Our 2010 Wish List

A visitor asked me recently what we would most like to have to improve the Alaska SeaLife Center. She was surprised when I handed her the following top 10 priorities for funding, but impressed that we have such a clear set of options for funders to consider that span a range of hardware, software and capacity needs.

It will be interesting to see at the end of the year which of these we were able to fund and what our next set of priorities are as these needs are met...
Please feel free to share this list within your community/network.

ASLC Top 10 Funding Priorities*

1. Chief Scientist - $400,000 (for 3 years)
Will lead efforts to expand ASLC research into areas such as ocean acidification.

2. Seawater intake pipeline repair and supplementation - $1,200,000 (est.)
Seawater flow into the siphon lines that supply all areas of the Center has been reduced to 40% of designed capacity, most likely due to biofouling. The problem must be identified and a new design approved before we can determine repair or replacement costs.

3. Conservation Program core support - $100,000

4. Philanthropy specialist - $150,000 over two years, including overhead
To develop a more professional, thorough, and effective development effort by assisting with proposal development and submission, fundraising events, and donor solicitation.

5. Energy conservation and “green building” initiatives - $650,000 (est.)
Heat Pump project and other measures to reduce consumption and fuel expenses.

6. New ASLC Website and related computer/server support - $150,000

7. Ocean acidification exhibit - $10,000

8. ASLC team building events – donation of lodging + transport costs - $5,000-10,000

9. China-Russia scientific program linkage - $150,000/year for 3 years

10. A new deep sea exhibit and world class audio visual experience in the 'Catacombs' (unused gallery behind sea lion tank) - up to $3 million

*These are based on new sources of discretionary funding and do not necessarily reflect priorities using existing funding sources – we have a much longer list targeting other opportunities, but this is the list we will use to talk with new donors from.

10C of Warming? - A Frightening Scenario for Alaska

A recent article by Fred Pearce in this week's New Scientist raises the possibility of up to 10 degrees Celsius of warming in northern regions (even as the rest of the world rises by only 3C in the next 100 years).
See - http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20127011.500-arctic-meltdown-is-a-threat-to-humanity.html?page=1
That warming is caused by the release of up to 100 billion tonnes of methane trapped in permafrost which is now melting at rates not previously predicted. Early indications of accelerated methane release due to permafrost melt are already being recorded in Siberia and may also explain some of the faster rates of change in Alaska.
Pearce goes on to describe both the local implications such as massive infrastructure damage as well as the linked effects on global climate - for example, this may cause an end to the Asian monsoons that would be catastrophic for the billions of people who rely on current rainfall patterns to sustaain food production!
Pearce does not comment on implications for marine ecosystems, but if we extrapolate the observations reported last week by Deborah Williams, then one could expect to see profound impacts on key ecological processes and species throughout the Northern Pacific. Imagine, for example, the impacts on salmon spawning in rivers where the number of non viable spawning days doubles, then triples... and then estimate the impacts on all Alaskan ecosystems and Alaskan families of having less and less and less salmon available...
Because there is no more pressing issue facing our North Pacific marine ecosystems, I have spent time this week providing inputs to various Working Groups involved with the adapatation strategy for the State Climate Change Sub-Cabinet (see http://www.climatechange.alaska.gov/).
Those groups are beginning to finalize recommendations for a comprehensive State-wide response to climate change - the final report is due in late June, 2009 and will then likely be made available for public input.
As an organization, it will be critical for the ASLC to step up and be both a resource and a voice for Alaska's marine ecosystems and for the people who depend on healthy marine ecosystems for their livelihoods and culture. We are working on establishing a Marine and Coastal Climate Change Learning and Adaptation Center as a vehicle for helping marine systems and coastal communities adapt to a new climate and more acidic and warmer ocean ecosystems. Stay tuned for details...

Icy Killers - Cool Cool Film!

Image by Kenneth Corben / Dangerous Passage Productions - see National Geographic website for Icy Killers - http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/wild/4032/Photos#tab-Photos/2

I am rarely moved to write letters to newspapers.. and so it required an exceptional motivation to write the following to the ADN earlier this week:

I had the immense privilege to attend the premiere last Friday of Icy Killers, the amazing new documentary produced by Mike Devlin featuring the salmon sharks of Prince William Sound. The film is a stunning expose of the remarkable cycle of life in the Sound and a great reminder of just how little we still know about so many parts of Alaska’s marine ecosystems.
Icy Killers is a documentary without peer in Alaska. The superb cinematography features views that are not normally available to scientists, fishermen or tourists. Congratulations to Mike Devlin of Evergreen films and to the legislators who supported the revitalization of the Alaska film industry enabling films such as this. Raising public awareness of marine ecosystems, promoting Alaska’s amazing wildlife to the world and creating new jobs – win, win, win!

Icy Killers is the sort of movie that invigorates the imagination and satisfies the soul - it is fantastic to know that there are amazing mysteries of marine life like Salmon sharks that still await discovery, that this kind of movie can now be made in Alaska and that there are film makers out there who are as passionate about marine science as we are! Mike has worked closely with ASLC staff in the past and he came down to the Center again yesterday to (a) film Skittles and (b) meet with us and brainstorm ideas for working together - we are excited by the prospect of having a world class film maker among our new partners!!

Any suggestions for projects we might want to pursue with Evergreen films?

20 years Later - Would Skittle be any Safer?

"Skittle" resting comfortably in our quarantine area - photo courtesy of Tim Lebling

Earlier this week, we received our first stranded sea otter in 2009 - a cute young guy now nicknamed Skittle. He seems to be in good shape and is receiving the usual amazing veterninary care from our talented and dedicated stranding and husbandry team. Much of that care is based on the lessons that our team has learned over the past 20 years since the Exxon Valdez disaster.

I have learned that it really is worth spending time with Dr Pam Tuomi who was one of the first qualified veterinary reponders after the Exxon Valdez grounded. She has a wonderful way of describing the way in which the response teams learned to rescue and care for stranded marine life such as sea otters - the scale and challenge of their work was unprecedented and so with true Alaskan 'can do' spirit they learned much that informs contemporary marine animal care... that knowledge is one of the under-recognized legacies of the spill.
However, one could question whether the Alaska community would be any better prepared to respond to another oil spill involving Skittle or his brethren. That question was at least partly addressed in publication this week by the World Wildlife Fund entitled 'Lessons not Learned: 20 years After the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Alaska' and subtitled "Little has changed in how we respond to oil spills in the Arctic" (available at - http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/howwedoit/policy/WWFBinaryitem11907.pdf
The report suggests that if another Valdez spill happened again, we'd be little better prepared than we were 20 years ago which seems to be an indictment of the millions of dollars invested in response preparedness since the spill. The report does not talk in detail about Alaska's response capacity in relation to marine animals, but it is notable that unlike other states, there is only a very limited and under-funded marine mammal response capacity. The SeaLife Center's response program is funded on soft money only.
To address this issue and help make a stronger case for greater investment in marine animal stranding response capacity, the SeaLife Center plans to hire an intern this summer to work with Dr Pam and her team to assess what more could be done.
What do you think? How might we ensure there is always someone at the end of the line when another Skittle stranding is called in?

Science Matters!

In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.

Charles Darwin

It is appropriate in celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth to reflect on just how much science is now a core part of the way we live our lives. I can think of virtually no part of my life that is not informed or influenced to some extent by some process or product of science. From understanding the nutritional and health choices of food that I buy and deriving the benefits of modern agricultural practices, to understanding the climate consequences of the way I am housed and travel, to be able to write this blog and disseminate it globally, science has really become a mainstream element of the way I live.

In recognition of the significance of science and scientists in all our lives, 2009 has been designated the Year of Science (http://www.yearofscience2009.org/home/). For many folks, science at a disciplinary level, remains a very complex and specialized endeavor. For me, those specialized fields become much easier to understand when they are explained to me by the experts in various fields. That point was reinforced listening to Dr. Philip McGillivary (from the US Coast Guard) today as he presented a stimulating lecture on the amazing set of new technologies for polar research.

In a similar vein, last week we had the privilege of hearing from some of the world's foremost arctic marine scientists at our semi-annual Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) meeting. Our SAC has been a somewhat misunderstood and under-utilized part of our organization for many years now and so working closely with the Chair, Bill Wilson, we have begun to deliberately 'demystify' their work. That meant opening the meeting up to all interested teams within the Center (education, research, conservation, etc.) and inviting local partners to join us for presentations and discussions. The result was a rich series of interactions between the SAC members and our staff and partners that will enable the SAC to be more effective in guiding our science work in future on a more continuous basis.

One of the key outcomes of that meeting was the decision to move forward aggressively in searching for a new SeaLife Center Chief Scientist - a "rainmaker" who really has the ability to expand our 'science bandwidth' and help us build upon our existing science strengths to embrace a more comprehensive suite of science programs. There is a diversity of views still on what background that person should have and so we'll be forming a committee of SAC members and staff to scope out and recruit for that position. We'd welcome your thoughts on what skills the ideal candidate should have.
Who knows, there might just be another Darwin out there wanting to help us solve some of the most pressing issues facing humanity...