mayor, city planners and press come to Hopkins Marine Station to hear students speak, particularly at 9 AM on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning. But on December 5, Mayor Carmelita Garcia and Councilman Bill Kampe of Pacific Grove, along with local and regional managers and a reporter from the Cedar Street Times, came to hear policy recommendations from local graduate students for a course sponsored by the Center for Ocean Solutions.

Graduate students from six local campuses (UCSC, Moss Landing Marine Labs, CSUMB, MIIS, Stanford and Hopkins Marine Station) were involved in this MARINE (Monterey Area Research Institutions’ Network for Education), course, which is part of COS’ education initiative. Stanford University Professor Nicole Ardoin was the faculty lead for the course and MARINE Program Manager Margaret Krebs was the course coordinator. I was also involved in this project, and although I was initially signed on to develop the course’s content, my role evolved and I also became a liaison, organizer, and facilitator.  Read more...