AZA 2009 - Day 3 reflections

Just back in Anchorage after a long day at the conference and then flying back home on the last plane out of Portland.  Day 3 of AZA was a great chance to engage substantively in sessions - I attended an excellent session on "Connecting Visitors to the Ocean Through Partnerships with Ocean Protected Areas" that featured the great work being done under the NOAA National Marine Sancturaries program.  These 14 'flagship' MPAs cover 150,0000 square miles (larger than the US National Park Estate) and have a major emphasis on working with others to promote ocean literacy.  They have begun some fascinating partnerships with aquariums and others on education activities as diverse as a ride simulator to explore undersea areas to a really neat "Sanctuary Sam" video program in CA - I have a swag of ideas to follow up on from that session.  Interestingly, there are no National Marine Sanctuaries in Alaska, although there are certainly significant areas and features that would qualify.

The next session I joined was focused on one of my pet subjects - evaluation. Titled 'Ready... Shoot... Score", this session featured great work being done in Cleveland and San Diego to better understand the visitor experience.  I picked up some great new tools including a much simpler survey form and some ideas for using new cell phone polling software - beware visitor services team!

During morning and lunch plenaries, we had the chance to hear about the diverse work being done under the AZA grants programs and to recognize some true champions in the national zoo and aquarium community.  My personal favorite was the replay of the best zoo and aquarium advertising videos for 2008-09!  Check out the hilarious Columbus Zoo No More #2 advert featuring Jack Hanna available on You Tube!

The final session of the day was our panel on Climate Change.  Working with the Monterey and New England Aquarius and the AZA, we bought together a  great panel to discus a "Common Framework for Climate Change Action by Zoos and Aquariums".  I moderated the panel and present a paper jointly with John Anderson from NEAq on CC training (a copy of the presentation is posted on the S drive under my folder).  The session focused on both follow up to the Aquariums and CC conference in Monterey that Ned and I joined last December and on the bigger question of how zoos and aquariums can work towards promoting greater public understanding of CC issues.  There are now proposals for new AZA working groups on this - stay tuned!

Overall - was the conference worth the time and $ invested?  I'd say a big yes for two reasons - (1) as my first AZA meeting this was an invaluable networking opportunity - the zoo and aquarium community is incredibly diverse and doing a lot of cool things that we don't hear much about otherwise - I really like the idea of expanding our horizons and learning from peers.  (2) there is a LOT of momentum in marine conservation and ocean literacy (as evidenced by the huge NOAA presence at this meeting) - being at this meeting gave me a much better sense of our current niche and possible directions. 
Bottom line... are we joining AZA?  Good question - its a complex process and would take a lot of effort - the payoff is, however, significant and so I'll be meeting with our SMT and Board to assess their appetite for this and with AZA staff when I am next in DC to further assess what is involved in the process.

AZA 2009 - Day Two Notes

Day 2 of AZA is a riot of activity and people! From an early morning breakfast to sort out session details with my co-presenters on climate change and aquaria the day quickly became a procession of meetings, presentations and information exchange. Like all good conferences its overload… but in a good way!
Jane Goodall’s presentation this morning was a superb reminder of the power of the zoo and aquarium community to influence people’s attitudes. Now 75, Dame Jane (she was just made a Dame of the British Empire by the Queen), recalled with great clarity her first visits to the London Zoo as a precocious 4 year old and how they shaped her thinking about animal intelligence. Going back there to work for a year before she began her famous chimp studies in 1960, she developed an empathy with great apes that has been the rudder of her career over the past half century (see http://www.janegoodall.org/). Her new book “Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species are Being Rescued from the Brink” expresses optimism for the future of wild species.
After the opoening session, I joined sessions on AZA Accreditation, the Coastal America Coastal Ecosystems Learning Center (CELC) Annual partnership meeting and a session on capacity building for aquarium staff – all of which have provided me with both excellent technical updates and a wide array of new contacts. It has been especially helpful to meet with AZA staff and the many Aquaria Directors who are natural partners of the ASLC such as Dr John Nightingale CEO of the Vancouver aquarium which was just admitted as a CELC partner institution.
Below are a random selection of photos from the large exhibition Hall – posters and commercial exhibits – I think the next time I come to one of these I’d better bring a bigger bag to carry home all the materials on offer – SMT members beware – your inboxes will be filling with ideas next week!

A cheap options for getting people around Seward? - electric with solar - runs 50 miles on a charge

Getting into invasives - lots of interest here in the issues we have begun to grapple with in AK.

Oregon Zoo Green Team is doing a great job promoting sustainability actions and principles - I got my green stamp today by committing to 10 of those practices while here - read them online at
www.oregonzoo.org/aza2009

An interesting analysis of AZA member mission statements with all the words compiled into a graphic and the relative size shows frequency of mention... a quick assessment showed me we had most of the key terms covered...

Finally.. lots of aquaria are using citizen science as a key tool for engaging members and the public in their research and conservation work.

AZA Conference 2009 - Day One

This week I’m attending my first AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquaria) Annual Conference – all 1600 delegates can tell this because on the bottom of my name tag in big gold letters is “First Time Attendee”… apparently that is to help me network, but I learned years ago at conferences that no one usually wants to talk to newbies and so we’ll see how effective that is!
Right below my name tag is another big green badge – “Speaker” – that is because the main reason I am here is to help present a session on Climate Change and Aquaria. That session is the culmination of a process that began last December when I joined Ned Smith to attend a climate change and aquaria summit at the Monterey Aquarium. Since then I have been actively involved in a range of follow up activities such as national webinars and various proposals to help the aquarium community deliver climate change information effectively – polling shows that aquaria are trusted sources of information on such subjects.
My other main reason for being here is to “suss out” AZA accreditation – the Alaska SeaLife Center has never sought AZA accreditation. Reasons for this are not fully clear, but relate to the fact that because of our research orientation, we are not like other aquaria and becasue of costs – apparently accreditation is a complex and cumbersome process. I want to leave Portland with a clear understanding of what is involved and whether the benefits outweigh the costs to the Center.
The conference program looks terrific – see http://www.azaconnect.com/connect/2009annualconf/ - I’m especially looking forward to Jane Goodall’s keynote address tomorrow and the various sessions on climate change and on how to develop more effective institutions. If anyone has a request for me to attend a specific session, please let me know. I just attended the Marine Mammal Technical Advisory Group Meeting at Carrie Goertz and Brett Long’s suggestion and immediately made some great connections – a lot of AZA folks know us and there is tremendous interest in the marine mammals of Alaska.
I’ll be adding daily blog updates, but thought you might enjoy seeing how Portland is positioning itself as a green city – from its terrific public transport light rail system (the Max – only $2.50 from the airport and free in downtown) to increasingly energy efficient urban design in the renewal areas, this city has a lot to offer us to think about.
Stay tuned!

ASLC Inputs to Ocean Policy Task Force Hearing in Anchorage

Last Friday, we had the opportunity to present testimony directly to the first public hearings of the President's Task Force (see http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives/oceans/ for both details of the work of the task Force and to locate our written submission). The afternoon was a fascinating experience - there is an a huge public interest in the future of Alaska's oceans as evidenced by the >400 attendees!

With more than 60 public speakers, we were restricted to just 3 mins and so our comments were necessarily short! My comments were focused on (a) ocean literacy and (b) the challenges of not allowing aquaria to access stimulus funds.... the text if my comments is provided below...

Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force
Listening Session
Anchorage 21 August, 2009
Comments by Ian Dutton
President and CEO, Alaska SeaLife Center

Madam Chair, Distinguished Task Force members,
The Alaska SeaLife Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to understanding and maintaining the integrity of the marine ecosystem of Alaska. We achieve our mission through research, rehabilitation, conservation, and public education.
We previously made a submission to the Interagency Task Force related to Ocean Zoning/Marine Spatial Planning.
Today, I’d like to amplify two particular points in relation to that submission.
Firstly, in relation to the complex issues we are addressing here today. We believe, and our research here in Alaska supports that belief, that there is a genuine lack of public understanding of our oceans and of their importance to the quality of life we enjoy. This lack of ocean literacy is both a major impediment to the ability of the public to engage in a process such as this and an impediment to improved ocean management generally. Funding for programs that address that need at a meaningful level are currently ad hoc and insufficient. For example, in partnership with the Anchorage School District and private donors, we have conducted a Sea Train marine education program over the past 5 years that has provided instruction to some 10,000 5th grade students in South Central Alaska. Due to budget restrictions this year that program has had to been cut back to less than 250 students. We urge the Task Force to give priority to rapidly upgrading ocean literacy in Alaska and America generally and point out the unique role played by aquaria in providing an insight into otherwise inaccessible marine life.

My second point relates to the first – as the Task Force may be aware, aquaria are specifically prohibited from receiving any stimulus funding. That has made it very difficult to compete for research, education and conservation infrastructure such as the innovative ocean thermal energy project that we have ready to go and which would enable us to achieve massive fuel oil and carbon savings and demonstrate a new renewable energy technology for Alaska. We find it unacceptable that a museum or even a visitor center in a National Park is not subject to the same restrictions. We urge the Task Force to employ its influence to ensure that aquaria operate on a “level playing field” with other educational institutions to help us promote the ocean literacy which must underpin any improvements in ocean governance.

Thank you for the opportunity to give these inputs – we’d welcome the opportunity to show you our cutting edge work when next you come to Alaska.

A Close Encounter with Green Fluorescent Protein

Some months ago we received notification that Dr Roger Tsien, the Nobel Laureate from San Diego, would be visiting the Center in August. During his visit, he hoped that we might be able to provide him with a chance to see one of the bioluminescent jellyfish that has made his work on protein marker so famous.

According to Richard, ..."the jellyfish in question is Aequorea , probably A. victoria up here, and the common name is water jellyfish. Even though they can grow 7” or so across they are hydrozoans rather than scyphozoans like the large moon jellies and lion’s manes. I’ve never seen their polyp/hydroid stage but they apparently live on mussels". There is an excellent description of the jellyfish by a long time researcher in Washington State, Dr Claudia Mills at http://faculty.washington.edu/cemills/Aequorea.html

With his usual penchant for detail, Richard immediately set in train a summer long search for the jellyfish - a search that proved fruitless until just the day before Dr Tsien's visit. Jared, Nathaniel, Heather and Asia were out in the SeaSearcher yesterday in Humpy Cove south of the Center on a collecting trip. Richard asked them to take a look for these and... as he says "boy, it was a lucky break they found ‘em since no one was giving me much hope elsewhere we tried. On the trip yesterday, they also came across some juvenile prowfish and a juvenile crested sculpin using the lion’s mane jellies for cover".

Given this build up, it was with some trepidation that I went down to the holding tanks with Dr Tsien, Richard, Jared and Nathaniel... I'm so glad I did - with the aid of a special flashlight, Dr Tsien was able to show me the amazing green luminescent ring inside our newest jellfish - WOW!

Bioluminscence has always fascinated me and discussing the evolutionary advantages of this and related phenomena with Dr Tsien made the encounter even more memorable.

Ask our amazing aquarists if you too can get up close and personal with a GFP loaded jellyfish sometime...

p.s. the image here is for illustration purposes and was clipped from the Google Image bank - our jelly was much more spectacular!

Summer Reading

Karla and I just attended a family wedding back in MA. Long plane trips on aircraft that are not fitted with inseat videos are always a great chance to catch up on non-work reading. I tend to think of magazines and newspapers as "mind snacks", and of books as meals... and so was happy to fill my backpack with an eclectic collection of light eating (Time, Newsweek, Economist, etc.) and the more hearty gourmet dinners that I had been collecting for months but not really found time to read...

Given that I am bored with most contemporary fiction works (don't you just hate paying $20 for a novel then working out where it is headed at the start of page 2?) and that we have had a couple of great authors visit the Center recently (and left me a copy of their new books), its not surprising that my summer reading tends towards new insights into the natural world and how humans interact with that world.

My three traveling companions could not have been better chosen as each has that core theme.

First up was Cold - the stunning debut novel from our newest SAC member, Bill Streever, a biologist who lives in Anchorage. Bill has a big hit on his hands - Cold was reviewed well in both the NY Times and in this week's Economist and deserves the accolades. I won't spoil it by describing the subtle plot or how Bill brilliantly overlays an incredible array of scientific facts against a back plot of life in Anchorage with a rare dry humor... but for those who like being teased, tantalized or tricked then this one if a keeper! My only slight criticism was the ending - a bit too subtle, but maybe that is just me?

The next selection is a perfect plane read. A series of short stories by one of the best story tellers in the business, Alaska's own Nick Jans. Many of the stories feature the infamous Mendenhall Glacier wolf, Romeo who has quickly become the stuff of legends - this book formalizes the Romeo folklore. Nick just spent a week with us developing some stories about the Alaska Sealife Center and after reading Glacier Wolf, I have an even more eager sense of anticipation for what he will write about us. His writing style is sublime - the way he describes every day events has a Steinbeck like quality. When he gets into his favorite Alaskan settings and situations he holds a mirror up to all of us that is both comforting and provocative - kind of like realizing that really is how we look/live!

The final part of my summer trilogy was a new book from another well know writer - author of Cod and other maritime classics. Mark Kurlansky is a NY based author who dabbles in New England history, arts and politics. The Last Fish Tale is a sweeping tale about the Massachusetts coastal city of Gloucester and how the fishing industry there has changed over the past 400 years... its like reading the rise and fall of the Roman Empire! Along the way he weaves in a bunch of fascinating facts about great artists such as Winslow Homer and TS Eliot (a person favorite - I didn't realize he spent his summers in Gloucester as a teenager and how they influenced his writings), Sicilian fishers and their culture(s) in America and Sicily, the ineffectiveness of New England fisheries regulators and the dire impact of technologies that changed forever our relationship with nature even when nature seemed limitless... needless to say I saw much in this book of relevance to Alaska.

Three very different books, but all with much in common - a true three course meal that satisfies and stimulates...

Aquarium of the Bay - PG+E Exhibit

During my recent trip to San Francisco to meet with potential sponsors and partners I visited the Aquarium of the Bay which is a key part of the San Francisco Pier 39 waterfront tourism precinct. My visit was hosted by Carrie Chen who is the Education Manager for the Aquarium of the Bay and who has been a key member of the team working with us to implement the follow up from the National Aquaria and Climate Change Summit held in Monterey in December 2008 (http://209.232.236.13/climatechangesummit/).

The Aquarium of the Bay has a most interesting history and recently, under the auspices of the Bay Institute, transitioned from a commercial aquarium to a non-profit facility with full 501 (3) (c) status (see http://thebayinstitute.blogspot.com/2009/06/its-official-tbi-has-acquired-aquarium.html).
The Aquarium of the Bay recently opened a new 1200 square feet climate change exhibit known as the PG+E Lab (see http://www.aquariumofthebay.org/%20pgelab.aspx?n=424904) which incorporated many of the messaging and design principles enunciated at the Monterey Summit.

It was really cool to see the creative way in which the Aquarium design and education teams have taken those ideas from concept to reality. The exhibit is an impressive fusion of simple, easy-to-engage and understand elements that are very “kid friendly” and some sophisticated messaging about energy use and climate impacts. The exhibit operates on many levels. From the innovative use of charismatic land animals like chinchillas and tree frogs to explain climate impacts on animals to purpose-built interactive software that enables users to better understand their energy consumption choices and impacts, the exhibit demonstrates how aquaria can (and should) better engage the public in understanding the many facets of change in our oceans.

I encourage all staff and members to visit the Aquarium and particularly this exhibit next time you are in the bay area – as we move forward with plans to develop our own climate change and oceans exhibit, we’d welcome your thoughts on what that should look like and how we can enable public understanding of this complex issue.