A newsletter from the Prince William Sound Science Center

February 5, 2025

Late winter sunsets grace our atrium with bright rays and vibrant colors. Photo by Emeryl Redwine.

Rachel Ertz, Dr. Rob Campbell, and Dr. Scott Pegau at the AMSS poster session last week. Photos by Cristina Reo.

Several PWSSC staff members attended the Alaska Marine Science Symposium (AMSS) in Anchorage at the end of January. AMSS is a five-day symposium that showcases marine research in the Arctic Ocean, Bering Sea, and Gulf of Alaska. Staff attended keynote speaker presentations, poster sessions, plenary sessions, and workshops. 

Three PWSSC researchers presented posters during the AMSS poster session. Graduate student Rachel Ertz presented on the variability among scale readers in estimating the age of sockeye salmon. Dr. Rob Campbell, oceanographer and chief science officer, presented his research on high-frequency temporal and spatial variability in Prince William Sound's zooplankton populations. Dr. Scott Pegau, research scientist and program manager, presented a project using repeat volunteer photos to monitor rocky intertidal sites in Prince William Sound.

To learn more about each of these projects, visit our website. 

To participate in Dr. Scott Pegau’s intertidal time series project, click here.

The Copper River flowing past Childs Glacier. Photo by Pete Rand.

A diverse group of researchers, managers, and fishery stakeholders will convene in Copper Center in late February to share information about changes in various environments in and adjacent to the Copper River watershed and how they might be affecting salmon. The workshop, Copper River Salmon 2125, will focus on how fish might cope with changes decades into the future.

Dr. Pete Rand, a research ecologist at the Prince William Sound Science Center (PWSSC), is one of the conference organizers and considers the meeting very important given the unprecedented changes observed in habitats and trends in the overall condition of returning salmon to the river in recent years. “We’ve seen dramatic changes in the ocean and significant departures from average conditions in temperatures and flows in different parts of the river,” Dr. Rand described in a recent interview. “While many salmon rivers, including many Alaskan rivers, are showing trends of increasing water temperature and decreasing flow rates, the current and future dynamics in the Copper River are going to be considerably more complex given the massive volume of glaciers in the watershed”.

Conference organizers expect about 25 attendees, with specialists from a variety of fields, including climate science, glaciology, hydrology, oceanography, and fish biology. The event is part of a workshop series that will include another gathering in Cordova this fall. Workshop participants will focus on sharing knowledge about the status of Copper River salmon and their habitat and how fishery managers may need to adapt to changing conditions in the river in the future. Participants plan to assemble a computer model to project future conditions in the Copper River (over the next 100 years) and determine what effect these changes might have on salmon.

PWSSC and the University of Alaska Fairbanks are organizing the workshops, which are scheduled for February 27-28. The National Park Service has provided funding. For additional information on the workshops, please contact Pete Rand (prand@pwssc.org).

CORaL Network meeting attendees at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Left to right: Dehrich Chya and Molly Odell (AMAR), Robin McKnight (CRRC), and Cristina Reo (PWSSC).

The Community Organized Restoration and Learning (CORaL) Network recently met in Anchorage at the Alaska Native Heritage Center Athabascan Ceremonial House for its semi-annual meeting. CORaL Network partners took turns outlining their work plan for programming and events over the next several years and identifying areas of future collaboration among different partners in the Network. They also met with Headwater People, a Pacific Northwest-based consulting firm, who will work on the CORaL Network grant as external evaluators.

CORaL Network partners worked through several exercises, including gut-check questions, developing a plan for conflict resolution within the Network, and planning what success in the CORaL Network feels like, looks like, and creates. This work is critical to bettering the relationships and furthering the work plan to meet the founding pathways of the CORaL Network.

Mariculture ReCon 2025 annual meeting photo, Kodiak, Alaska. Photo by Alice van Veenendaal.

Last month, PWSSC staff attended the Mariculture Research and Restoration Consortium (Mariculture ReCon) annual meeting in Kodiak. This meeting brought together researchers, farmers, and stakeholders to advance sustainable mariculture in the Gulf of Alaska. During this meeting, primary investigators gave research updates on their projects involving the physicochemical environment, biological environment, and oyster hatchery development. The group heard updates on economics, project development, and outreach surrounding their work. Meeting attendees also participated in breakout sessions where data management, farming operations, and strategizing for the future were discussed. The meeting concluded with site visits to Alaska Sea Grant’s food processing facility, NOAA’s facility and aquarium, and two of Kodiak’s farm sites.

We hope you can join us this month for some educational fun! Different programs are intended for specific ages, as noted below. Younger participants need to be accompanied by a caregiver. Everyone is welcome to attend. A current calendar of events can be found on our website. Subscribe here if you'd like to receive email notifications for upcoming community education programs.

February 11 (7-8:30 pm) Tuesday Night Talk: Interface of Change

Interface of Change researchers work collaboratively with coastal community partners to identify the consequences of climate-induced changes on marine resources and to model potential community adaptation strategies. They will be hosting their Annual Community Participation Workshop, where you can meet the research team, build collaborations, and identify locally relevant research questions. This talk will take place at the Cordova Center. 

February 13 (7-8 pm) THURSDAY Night Talk: Herring Disease

David Paez (USGS) and Malina Loeher (Alaska Pacific University) will present on herring disease and its effects on the south-central Alaska herring population. This talk will be held at the Cordova Center.

February 18 (7-8 pm) Tuesday Night Talk: Cordova Area Trails

This night’s talk will be a meeting of the Prince William Sound Audubon and is open to the public. Steve Moffit will discuss Cordova area trails based on information collected from his trail cameras. This talk will take place at the Prince William Sound Science Center. 

February 24 (3:30-5:00 pm) Science & Snacks: Alaska Fish

This month, we will be getting fishy by playing games, participating in crafts, and learning about fish in Alaska.

This program is limited to 10 children in grades 1-6. You must register in advance. Please email education@pwssc.org.

A Science & Snacks participant created a win turbine out of fruit. Photo by PWSSC staff.

Are you curious about what our educators have been up to this winter? If so, check out the updates below.

Sea Squirts tested different bubble solutions with their homemade bubble wands to explore surface tension. 

Science & Snacks participants learned about renewable energy and wind turbines. They experimented with making turbines out of various fruits and played fun games about wind.

Homework Club built marshmallow and toothpick towers and experimented with pinwheel designs. 

Nature Yoga participants learned that sea otters can hold their breath for five minutes and practiced meditative Wim Hof breathing to see how long they could hold their breath. No one was able to beat an otter!

Our Tuesday Night Talk lecture series included two talks in January:

• Elizabeth Senear (Audubon) - Wildlife Viewing in Sabah, Borneo
• Mike Buck (Backcountry Prepared) - Backcountry Safety Talk 

You can catch our talks by visiting our YouTube Channel and clicking on the Lecture Series playlist.

Our educators met with grades K-6 as part of our Discovery Room program.

• Kindergarteners learned that clouds are made of water. They practiced their fine motor skills with pipettes and counted how many drops of “rain” their cotton ball cloud could hold.
• First Graders started their unit on light waves. Through exploratory problem-solving and comparing images with and without light, they crafted a definition for the word “illumination.”
• Second Graders planted bok choy, which they will use to cook pancit (a Filipino dish). Caring for their plants involves measuring pH. Students practiced measuring pH by testing different household liquids such as milk, lemon juice, and soap.
• Third Graders learned about bird beak adaptations through an interactive game and made a bar graph to chart the best food for each beak.
• Fourth Graders got energized about electricity! They learned about kinetic and potential energy and experimented with wires and magnets to create an electric current.
• Fifth Graders investigated how the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and cryosphere interact with the geosphere through erosion. Students created Lego cities and tested their durability against rivers, rain, and floods.
• Sixth Graders participated in a friendly debate about how long various marine debris objects take to naturally break down in the ocean. They then checked their work and learned about the danger of microplastics.

Lastly, PWSSC educators met with the high school environmental science class to continue environmental sampling efforts at Odiak Pond as part of the Community Pathways to Student Science (COMPASS) program.