Recognizing the need, opportunity, and potential for collaboration between the Hatfield Marine Science Visitor Center, Oregon Sea Grant’s Youth Marine Education and Ornamental Fish Health Programs, Oregon Coast Community College Aquarium Science Program, and the Oregon Coast Aquarium, Oregon Sea Grant convened a workgroup and funded this conceptual planning study...
Marine protected areas (MPAs), ideally, manage human uses that threaten ecosystems, or components of ecosystems. During several recent MPA designation processes, concerns have arisen over the scientific justification for no-take MPAs, particularly those that restrict recreational fishing for pelagic species. An important question is: under what conditions might recreational pelagic...
We compared brood sizes among adult female Euphausia pacifica Hansen, 1911 from 3
populations in the North Pacific: Puget Sound, Washington, USA; Toyama Bay, Japan; and the Oregon coast, USA. Additionally, we used multiple linear regression models to compare the interspecific brood size as a function of female length and...
Four students from University Of Oregon’s Department of Landscape Architecture addressed the infrastructure planning needs of the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. This 4th Year Studio Project was completed by Amy Hartell, Carl Liebhardt, Leif Zimmerman and Lisa Kroner under the direction of Rene Kane. The students were...
Continued stock declines in marine fisheries have resulted in a search for more risk-averse management approaches. In response, the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 mandates habitat protection, bs catch reduction, and stock rebuilding. These changes emphasize precaution, and imply a shift in focus from maximizing yields to minimizing ecological impacts...
A trophic model that simulates interactions between
a predatory fish (Pacific hake, Merluccius productus), forage
fish, and juvenile salmon off the Columbia River
was constructed to identify if trophic interactions could
account for marine mortality of Columbia River juvenile
salmon. The model estimates the number of juvenile
salmon that are...
Fluorescein has been used for rapid and sensitive detection of fish skin and corneal ulceration. Effective use of the fluorescein test requires knowledge of conditions that might cause misleading interpretations or otherwise interfere with test reliability. Examination of fish health and the clinical workup often require tricaine as one of...
Requirements are growing for peer review of the science used for governmental management decisions. This is particularly true for fisheries science, where management decisions are often controversial. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service instituted the Center for Independent Experts (CIE) in 1998 as a national peer-review...
Tag and recovery programs can provide valuable information on population size and exploitation rates in fishes. Passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags are ideal for use in such programs because they provide identification of individual fish and are invisible to anglers, circumventing problems with nonreporting of tags. Our objective was to...
Although the adverse impact of pathogens on salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest is often discussed and recognized, little is currently known regarding the incidence and corresponding significance of delayed disease-induced mortalities. In the study reported herein, we surveyed the presence and prevalence of selected micro- and macroparasites in out-migrant...
North Atlantic right whales were instrumented with suction-cup mounted, time-depth recorders (TDR) during the summers of 2000 and 2001 to examine their diving and foraging behavior. Simultaneous observations of temperature, salinity and the vertical distribution of their principal prey, Calanus finmarchicus stage 5 copepodites (C5), were obtained alon
g each...
The extent of stress and eventual mortality in Pacific halibut Hippoglossus stenolepis that resulted from simulated capture by hooking or towing in a net, followed by abrupt exposure to warmer seawater temperature and air, were determined under laboratory conditions. Abrupt exposure to 16degreesC seawater and air after either method of...
Dramatic changes in the physical and biological conditions off Washington and Oregon, USA, have occurred since 1998, including extreme El Niño (warm) and La Niña (cool) years, high and low Columbia River flow years, a major intrusion of subarctic water, and a low oxygen event on the shelf. The occurrence...
To directly determine mortality and predation in the endangered western Steller sea lion Eumetopias jubatus, we deployed implanted, satellite-linked post-mortem data transmitters in 21 juveniles. Data recovered from 4 of 5 detected mortalities exhibited precipitous drops in ambient temperatures followed by immediate onset of transmissions (N = 3), or gradual...
Changes in the spatial distribution of U.S. west coast bottom-trawl effort in relation
to areas of prime habitat for rockfish Sebastes spp. were evaluated between 1992 and 2001. Prime trawlable rockfish habitat (PTRH) was defined based on the spatial distribution of high rockfish catches from logbook data for 1992–1995. Bottom-trawl...
Previously published in California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations Progress Report, 2007, Vol.48; access courtesy of publisher and authors.
This report describes how energy is used in at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, and includes recommendations on cost effective steps that could be taken to reduce energy and waste costs. The contents are based on a recent visit to the facilities in Newport, Oregon.
Age-1 and age-2 Pacific halibut Hippoglossus stenolepis were exposed to a range of times in air (0-60 min) and air temperatures (10 degrees C or 16 degrees C) that simulated conditions on deck after capture to test for correspondence among responses in plasma constituents and mortality. Pacific halibut mortality generally...
El ano 2006 representa en dos sentidos una fecha critica para la cuenca del Rio Columbia y para los esfuerzos de recuperacion del salmon y la trucha arcoiris en la region Pacifico Noroeste: el 25 aniversario de la creacion del Consejo para la Conservacion y Poder del Noroeste y el...
The Oregon State University (OSU) President s Commission on Ocean, Coastal and Earth System Futures was charged by President Edward Ray to explore and identify a far-reaching vision for the future
of OSU as a Land Grant and Sea Grant institution - one that integrates the biological, physical, and social...
Coastal Pacific hake (Merluccius productus) are known
to spawn in the southern California Bight from January
to March, migrate north during late spring and summer
to feed off Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia,
and then move back to southern California in the fall.
Juvenile Pacific hake nursery areas have been...
If the success of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is measured by the number of endangered species that have been recovered and delisted, then the act is not very successful. Only 15 species have been delisted because of recovery in the history of the ESA. The Borax Lake chub (Gila...
The absence of a direct, long-term measure of individual Steller sea lion survival led to the development of implanted, delayed transmission satellite tags specifically for this species (Life History Transmitter, LHX). To assess possible effects of implant procedures and LHX tags, we undertook a two-stage approach to monitor: 1) immediate...
Like the OSU administration and many other units of the university, the Hatfield Marine Science Center has been engaged in developing a strategic plan to envision its future. This document reflects the contributions of a diverse group of stakeholders, representing various academic and research interests on OSU’s main campus, HMSC’s...
"Several species of rockfish inhabit the nearshore ocean off Oregon and contribute significantly to the recreational fishery with black rockfish (Sebastes melanops) being most important. Nearshore rockfish populations are coming under increased fishing pressure with relatively little assessment due to the difficulty and expense of such an undertaking. The need...
Successfully shifting to a more piscivorous diet may be an important factor in the growth and survival of juvenile coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch and Chinook salmon O. tshawytscha during their first summer in the northern California Current. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis of diets by size showed several distinct...
During the summer of 1994, 1996, and 1997, we conducted hydrographic and plankton surveys of the upper 70 m in the nearshore, the continental shelf, and off shelf oceanic waters off Oregon, USA. Copepod densities and biomass were estimated along 4 transects from each cruise. The on shelf copepod biomass...
Describing the ocean habitats used by Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha is an important step towards understanding how environmental conditions influence their population dynamics. We used data from archival tags that recorded time, temperature and pressure (depth) to define the coastal habitats used by Chinook near Oregon and California during the...
Simultaneous visual and oceanographic surveys were conducted in the lower Bay of Fundy and in Roseway Basin of the SW Scotian Shelf during the summers of 1999 to 2001 to investigate the physical and biological oceanographic factors associated with North Atlantic right whale occurrence. Sightings of right whales were recorded...
Predation by piscivorous marine fishes has been hypothesized to be a primary source of marine
mortality for Pacific Northwest juvenile salmon. During the springs and summers of 1998–2004, we collected predator and prey fishes (forage and juvenile salmonids) at the surface at night off the mouth of the Columbia River....
The opportunities for expanding water supplies in Oregon coastal municipalities are becoming increasingly limited. New water quantity and quality regulations, particularly those designed to protect and rebuild salmon runs, constrain water supply options. At the same time, however, demand for water is increasing. Coastal communities continue to grow in population...
The mortality of discarded bycatch is a critical problem in the management of fisheries worldwide. Little is known about the key principles involved in the mortality of discarded bycatch. These principles are best elaborated under controlled conditions in the laboratory where the actions and interactions of stressors found in fishing...
Efforts to restore depressed populations of Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. are often hampered by the inability to assign population identity to individuals in an admixture. This knowledge is of particular concern in supportive breeding programs, in which misidentification of individuals to population may result in progeny of mixed heritage, which,...
The problem of extinction in the sea has been recognized
only recently by the scientific community (Roberts and
Hawkins 1999). For the last decade, the American Fisheries
Society (AFS) has pursued an initiative to identify marine
fish stocks that may be at risk of extinction in North America
(Musick 1998;...
Marine and coastal sciences represent a major strength of Oregon State University.
Through a combination of research, education, and outreach, OSU scientists improve the
understanding of our marine and coastal environments and make major contributions to
issues facing society, including climate change, natural resource conservation and
development, and fundamental ocean...
The American Fisheries Society (AFS) recognizes the need for conservative and robust management of Pacific rockfishes because of naturally low population growth, the overfished state of many of the stocks, and complex nature of the mixed-stock fisheries (60-plus species). The AFS recommends that catch information be collected on a species-specific...
Gravid adult female Euphausia pacifica were collected off Newport, Oregon, USA and transferred to the laboratory, where females spawned eggs, eggs hatched, and larvae were reared at 10.5 degrees C. We fed 4 cohorts of larvae to excess with a combination of phytoplankton species and monitored them daily until they...
A recent trend of enhancing freshwater emergent wetlands for waterfowl and other wildlife has raised concern about the effects of such measures on juvenile salmonids. We undertook this study to quantify the degree and extent of juvenile Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. utilization of enhanced and unenhanced emergent wetlands within the...
In the face of dramatic declines in groundfish populations and a lack of sufficient stock assessment information, a need has arisen for new methods of assessing groundfish populations. We describe the integration of seafloor transect data gathered by a manned submersible with high-resolution sonar imagery to produce a habitat- based...
There has been a dramatic increase in jellyfish biomass over the eastern Bering Sea shelf since the early 1990s, which was previously hypothesized to have been triggered by changing climate and ocean conditions. We examine the hypothesis that the presence of these large carnivores has affected fisheries resources, either through...
Saltwater-adapted juvenile chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha exposed to aromatic and chlorinated compounds, representative of contaminants found in urban estuaries in Puget Sound, have a higher susceptibility to vibriosis than do fish exposed only to the solvent vehicle. Susceptibility to vibriosis was assessed by examining the percent cumulative mortality of the...
The HMSC brought together three dozen scientists, engineers, educators, and facilities managers from throughout the Pacific Northwest for a day-long workshop on May 14, 2007 to assess and prioritize infrastructure improvement needs for seawater pumping and bay/ocean access in support of the HMSC’s research and education mission. Funded by a...
The purpose of the Hatfield Marine Science Center Master Plan is to provide a plan to guide future development to support the marine science research, education and outreach initiatives through fiscal year 2022.
"The MSC was created through the impetus of three needs. Wayne Burt of the newly formed Oceanography Department needed dock and ship support facilities for his NSF-funded research vessel on the coast. Roland Dimick of the Fisheries and Wildlife Department needed to expand his small bay research lab located at...
"Erosion is impacting a portion of the Estuary Nature Trail located adjacent to Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) facility, located on the south side of the Yaquina Bay estuary approximately one mile from the open waters of the Pacific Ocean. The HMSC Estuary Nature Trail is important...
Erosion is impacting a portion of the Estuary Nature Trail located adjacent to Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) facility, located on the south side of the Yaquina Bay estuary approximately one mile from the open waters of the Pacific Ocean. The HMSC Estuary Nature Trail is important...
After hatchery-reared salmonids are released into the wild, their survival and performance are
frequently lower than those of wild conspecifics. Additionally, negative effects of hatchery fish on wild fish are cited as factors affecting the recovery of salmonid populations. Alternative hatchery rearing environments and release practices have been proposed to...
Larval and age-0 sablefish Anoplopoma fimbria reside in neustonic waters of the North Pacific during spring and summer. We estimated the potential impacts of elevated surface temperatures on ecological processes of growth, conversion efficiency, and behavior in early juvenile sablefish. Growth experiments tested a wide range of temperatures from 6...