Having a Whale of a Time at UBC!

Yesterday, en route back to Alaska from the International Marine Conservation Congress in Victoria, I stopped by the University of British Columbia to meet with Dr Andrew Trites and his colleagues in Marine Mammal Research Unit at the Fisheries Centre at UBC. 
Andrew is a member of the ASLC Scientific Advisory Committee and very active in marine mammal research in Alaska and globally.  During our meeting we had the opportunity to view one of his better known projects in Canada - the restoration and public display of a 25m blue whale skeleton that was buried on Prince Edward Island in 1987. 
The blue whale is the centerpiece of the Djavad Mowafaghian Atrium, a two-storey glass gallery in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.   Articulated in the species’ signature lunge-feeding pose, the UBC blue whale is the largest skeleton exhibit in the world suspended without external armature.

Dr Andrew Trites with the blue whale skeleton at UBC

There was a recent article on the first anniversary of the whale exhibit (see

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/city/2011/05/17/one-year-anniversary-blue-whale-specimen-beaty-bidioversity-museum-ubc).  It is also the subject of an upcoming documentary on the complex process undertaken to clean and prepare the skeleton for public display that promises to be a fascinating tale... but there is no subsitute for seeing the amazing power of this exhibit in person!

I

encourage anyone with an interest in marine life to visit the UBC Beaty Biodiversity Museum and see one of the world's more remarkable collections of the diversity and scale of life on earth!

Making Marine Science Matter - Impressions from International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC2)

I had the pleasure this week to join some 1300 marine scientists, educators and conservationists at the second dedicated marine conservation congress organized under the auspices of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB).  There have been several past efforts to establish an international flagship conference for marine conservation and it really looks like the IMCC concept has lots of "stickiness"!  This is likely a result of the rapidly growing global investments in marine research, education and conservation.  The Convention on Biodiversity target to establish 10% of the world's oceans in MPAs by 2012 is not likely to be met... but it has stimulated an incredible global marine conservation effort over the past 5 years especially.

IMCC2 was a veritable banquet of knowledge sharing - there were literally dozens of difficult menu choices to make every day.  From light appertisers to full meals, it really was tough to select from the range of offerings -  the program is available on the congress website - http://www.conbio.org/imcc2011/. 
Three highlights for me were:
1. Our Pre-congress full day session on citizen science in support of marine conservation - last Friday we held a workshop featuring some 14 different global citizen science projects that was a follow up to the Coastal America Coastal Ecosystem Learning Centers meeting with the North American Protected Areas Network initiative - we have further follow up planned for the Coastal America meeting in July and have identified several areas of potential cooperation between West Coast aquaria;

2. Seeing the dramatic advances in global marine planning - these ranged from various updates on key software such as Marxan to many novel applications of marine planning to promote both conservation and livelihood objectives - there is an amazing amount of innovation underway that has great relevance to the North Pacific and to the research, education and steweardship mission  of the Alaska SeaLife Center;

3. The increasing role of social sciences in marine conservation and research - there were numerous sessions that demonstrated unequivocally that all marine initiatives need to incorporate appropriate consideration of the human dimensions of ocean use, particularly governance arrangements.  One particular session on the future of Arctic fisheries bought into sharp focus the relevance of the increasing arctic research of the ASLC (and the need to expand our research efforts in the Arctic) and the need for new partnerships to provide that science.

IMCC2 was also a wonderful opportunity to network with colleagues who I have worked with over the past 25 years - from my Great Barrier Reef Days to Indonesia and Pacific partners to my current role in Arctic research and education, an event like IMCC2 is a great way to draw together the many threads of knowledge that I have contributed to and learned from!  I especially enjoyed the various synthesis sessions where we sought to distil trends and set agendas for future research...

Like all large conferences, IMCC2 suffered from some limitations - there was perhaps an over emphasis on "academic" presentations and an under-representation of field practitioner knowledge.  There was also an inherent bias towards knowledge generated in developed countries and by researchers from developed countries (perhaps understandable given the venue in Canada).  However, these were fairly minor criticisms given the overall emphasis on advancing science that matters. 
I would encourage all ASLC staff and partners to have a look through the congress proceedings and to join me in thinking about what our contribution will be to IMCC3... above all, IMCC2 reinforced in my mind that the science being undertaken at the ASLC does matter and is very relevant to the future diversity and quality of life on earth!

Oh... and I should acknowledge the value of holding a conference in a setting that underscores the relevance of the topics discussed and inspires further inquiry - places matter and Victoria in BC was a wonderful setting for this event!

Go GYREx!

Gyrex participants sharing ideas in the setting in which the work will be conducted

Marine debris is a major threat to the integrity and heath of marine ecosystems in the North pacific.  Over the past two years, ASLC Director of Conservation, Howard Ferren has been working on a  concept (GYREx) to bring together scientists and artists to promote greater public understanding of this issue and to generate a greater collective effort to reduce the amount of debris entering our oceans.

Last night, on one of those glorious Seward spring evenings, we bought together some 20 partners in GYREx to further discussion of the project concept and strengthen our commitment to the ambitious 2012 timeline for the project.  Committed partners to date include, the Anchorage Museum, Dr Carl Safina from the Blue Ocean Institute, US Fish and Wildlife Service and US National Parks Service, National Geographic film maker JJ Kelly, Photographer, Kip Evans, Multimedia artists artists including Pam Longobardi and Sonja Kelliher-Combs and the Marine Conservatuion Alliance Foundation. 

With support from Major Marine Tours, the group made the short hop over to Thumb Cove where we anchored and spent a very pleasant evening discussing how best to bring art and science together to reduce marine debris... I can truly say that the conversations were some of the best I have ever had on this subject!

Howard and Dave Gaudet explaining the expedition concept with a map provided by the Marine Conservation Alliance Foundation

Expedition planning and fundraising will now accelerate over the summer - if you'd like to know more about how to get involved or otherwise contribute, please contact Howard Ferren (howardf@alaskasealife.org).

Vale Brent Whitmore

A photo of Brent from his memorial program

Last Saturday we joined the Whitmore family and many friends from the Seward community in a celebration of Brent Whitmore's life and amazing service to community and country.  The celebration was fittingly held in the Center in front of our Touch Tank where Brent has worked for the past seven years as one of our senior interpreters.  Brent passed away on April 24th after a brave fight to beat cancer. 
The following is an excerpt from my remarks at the service.  We share these so that people who could not join us for the service can gain a sense of the great regard that all staff and volunteers at the Center held for Brent and a sense of how we will continue to honor and preserve his extraordinary legacy.

It is very fitting that we gather here this evening in the very location that Brent made his professional home since April 2nd 2004 and where he bravely continued to work right up until he was admitted to hospital. It feels eerily quiet to walk past this touch tank and not see his ever present smile or hear him call out a greeting. Brent worked at the SeaLife Center for just over seven years, although he would be the first to correct me and say that this was not really a job… such was his passion for our institution and for our mission!

That passion was most evident when Brent had the opportunity to share his exceptional knowledge about the Center. On busy summer days, he had the opportunity to do that hundreds of times each day. But it didn’t matter of you were the first or the 100th visitor he spoke with that day – Brent always tailored his message to his audience. Young or old, Alaskan, or outsider, English native or foreign language speaker, Brent made them all feel as if they were the center of his world for the time he was with them. And we believe that to a person, everyone he met over the past seven years was richer for having known Brent.


That is especially true for his fellow workmates. I know that every one of us delighted in his enthusiasm and every one of us learned about how to better relate to the public because of Brent’s mentorship.
Nikki Nelson, his boss, sums that up very well… and I quote…
“He understood the wonder of this place to children of all ages – those who met him were guaranteed a better visit than those who didn’t”.

I really like that quote because Brent truly understood that the child in all of us needs to be nurtured when it comes to trying to understand the marine environment that we share here at the Center. Many visitors often feel “out of their depth” and naturally look for guidance. Brent was an amazing interpreter because of his ability to sum up each visitor and to very quickly work out how best to relate to them. The first principle of interpretation is to get the visitor’s attention and Brent was superb at doing that! He was even better at the second principle which is the more difficult task of holding their attention!
I believe that Brent’s innate interpretive ability stemmed from the combination of his amazing life experience and his desire to make the world a better place. He knew that people really can make a difference when they are inspired and so he set about inspiring them, one conversation at a time.


Brent was a very accomplished person with a fascinating life journey. Others will talk about his career achievements and contributions to the community, but I want to especially acknowledge his tremendous intellect. From Weber State to Oregon to UAF and finally at the University of Hawaii, Brent had an incredible appetite for learning. Those studies provided the perfect foil for his inquisitive nature and nurtured his talent for sharing knowledge with others. He was deservedly proud of those academic accomplishments and I think we all share a great debt of gratitude to his teachers… each and every day he paid back that debt by passing on what he knew to others.


I want to let you all know how much I appreciated him taking me under his wing early in my tenure here as CEO and helping me settle in to this complex organization. I could always rely on Brent to both give good feedback to me when I bounced ideas off him and to not be backward in telling me how and what we need to improve. There was one particular day, just after I started, when Brent bought in a pile of articles he had been reading from the Economist to improve my education about some aspects of climate change! I appreciated them so much that I invited Brent to share similar information – none of you will be surprised that I subsequently had trouble keeping up with the pile of homework that Brent would put on my desk each week! I guess he really did learn a lot from his Mother about being an effective educator!!


And that brings me to how best to honor his legacy of learning. From 2011, I am pleased to share with you all that the Alaska SeaLife Center will be providing our annual award to the Seward High School in his name. The Brent L. Whitmore SeaLife Center Scholarship will be made available annually to the student who has excelled in a field related to marine science. We believe that would be the kind of legacy that Brent would most appreciate and we hope that those future scholars will continue the great work that Brent has begun in inspiring us all to care more for our ocean planet.


I’d like to close, by offering Brent’s family and friends here tonight a quote from Helen Keller that I hope offers you all some solace. She said:
"What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us."


We at the Alaska SeaLife Center are eternally thankful for all that Brent provided to us – as Ms Keller’s observation promises, his interpretive legacy will forever endure in the programs of the Center, in all of us and in the lives of all whose lives he touched.
Thank you again Brent for all that you shared with us. Thank you for all that you did for the Alaska SeaLife Center and the community of Seward and thank you for being our friend.


May you Rest in Peace.

Celebrating our 13th Anniversary

Today marks the 13th anniversary of our opening.  Our journey has been a remarkable story of perseverance - there are many times, especially in the early years, when our future was uncertain and yet we continued to prevail and become ever more significant in this great State!  We have a souvenir book in production which will describe key milestones and share the stories of the people involved (should be in the print by June).

On anniversaries, I find it worthwhile to pause to reflect for a moment on where we have been and where we are going.   Last year, we assembled a few key statistics for one of our inaugural sponsors, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trust Council (EVOSTC).  The initial capital investment of $26.2m by EVOSTC in 1994 has:

• leveraged nearly $200m of additional capital investment and ongoing research and education funding
• resulted in 220 peer reviewed publications and over 600 other publications and provided education about the marine ecosystem of Alaska to more than 2 million visitors and some 200,000 school children
• employed over 900 people (current staff of 95 FTE), 300 interns and more than 1,000 volunteers, and trained 36 postgraduate students (24 MSc/12 PhD) as well as a generation of schoolchildren through the world of work program, Sea Train and other nationally recognized education activities
• rescued, treated or rehabilitated some 250 marine mammals and over 600 seabirds through our strandings program

These extraordinary accomplishments are due to an inspired and ever growing army of SeaLife supporters.  From political champions such as the late Senator Ted Stevens to our brilliant Board and Scientific Advisory Committee members, from our standout staff to our inquistive interns and vivacious volunteers, and from our many magnificent members to our fabulous Facebook followers, literally tens of thousands of people have come together to enable us to realize the vision of the pioneers of this institution.

Many of those pioneers have made the SeaLife Center a central part of their life's work.  That is especially true of current Seward Mayor Willard Dunham who recalls the importance of the SeaLife Center to rebuilding the waterfront of Seward after the devastaion of the 1964 earthquake.  Other supporters such as the late Governor Wally Hickel were instrumental in securing political support for the Center at the highest levels.  It was especially timely today that we hosted a visit by Mrs Ermaleee Hickel who toured the Center and, at every exhibit, fondly recalled Wally's passion for our work.  Governor and Mrs Hickel were foundation supporters of the Center and so it was wonderful to show Mrs Hickel just what we continue to accomplish as a consequence of their vision.

Mrs Ermalee Hickel with Nancy Anderson on the soon to be opened Walter and Ermalee Hickel Overlook.

We thank all of you for your generosity and support. But we know that we cannot rest on our laurels. With rapidly declining Federal marine science funding, constantly evolving species management and climate change-related issues and in the face of a challenging national economy, we are continuing to sharpen our mission focus to ensure that all we do is directly relevant to stewardship of the North Pacific.  Just over a year ago, the Board adopted our 2020 strategic plan (Deep Blue), which will guide our next decade of development. I encourage you all to read the plan and to continue to help us reach the six priority goals that will sustain our work long into the future.

Again, happy anniversary!