County represented at Vancouver’s Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference
Published 10:06 am Wednesday, September 21, 2011
San Juan County will be represented at the upcoming 2011 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference to be held in Vancouver, B.C. this October.
SeaDoc Society
Orcas Island SeaDoc Society director Joseph Gaydos will serve as the Master of Ceremonies at the conference. Gaydos will also present on “Comparing post-release movement of rehabilitated harbor seal pups to age-matched wild seals.”
Nick Brown will be presenting SeaDoc’s biennial report on “Species of Concern Within the Salish Sea: changes from 2002 to 2011.”
The SeaDoc Society’s Nacho Vilchis, postdoctoral fellow with the Salish Sea Marine Bird Project, will present “Long-term trends of wintering marine birds in Puget Sound.”
SeaDoc Society/ Friday Harbor Labs
H. Gary Greene of the Tombolo-SeaDoc Society/Friday Harbor Labs, University of Washington, will present “Where do all the sand lance go: Sub-tidal habitats of the forage fish Pacific sand lance in the Salish Sea.”
Friends of the San Juans
Friends of the San Juans science director Tina Whitman will present “Shoreline Restoration in the San Juan Archipelago: addressing cumulative impacts.”
Friends of the San Juans staff attorney Kyle Loring will present “Regulatory threats to marine ecosystems: systemic pressures to elevate compensation over protection.”
Sally Hawkins of the Friends of the San Juans will present a poster, “Marine and Freshwater Riparian Inventory for San Juan County, Washington.”
University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Labs
Megan Dethier of Friday Harbor Labs will present “Impacts of armoring on Puget Sound beaches: Diverse effects on diverse scales.”
Kevin Turner will present “Impacts of lingcod and rockfish on benthic community structure.”
Sandy Wyllie-Echeverria will present “The role of disease in San Juan Archipelago Zostera marina decline: An untested but potentially serious problem.”
Robin Kodner of UW Friday Harbor Labs and Beam Reach Marine Science and Sustainability School will present “Comparative community dynamics and toxin production over the course of domoic acid producing Pseudo-nitzschia blooms in East Sound, WA.”
Long Live the Kings
Michael Schmidt, director of fish programs at Long Live the Kings, whose first hatchery is on Orcas Island, will present a talk, “A Transboundary Research Approach to Understanding the Marine Survival of Salmon in the Salish Sea.”
Kwiaht: Center for the Historical Ecology of the Salish Sea
Kwiaht director Russel Barsh will present “Rethinking salmon habitat requirements: Neritic food webs.”
Madrona Murphy will present on “Traditional food plants may benefit from managed climate adaptation.”
The Whale Museum
Kari Koski of the Whale Museum will present a poster entitled, “Soundwatch Recommendations for Special Management Areas for Killer Whales.”
In addition, Monique Lance, a biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, will present “Seasonal and spatial variation in harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) diet in the San Juan Islands, Washington.”
Other conference presenters represent the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Makah Tribal Council, Environment Canada, the University of British Columbia, the Washington Department of Ecology, Ducks Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy, and many more groups including universities, government and nonprofit organizations.
Conference organizers will be posting an Abstract Book on the conference website in late September/early October, which will provide a summary for each presentation.
