the BREAKWATER 
A newsletter from the Prince William Sound Science Center
February 2019
PWSSC FINALIZES LAND PURCHASE FOR A NEW LOCATION
CEO Katrina Hoffman signs the land deed for the future location of the Science Center. Photo: Seth Walker
Did you know the Science Center occupies eight rented facilities in Cordova? After nearly 30 years of renting, we are finally landowners. In 2018, the City of Cordova approved the sale of a 5-acre parcel at Shelter Cove to PWSSC, and we received the title in December. Now we are in the process of making a hope become reality: consolidating from several locations to one, where we will build the compact campus that we have dreamed of for decades. To make this dream become a reality, we'll be fundraising with a capital campaign. Stay tuned for updates and opportunities to improve our community and the region's resilience by investing in your Science Center.

DATE CORRECTION FOR COPPER RIVER NOUVEAU!
Copper River salmon at a previous year's Nouveau dinner. Photo: PWSSC.
The first update for Copper River Nouveau is that it's actually on Saturday, June 8, 2019. If you marked your calendar after the notice in the January Breakwater be sure to re-mark it with the correct date:

Saturday, June 8, 2019

Our team has been hard at work planning for this year's big event, and tickets will go on sale in mid-March.
 
Stay tuned! 

PWSSC WELCOMES NEW EDUCATION INTERN 
Education Intern Chris Iannazzone. Photo: Teal Barmore
We are excited to welcome Chris Iannazzone to our education staff! Born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Chris spent a number of years studying environmental sustainability and agriculture. He followed his interest in the environment to a volunteer opportunity with the North Mountain Park Nature Center in Ashland, Oregon. He found that environmental education was a way to combine the love he had for working with kids with his passion for the environment.
 
Most recently, Chris was living in the Pacific Northwest. When not traveling the world, he worked in environmental education at Camp Sealth on Vashon Island doing three-day overnight camp trips and leading a group of Seattle high school students on ecological restoration projects with the Seattle Student Conservation Association. 

Chris is excited about the diversity of work that the Prince William Sound Science Center does and is looking forward to the variety of different age groups and teaching environments that he will get to work in, especially the challenge of working in the classroom with our Discovery Room program.
CORDOVA TEAM PLACES FIRST IN PROJECT PORTION OF NOSB
The PhotosyntheSistahs at the regional Tsunami Bowl in Seward on February 23.
Photo: Lauren Bien
An all-female National Ocean Sciences Bowl team from Cordova High School, coached by PWSSC Education Director Lauren Bien, rocked the competition at the regional Tsunami Bowl. The PhotosyntheSistahs' combination of a 15-page research paper and oral presentation on 'Effects of Ocean Acidification on the Copper River Sockeye Fishery' won first place in the project portion of the competition. 

The PhotosyntheSistahs finished the first day of the buzzer-style competition undefeated. On the second and final day, they kept up the good work and made it to the finals. After a hard-fought round, the team took second place to the Ketchikan High School team,  Saber Toothed Salmon. Congratulations, PhotosyntheSistahs!
STEWARDS PRESENT AT THE ALASKA FORUM ON THE ENVIRONMENT
The 2018 Copper River Stewards presenting at the Alaska Forum on the Environment. Photo: Lauren Bien
Eight students from the 2018 Copper River Stewardship Program presented at the Alaska Forum on the Environment in Anchorage in mid-February. 

Their talk, "Linked by the River: Shared Wilderness Experiences," demonstrated how adventure, time in another's community, ecology lessons, writing exercises, and challenging experiences can be used to foster cooperation and build lasting relationships. 

Their presentation, given to a packed room of 75 forum attendees, even included an original song about their 10-day exploration of the Copper River watershed. Keep an eye out for their debut album!
 

FOR THE LOVE OF HERRING
A healthy heart on the left compared to a heart infected with Ichthyophonus on the right. Photo: Maya Groner.
Research Ecologist Maya Groner and her colleagues in the Herring Research and Monitoring Program have recently started a project on the pathogen Icthyophonus, which affects the heart and liver of many different fish species, including Pacific herring.

Since 2007, Maya's colleague USGS researcher Paul Hershberger has been monitoring the disease in Pacific herring from both Sitka and Prince William Sound. Large  Ichthyophonus die-offs have not been observed in either of these Alaska populations since he started monitoring, but in 2013 he started noticing that the infections looked more severe in the fish that he was sampling. This could be the beginning of a shift from low intensity, low mortality infections to high intensity, lethal infections. With both populations in decline and population models that don't account for this disease, this is a cause for concern...

Read the full story here!

PACIFIC COD MIGRATION
Dr. Mary Anne Bishop's research team brings in a groundfish pot containing a cod for tagging. The team used both pots and longlines to catch Pacific cod for the project.
Photo: PWSSC 
Dr. Mary Anne Bishop's recently published paper on a Pacific cod tagging study will change everything you thought you knew about the migration behavior of Pacific cod. 

Between research cruises in December 2013 and February and December 2014, Mary Anne's team captured and tagged 123 cod in two bays in western Prince William Sound. Each bay was equipped with two lines of underwater acoustic receivers at the entrances to collect data on the fish's movement in and out of the bays. The existing Ocean Tracking Network--six acoustic arrays situated at the major entrances to Prince William Sound--were utilized to detect further movement between Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska. What the researchers found was interesting...

Read the full story here.

The Science Center is committed to understanding how one place on earth can maintain a reliable economy and natural environment for the long term. 
 
We invite you-- donors, researchers, partners, funders, elected officials, citizens--to join us in better understanding one of the world's last, great natural regions, home of the world's richest waters.

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