Marine Conservation and Policy

Docks in Yaqunia Bay

The week began with a lecture from Sarah Henkel on the current state of fisheries, from there we packed in the vans and headed to the Bayfront. We met up with Laura Anderson, the owner of Local Ocean Seafoods, who took our class on a dock walk with one of her new servers. She explained how the restaurant selects sustainable seafood as well as talking to some l
ocal fisherman about the methods they utilize to catch crab, salmon, and shrimp. Afterwards we enjoyed our classmates company and a delicious lunch at Local Ocean. We returned to the classroom later that afternoon for two more lectures on new technology in fisheries and a brief overview of seabirds.

Sarah Henkel and Paul Engelmeyer at Cape Perpetua sharing

information with the class.

On Tuesday we went to the beautiful Cape Perpetua state park and met with Paul Engelmeyer, the Ten Mile Creek Sanctuary manager. He talked to us about the processes involved in Conservation policy from his vast experience working for the Audobon society. We talked a lot abut the connection between the land and sea and how conservation of the coastal lands can greatly benefit the ocean and the organisms in it. It was very interesting to see monitoring work carried out by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife on Salmon in the rivers. They are carrying out research on the salmon that are heading towards the ocean to check on how healthy their populations are, this salmon research plays an important role in fisheries management and this species are also important for the ecosystem. As well as talking and learning about practical conservation issues we also went for a lovely walk in the forest, through the old growth and had a picnic lunch by the creek in the sun.

Small fish caught in the fish trap in the stream

On Wednesday we had a day full of lecture, two of which were related how we can utilize the ocean, such as offshore aquaculture and renewable energy. We had a class discussion about science, policy and ethics, there were a wide variety of topics covered. This was an interesting discussion since many opinions were brought to the table for instance how scientists can communicate research to the public. The rest of the day was dedicated to work time on our group project on conservation and management.

Thursday consisted of presenting the conservation and management projects. Each group discussed the background and possible solutions for their topic for instance the Arctic Ocean, invasive species, and whaling.

Friday we met with Sarah Henkel, Sue Sponaugle, Sally Hacker, Vanessa Constant, and Chenchen Shen in order to discuss our final research projects and from this discussion we created our proposals.