Hatfield Marine Science Center Newsletter

March 2000 Pam Rogers, Editor

Visitor Center Volunteers Recognized at Potluck

The annual Volunteer Appreciation Potluck drew its usual enthusiastic crowd and great food on Saturday, February 19. About 82 volunteers, staff, family and friends attended this year's function, generously sponsored by the HMSC administration, thanks to Lavern Weber.

Visitor Center volunteers contributed over 8,000 hours last year to projects such as interpreting exhibits, assisting in the bookstore, woodworking (building frames for tanks), renovating the submarine, leading tours and programs, storytelling, feeding fish, monitoring water quality in the aquariums and other special projects.

"These people are the 'face' of HMSC to the thousands of visitors who come through the front door," says Sylvia Pauly, who oversees the daily operations of the Visitor Center. "The visitors' experience is definitely enhanced by the personal contact our volunteers provide. The staff would be hard pressed to operate this facility without this great group of dedicated people. Last year they contributed the equivalent of 4.0 FTE. We could never run this place without them."

Bill Pinnix Wins Walter Jones Award

Bill Pinnix, doctoral student working with Steve Berkeley, has been selected as the Jones Award recipient for 2000.

Bill is conducting research on the early life history of sablefish, one of the most valuable commercial species on the Oregon coast. Using a variety of oceanographic indices, and compiling information stored in sablefish otoliths, he hopes to significantly increase the understanding of how climatic events such as El Niño impact sablefish and the coastal ecosystem off of Oregon. Survival through the juvenile phase is critical to building large stocks of commercially important fish species. He hopes to glean from the historical records stored in sablefish otoliths, information that will help understand the fluctuations caused by large oceanic-climatic events.

Along with the other HMSC award winners, Bill will be presenting the results of his research at the annual Markham Symposium held in early June.

March Blood Drive Meets Goal

The twice-yearly HMSC Blood Drive was again a success, thanks to the support of all the donors and volunteers. Our goal for the day was 55 pints, and we reached 54, plus two "half-pints." We also had five first-time donors, which is always a good sign.

Thanks go especially to our registration volunteers (Jimmie Cheney and Carol Cole), our canteen volunteers (Bruce Pedersen, Melody Pfister and Maureen Collson), and all our recruiters (Dave Specht, Keith Matteson, Jessica Waddell, and Leah Feinberg). The Red Cross always likes to come to the HMSC because of our friendliness and cooperation.

The next blood drive will be in October, so keep eating your spinach!

Sea Grant Marine Education Programs

· Marine Education Web Materials Receive National Recognition.

Interactive websites designed by HMSC Educators for Northwest teachers has been picked up by the University of Maryland to augment their technology teaching materials. Three sites have been developed by HMSC educator Ron Crouse. Topics covered include Axial Volcano research and El Nino. The web site links are located at

http://hmsc.orst.edu/education/curr/curriculum.html

· New Popular Northwest Rocky Intertidal Curriculum

A New Rocky Intertidal Curriculum has been developed for teachers from central California to Alaska. Distributed through the Sea Grant programs of Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, The first run of the curriculum sold out during the first six months and a second printing is now being distributed. To review a hard copy of the curriculum, visit the HSMC book store or view the web site to order a copy.

http://hmsc.orst.edu/education/curr/curriculum.html

Coastal Landslides Subject of HMSC Talk

The final talk of the Coastal Hazards series sponsored by the Visitor Center on coastal landslides on Thursday, March 16, 7:00-8:30 p.m. in the HMSC Auditorium.

Roger Hart, local geologist and assistant professor at OSU College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, will shed light on the causes of this winter's landslides at Cape Foulweather and Cape Cove along coastal Highway 101. In his talk, "Coastal Landslides: Why Now?" he will give a history of plate tectonics in the area and how the earth's movements can cause such massive landslides. He will also discuss other landslide-prone areas, such as near Beverly Beach and Moolack Beach.

This lecture is free and open to the public. For further information call (541) 867-0271.

Former Coastie Stationed at Sea Grant Extension Office

Jan Freeman joined the Sea Grant Extension staff in December, serving as Vicki Osis' right arm, replacing Linda Conser who moved to California. Jan retired from the U.S. Coast Guard after more than 22 years in the service. She spent ten years in Hawaii, one year in Italy, two one-year stints on tiny Kure Island (1 1/2 miles long and 1/2 mile wide), and the rest in various places in California, Virginia and North Carolina. She called Kure Island base the Club Med of the Pacific, even though it was a tiny coral atoll with no phones and mail every two weeks.

Her specialties were finance and supply, serving as Loadmaster, running the base Exchange and teaching computers and finance, and working on software development. Many of her bases ran Lorans stations, including the ones overseas. The U.S. Coast Guard does a lot of training of foreign coast guards (which explains why Jan was in Italy).

Since leaving the Coast Guard in 1996, Jan has finished her Masters in Education and is toying with the idea of teaching later. In the meantime, the self-styled "workaholic" assists Vicki with all the school groups and education programs. She is taking a class in stained glass for fun, loves to read and work on her computer. Her husband, Rick Ragusa, is becoming a well-known local artist.

The Unstoppable Soup Kitchen

The HMSC tradition of February as Hot Soup Month as a fund raiser for the Lincoln County Food Share has taken on a life of its own. Due to popular demand by both chefs and diners, the Tuesday Soup Kitchen will continue for a least two or three more weeks in March. Our February chefs have been Gayle Hansen (Spicy Potato Beef), Jessica Waddell (Lentil Curry) and Pam Rogers (Hamburger Stew, Bacon Potato Chowder, and Borscht). Those lined up for March include Dann Cutter (Hot and Sour), Dave Sampson (Potato Leek?), and Mitch Vance (Chicken Noodle?). This doesn't include our faithful bakers Veryl and Keith Barry, Leah Feinberg, Julia Getsiv, Carrie Phillips and Pam Rogers.

So far in February we have raised $480 through your generous donations. Food Share figures 6 pounds of food can be purchased for each $1 raised, making our contribution so far to be 2,880 pounds! Helping the hungry in our community has been a fun and filling experience. Thanks again for all your support!

Personnel Notes

Congratulations to Greg Krutzikowsky and Vicki Hoover Krutzikowsky on the birth of their first-born, a healthy son, Ronan Gregory Hoover Krutzikowsky (wait until he gets into first grade and has to write all that!).

Farewell to Susan Lynds, former graduate student and HMSC Webmaster, as she leaves the gray coast for sunny Bend. She will working in grant writing for Central Oregon Community College.

Library News

Student Workers Go to State

Casey Hettman, Jennifer Kalez, and James Ritzman have all qualified for the State Mock Trial Competition. They represent two Newport High School teams. All teams statewide present the same case and team members play different roles, i.e. prosecutors, defense lawyers. This year's case involves a 17-year smoker suffering from lung and kidney disease who is suing the tobacco industry for compensation. The competition takes place March 10-11. Good luck!

Journals and the Library's Budget

Our library materials budget did not increase 10% this year, but journals prices did. This increase seems to be the ongoing theme of the decade. Consequently, Janet will be identifying possible journals to cancel. Janet will be working with colleagues on the main campus and at the University of Oregon to ensure that core titles are saved. We will focus on titles that have seen a higher inflation rate than the 10% average, those that cost over $4,000 (high cost per use), and those that we can access electronically or via document delivery (pay on demand). Here at the Guin Library, she will refer to the usage study she did in

1996 to identify low use titles. Additionally, she will survey journals held at both libraries and those available electronically.

The University of Oregon is just completing a major journal cut. The library staff there has compiled an excellent web site with links to information about journal pricing and trends in scholarly publishing. http://libweb.uoregon.edu/colldev/serials2000.html You might

interesting reading. I would point you to one link in particular, a paper by Peter Brueggeman, my colleague at Scripps Oceanographic Institute. While dated, he explains the problems of journal price increases.

If you have questions or concerns, please let me know (Janet.Webster@orst.edu,7-0108). Our timeline is to identify the cancellations by the end of the academic year.