April 2001: Pam Rogers, Editor
Ron Barrell to Retire
Who at the HMSC has been on every research vessel (except the R/V Acona)? Ron Barrell, Senior Boat Operator, has that honor, having been at the HMSC since January of 1972 (except for a two-year stint on the main campus in 77-78). He worked with every port captain/marine superintendent since Capt. Redmond and has witnessed the many changes at the Center.
Although a native Oregonian whose father's family were all fishermen, Ron suffered from seasickness as a young person and worked as a mason until he was drafted into the Army. Trained in Nike missile silo maintenance and repair, he ended up doing lots of purchasing, a skill that was very handy in his OSU career. After finishing his time in the Army, Ron moved to Newport in 1967 and found that he had overcome his tendency to get seasick. He studied to get his skipper's rating and worked commercial fishing and charter boats until he was hired on at the Center by Capt. Redmond. He remembers the salmon being so abundant that they would get six people's limits out by the Mile 1 buoy in less than four hours.
Two of his most enjoyable memories were serving as helmsman on the R/V Yaquina, taking her across the bar, and sailing through a huge blue shark nursery about 300 miles off the coast. He also enjoyed his years working as the skipper for the R/V Sacajawea because of all he learned from the teachers and scientists, and because of the fun in watching the kids learn and be on the water.
As he looks forward to retirement at the end of April, he will be around for a while because of the busy R/V Elakha summer schedule. He will be training Perry York as his replacement. He will work on his house and then he will be spending time getting to know his daughter and four grandchildren in the Midwest. He feels he has been very lucky to do what he has enjoyed all these years.
Former HMSC Researcher Named 2001 Pew Marine Conservation Fellow
Dr. Anne R. Kapuscinski, Director of the Institute for Social, Economic and Ecological Sustainability at the University of Minnesota and a specialist in biotechnology risk assessment, is determined to protect the environment from the dangers of genetically modified marine organisms. In support of her pathbreaking efforts, she has been named a 2001 Pew Marine Conservation Fellow.
Kapuscinski is among ten winners chosen from Canada, Italy, Spain, Russia, the Philippines, and the United States to receive the prestigious fellowships--the world's only award dedicated to marine conservation. Each year ten outstanding ocean champions are supported to undertake pioneering projects that tackle urgent conservation challenges in four areas: sustainability of marine ecosystems, fisheries management, marine contamination, and coastal conservation. The recipients have been awarded $150,000 each from the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts operated in partnership with the New England Aquarium.
The Pew Fellows Program recognizes exemplary individuals with unique vision, exceptional problem-solving skills, and innovative ideas to advance marine conservation," said Cynthia Robinson, associate director of the program. "Dr. Kapuscinski's winning project to address governance of genetically modified marine organisms demonstrates significant leadership in applying and communicating sound science to safeguard the health of ocean species and ecosystems."
Kapuscinski was among the first to discover gaps in the U.S. government's oversight of transgenic fish and to present the scientific rationale for addressing the ecological risks of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). She has provided congressional testimony supporting passage of new legislation and regulation of environmental releases of GMOs and led formulation of the world's first guidelines for assessing and reducing the risks of genetically modified fish and shellfish. Kapuscinski also contributed to the first scientifically sound manual for assessing both the ecological and human health risks of GMOs.
Commercial aquaculture of marine GMOs has a potential to harm marine biodiversity through problems such as the spread of viruses from farmed to wild populations, yet present day governance of biotechnology is inadequate to protect against these threats. Kapuscinski will utilize her Pew Fellowship to rememdy this by implementing a three-pronged approach to strengthen oversight. She will develop recommendations for precautionary regulations that stress principles of ecology and transparency in decision-making and promote them to policy makers. Kapuscinski will also convene multi-stakeholder working groups to establish industry-wide protocols for ecological risk assessment and safety assurance, stressing a model that shifts the burden of safety demonstration to marine GMO developers.
Finally, she will produce policy briefings and post them online to enhance the accuracy and scientific credibility of public understanding of the issues and potential consequences. As the commercialization of transgenic fish and other GMOs now occurs in a global economy, successful reformation of U.S. policies governing marine GMOs will influence improved environmental and human health safety across the globe.
Annual Scholarship/Research Awards Deadlines in May
It's the time of year when all but one of our scholarship and research award applications are due. The first deadline is May 1 for the Markham Research Awards of up to $10,000 each. Priority is given for research conducted by graduate students or post-doctoral researchers. Scientific merit is the most important criterion in the awarding of these grants. Preference is given to research proposals that utilize the facilities of the Hatfield Marine Science Center or the Astoria Seafood Lab. Financial need will also be weighed. Funds from Markham Grants can be used to support research expenses including wages, service and supplies, equipment, books, living stipend and library service.
May 15 is the deadline for all the others.
Bill Wick Marine Fisheries Award - available to graduate students in the area of marine fisheries ecology. A special area of interest is Pacific whiting, including ecology, food processing, economics and marketing. The award for this year is $6,000.
Holt Marine Education Fund - to foster education in the marine sciences by providing financial support to undergraduates or graduate students pursing marine science studies. The request should have definite educational output for a course, public education, extension, etc. and be marine related. Maximum request is $5,000.
Anja Robinson Fellowship - to provide support for graduate students (M.S. or Ph.D.) in shellfish aquaculture research at the Marine Science Center. Graduate students must work with shellfish and show commitment and promise to their career choice and meet the graduate entrance requirements of the university and the department in which they will study. Award for this year is $1,000.
Reynolds Scholarship - for graduate students in residence at the Marine Science Center. This is paid in three equal installments beginning Fall Term 2001 for a total award of $2,000.
All recipients are expected to give a brief presentation at the Markham Symposium, to be held this year on June 4 from 9-2 in the Library Seminar Room. For more information about the awards, please contact the Director's Office at 7-0212.
HMSC Reaches Out to Our Community
The month of March has seen two expressions of the HMSC's community spirit: The Blood Drive on March 15 and the continuation of the Soup Kitchen. As usual, all the good folks at the HMSC came through and we surpassed our goal of 50 pints by one--with four first-time donors! We had lots of support from donors and from helpers: Lara Hutton, Elizabeth Green, Linda Zumbrunnen, Keith Matteson (ODFW), Jimmie Cheney and Dave Specht (EPA), Beulah Davis, Charlene Lockman, Debi Furay (HMSC), Tonya Builder and Bruce Pederson (NMFS NW), and Jessica Waddell (CIMRS/NOAA). Keith Matteson wanted to point out the high percentage of support by ODFW in service and in donors.
The Soup Kitchen has been especially well attended and supported this year, and as of March 23, we had raised over $730, which translates into 7,300 pounds of food for Lincoln County Food Share (LCFS). The LCFS currently serves a monthly average of 900 households through their Emergency Food Box Program and approximately 1000 people a month are receiving a hot meal through their Emergency Meal Site. By popular demand, the Soup Kitchen has continued through the month of March, from its originally February-only schedule. In addition to the individuals highlighted in last month's newsletter, Freddie Sinclair, Fawn Custer and Linda Brodeur have all contributed goodies for the Kitchen. We have had chefs from most of the different agencies and groups at the Center, and certainly diners from almost all of them as well. One participant stated that he had learned more science sitting around the "kitchen" than he had otherwise in the last 90 days--a side benefit to good eating and good companionship.
Read Any Good Books Lately?
We'd like to invite other readers at HMSC to join us in reviewing books.
Send your brief review (pro or con) to hmsc.library@orst.edu, and we'll try to get it in this column.
Janet is reading:
Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime
by Miles Harvey. 2000
Harvey starts with a great idea for what could have been a riveting story:
How can an ordinary man named Mr. Bland successfully steal over 200 rare
maps from atlases in special collections and rare book rooms of libraries
throughout North America? The short answer is with a razor blade and
patience. The long answer involves an exploration of the rare map world,
its dealers, collectors, and librarians. Harvey weaves pieces of
cartographic history with glimpses of the crime spree. However, he also
rambles on about his own obsession with the story, maps, and Mr. Bland.
Unless you're a die-hard map fan, I'd give this one a pass.
Susan is reading:
Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady
by Florence King. 1990.
Florence King built a literary career by explaining the eccentricities of
the South to the rest of the country. In Confessions of a Failed Southern
Lady, she turns an acute eye and a robust sense of humor on her own life.
The result is a warm, honest and very funny memoir. Caution: a broad mind
and tolerance for four-letter words are prerequisites for enjoyment of
this book. The author's frankness and iconoclastic "out-there-ness" won't
be to some readers' tastes. It's thumbs-up for me: I had to love a book
that begins, "There are ladies everywhere..." and ends, "She had it
painted on her bowling ball."
Judy is reading:
The Tortilla Curtain
by T. Coraghessan Boyle. 1995.
Here's a story about Mexican illegal immigrants who slither on their bellies across the U.S./Mexican border, eat garbage from the dumpster at Kentucky Fried Chicken, drink oily water from the culvert, sleep in the dirt in a shack built from scrap, and deliver a new baby on a soft sack of grass seed. The story is also about American Yuppies who escape the crowds and crime of Los Angeles to live in Arroyo Blanco Estates, an upscale gated community in the hills above the city. They eat sauteed shrimp with mango, drink Perrier from crystal, drive Porsches, and enjoy afternoon strolls through the pristine hills.
Watch as two worlds collide. This novel pits the "wicked gabacho world" (the "haves") against the Mexican braceros who haunt the daily labor exchange in every American city (the "have-nots"). The author targets American policies regarding immigration, and the hypocrisy inherent in desiring cheap labor from illegal workers. The main character believes himself to be a liberal humanist, yet his values erode into full-blown racism (much like the mudslide that careens down these California hills). His bulging American cornucopia shrinks to the size of a skimpy slice of American pie.
The novel takes a serious look at the ever-widening circles of suburbia --
how civilization encroaches on diminishing wild landscape. It forces
readers to consider the relationship between greed and racism and
overpopulation. It questions the nature of the American Dream and what it
means to seek it today. This book may rattle your conscience. How much is
enough? And for whom?
What's New @ Your Library
Marine Ecology Progress Series is now online for OSU! You can get to it either through our catalog, Oasis (oasis.orst.edu), and pulling up the record for MEPS, or by going directly to the MEPS website (http://www.esep.de/journals/meps/).
When you get to the web page, scroll down to the section "Tables of contents with abstracts:". Then click on the volume you want. We have access to full text of articles from volume 201 on in pdf format. Earlier volumes are abstracts only. Access to full-text articles is based on a range of Internet IP numbers that we specified to the publisher (the whole OSU campus).
Those who remember Terry Morse's great slide show on butterflies and moths might find this website of interest: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/bflyusa.htm This has a state-by-state guide. It includes pictures of butterflies and some caterpillers. It's not comprehensive, but a nice site--distribution maps, notes on identification, life history and conservation status. Now I know what a Western Green Hairstreak looks like!
Electronic Access to Back Issues of Journals
The Oregon State University Libraries have added the General Science collection to the recent acquisition of the Arts and Sciences I and Ecology and Botany collections of the electronic journal archive JSTOR. All of the JSTOR titles are available for searching and browsing at http://www.jstor.org. They are also accessible through Oasis, our online catalog (oasis.orst.edu), by searching the journal title and clicking on the online version.
JSTOR is a cooperative effort to give libraries a reliable archive for back volumes of some of our most used journals. It provides full text of articles with a moving wall of three to five years depending on the agreement with the publisher. This moving wall means that for recent articles, you will continue to use our print or electronic subscription.
Here are some the following titles now available: American Midland Naturalist 1909-1997
* Later issues of PNAS (1990-present) are available at http://www.pnas.org/
** Later issues of Science (1995-present) are available at http://www.science.com
New Developments with Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts
At the recent conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries, I learned that Cambridge Scientific, the vendor for ASFA has loaded the records from 1971-1974 into the database. Cambridge is working on the ones from 1974-1977. It's always nice to see someone add older material as well as the newest.
Cambridge also now has an alerting service. This means you can do a search
in ASFA, Zoo Record or any of the other environmental databases, save it as
alert search, and the system will automatically run it weekly and email you
the results. It's a great way to keep up on research in a certain field or
the publications of various authors (including your own.) For example, I've
set up a simple search for (Yaquina or (Newport and Oregon)). I've already
received 12 citations, several of which I need to add to the Yaquina Bay
Bibliography.
Personnel Notes
Former graduate student Maria Elena Diaz and her husband Greg Hammann are pleased to announce the birth of their first daughter, Teresa Marie, on March 17 (Does that make her Irish?). She weighed a healthy eight pounds and was 21 inches long. Congratulations!
Mystery Photos!
How well
do you observe your surroundings? Can you recognize the site of these
mystery photos? If so, contact the editor.
