Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station http://www.marineresearch.oregonstate.edu/2030 SE Marine Science Drive — Newport, Oregon 97265 — (541) 867-0230

MESSAGE FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT JUNE 2006

COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT ON OREGON OCEAN SALMON

Nine months ago, Senator Ron Wyden asked if Oregon State University could provide expertise to “solve” the weak Klamath River stock problem which is constraining Oregon’s ocean salmon fisheries. In response, the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station developed a three-year proposal based on using genetic information to identify and manage ocean salmon fisheries.

Salmon management is currently based on analyzing data after the season is over. Since managers don’t have “real-time” information on stock distribution and harvest, they are compelled to block off large parts of the ocean to protect harvest of expected weak stocks.

Our proposal is directed at generating “real-time” genetic data that identify specific Chinook stocks (Sacramento, Klamath, Columbia River, central Coast, etc.). This identification could allow fishermen to stay on the ocean, fishing on stronger stocks while avoiding the weaker ones.

The proposal includes additional goals, such as improved resource management and marketing, as well as “disaster” assistance to the industry as it plays a greater role in science and management.

While we continue to work with the congressional delegation in developing support for the three-year proposal, we are also working with the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board to fund a one-year pilot project. Toward this goal, COMES began a partnership with the Oregon Salmon Commission, forming a research group known as Cooperative Research on Oregon Ocean Salmon (CROOS), which includes COMES faculty, salmon fishermen, and ODF&W and

NMFS scientists. The group began meeting more than six months ago, in an effort to develop this one-year pilot project proposal.

This proposal includes three main components. The first is the hiring of salmon vessels to take tissue samples and collect biological and environmental information during normal fishing operations. These tissue samples will be analyzed one-two days after the vessels return to port. The data will then be reported on a web site which will show the distribution and catch by stock, time, and area. It’s expected that some vessels will be directed to specific locations in order to develop a more complete understanding of salmon distribution and migration.

The second component of the project is a digital data logging and traceability system that will be used to record and transmit scientific and product information. Each salmon used in this study will be barcoded, efficiently allowing the information from each fish to be recorded and tracked via a web site accessible by scientists, fishermen, market channels, and consumers.

The third project component will entail use of the scientific data to improve management of the salmon fishery. Examples include analyzing alternative approaches for spatial and temporal management, using incentives to avoid harvest of weak stock, trading access privileges, or receiving payments which mitigate the loss of harvest opportunities.

If funding for this pilot proposal is approved by the E-Board, the funds will be available by the end of June, allowing the project to be conducted this summer and fall. This will support hiring fifty vessels that will collect approximately 5,000-10,000 samples, work out protocols, and establish

SUPERINTENDENT’S MESSAGE, CONTINUED

a strong foundation for conducting a three-year project.

In anticipation of the approval, five volunteer salmon fishermen are now collecting samples and developing sampling procedures, and we’re preparing to hire up to 30 vessels for the June 26 opener.

This is an exciting opportunity for a truly collaborative research project. We will keep the Board, faculty and supporters of COMES apprised of its findings and development.

FACULTY UPDATE

In the last Priority Staffing round, COMES received approval to fill the vacant Salmon Ecologist position. We also were given permission to fill two newly-created positions which are jointly supported by the Marine Mammal Endowment Program and the College of Agricultural Science. Subsequently, our search committees, headed up by Chris Langdon, David Sampson, and Janet Webster, recruited strong slates of candidates, enabling us to hire three excellent scientists for these vacancies.

Jessica Miller, formerly with the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, joined us in January 2006, as the Salmon Ecologist, replacing Ian Fleming. She’s involved in a number of projects (see her report on page 4) and has recently hired a summer technician and an undergrad student to work in her newly-completed dry lab.

On June 1, Markus Horning, a Pinniped Ecologist formerly with Texas A&M, moved into one of the newly created COMES and MMEP positions. Aside from his other skills, Markus’s telemetry knowledge builds out on Bruce Mate’s expertise in tagging and tracking marine mammals through the use of remote sensing technology.

Scott Baker, currently at the University of Auckland, NZ, will join us on July 1 as Cetacean Biologist and Associate Director for the Marine Mammal Program. Scott’s genetics skills will expand our expertise in marine genetics, helping HMSC to become a center for genetic research.

In future newsletters, we’ll have more

information about our newest faculty members as we learn more about their interests and programs.

MICHAEL BANKS - NEW CIMRS DIRECTOR

Please join us in congratulating Michael Banks, who’s just been appointed Director of the OSU/NOAA Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies (CIMRS).

CIMRS, based at Hatfield Marine Science Center, works to bring together researchers from various colleges, departments and agencies to address multidisciplinary issues related to the marine environment.

Michael’s appointment with COMES will drop to 60%, but we expect that he’ll retain his full Genetics research program. We look forward to working with Michael and supporting him in this new position

More information about Michael:Michael Banks is from South Africa where

he trained in marine ecology & education at the University of Cape Town. His initial high school teaching career in physics, chemistry and biology concluded with him as department chair. Masters research at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute and a PhD from UCDavis/Bodega Marine Laboratory honed his skills as a population geneticist. His enthusiasm, international staff and students as well as excellent support have lead to the success of the COMES Marine Fisheries Genetics Program at the Hatfield Marine Science Center. Collaborative projects here include academic, federal, state, and fishing interests working on balancing harvest and conservation needs for salmon, groundfish and shellfish. In taking up directorship of the Cooperative Institute of Marine Resources Studies Michael is keen to put his best efforts towards realizing the potential of combined expertise at OSU, HMSC and associated State and Federal programs.

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Visit the MBP website at: http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/projects/mbp/index.html

AQUACULTURE — CHRIS LANGDON

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June 2006 — Over the last four months, both Thom Gilbert and Brendan Clack successfully defended their Master’s theses on different aspects of larval fish culture. Thom worked on the culture of rockfish species in collaboration with the Oregon Coast Aquarium and Brendan worked on developing lipid-spray beads for feeding amino acids and other water-soluble nutrients to marine fish larvae. Chris Langdon is continuing work of developing lipid-spray beads for rearing larval cod while on sabbatical at the Institute of Nutrition and Seafood, Bergen, Norway, and graduate student Ephraim Temple is examining the potential of using lipid-spray beads to deliver antibiotics to treat bacterial diseases of marine fish larvae.

The Molluscan Broodstock Program (MBP) has completed analysis of the performance of progeny from broodstock subjected to two cycles of selection. Results indicate that there is an average 43% improvement in yields of progeny from MBP selected broodstock compared with that of progeny from unselected broodstock; furthermore, yields of top-performing families suggested for commercial production are about twice those of progeny from unselected broodstock. Most of the improvement in yields is due to higher survival of MBP families during grow-out. These results were presented in May by Chris Langdon at the annual meetings of the National Shellfisheries Association, Monterey,

CA, and the World Aquaculture Society in Florence, Italy.

Student presentations at the National Shellfisheries annual meeting in Monterey, CA, were given by Paul Lang and David Stick. Paul has successfully applied microarray technnolgy to identify differences in gene expression between high and low surviving MBP families. David Stick presented his work on developing microsatellites for study of population genetics of native oysters on the West Coast. David’s work will be useful in identifying appropriate broodstock for numerous native oyster restoration efforts currrently underway on the West coast. MBP has also focused attention on the production of our 20th cohort of families selected for improved yield. A total of 60 full-sibling families were produced in early April and we plan to initiate field trials of this cohort beginning in July.

Work has also continued examining the inheritance of oyster shell pigmentation. Results thus far indicate that shell pigmentation is a highly heritable trait, suggesting that lighter or darker oyster strains could be developed through selective breeding.

Over the Spring quarter we have also received needed assistance in the lab and in the field from two OCCC Aquarium Science students. Kiril Chang-Gilhooly has been working for us part-time and Maria Hargard is receiving OCCC practicum credits. Both students are assisting us in all aspects of shellfish and algae culture.

MARINE FISHERIES MANAGEMENT & POLICY — SUSAN HANNA

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June 2006 — In January Susan presented a summary of the report “Review of the Economic Literature on the Allocation of Columbia River Chinook Salmon” to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission. The report was coauthored by Hanna, Gil Sylvia, Michael Harte and Gail Achterman at the request of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Also in January, she made an invited presentation, “Economics of Organization and Ecosystem Management,” at the Ecosystem Social Science Workshop of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council in Honolulu. The workshop was held to identify the social science components and research needs of fishery ecosystem management plans.

At the end of February, Susan presented an invited keynote address to the International Conference “Sharing the Fish,” in Perth, Australia. Her presentation was a summary of the conference discussion of the issues surrounding allocation of fish.

She also organized and submitted a proposal for a special session at the 2006 Conference of the International Institute of Fishery Economics and Trade (IIFET), July 11-14, 2006, Portsmouth, England. “Fishing Communities and Fishery Management: Economics and Property Rights.” The session was accepted as a component of “Policy Day.” Susan will chair the session, present an overview paper, participate in a concluding discussion panel at the end of the day and also serve on a panel commenting on global experiences with fishery recovery plans.

She has continued her service on the NOAA Science Advisory Board. The Board has formed a subcommittee to do a “check-in” on progress toward implementing recommendations of the Social Science Review Panel report and she will chair this panel.

She continues to chair the Independent Experts Panel advising

the Pacific Fishery Management Council on the Trawl Individual Transferable Quota (TITQ) program.

And, in May, attended a meeting of the Board of the Institute of Fishery Management and Coastal Community Development, North Sea Centre, Hirtshals, Denmark.

Recent publications include:Hanna, S. 2006. Implementing Effective

Regional Ocean Governance: Perspectives from Economics. Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, in press. (Summer 2006)

Hanna, S. 2006. Will Structural Reform Fix Fishery Management? Commission Policy Recommendations and the U.S. Regional Fishery Management Council System. Bulletin of Marine Science, in press. (Summer 2006).

Sandy DeBano (Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center), David Noakes (Hatchery Research Center), Susan Hanna (Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station), Phil Hamm (Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center), and Dan Edge (Fisheries & Wildlife Department), touring the Hatchery Research Center in February 2006.Photo, M. Graybill.

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June 2006 — The Fish Disease Lab has continued its work on whirling disease in salmon and trout. An Experiment in progress is attempting to determine if the parasite that causes whirling disease, Myxobolus cerebralis, can be transferred by angler’s waders.

We just completed work indicating that both life stages of the parasite could be transferred to the alternate host by waders (the parasite reproduces in trout and salmon and then in tubifex worms). Although the likelihood of transfer in an individual event is low, given the high fishing pressure in some locations, this could be a significant mechanism for the transfer of the parasite among watersheds.

We are in the process of evaluating whether waders that have been contaminated with either parasite stage can be inactivated by the drying of boots that would occur when they are out of the water for up to 1 week.

In a second set of experiments we are examining the ability of a single infected fish to transmit the parasite to worms, and the effects of worm population density and strain on the transfer. We have found that a single infected trout could indeed transfer the pathogen to more than 90% of the worms, depending on the susceptibility of the strain of worm used.

Intriguingly, there is an inverse correlation between worm density and infection rate. We are hypothesizing that this is because at limiting concentrations of parasite spores, fewer worms would have a greater chance of ingesting spores than if “too many” worms were present.

However, even though a higher percentage of worms are infected at low densities, the absolute numbers of worms infected at higher densities is greater and therefore release more parasite spores into the water.

Currently, we are examining the same experiment on a putatively resistant strain of worms. After 5 months, no signs of infection are evident (compared to high infection in the other worm strains after 3 months).

FISH DISEASE — PAUL RENO

The lab is also assisting Ephraim Temple (Chris’ student) in evaluating encapsulated beads for application of antibiotics to larval fish. The technical ability to encapsulate the antibiotics has worked well and Ephraim has been able to determine that the antibiotic is present in high levels in the beads and is stable.

However, we have run into an intriguing problem in our inability to kill larval zebrafish with a strain of Vibrio bacteria that is highly lethal in trout and salmon. We are looking at alternative hosts to use for examining the efficacy of the encapsulated drugs.

Marc Johnson, Dave Nisbet, Rebecca Baldwin, Chris Langdon and Paul Reno at the Oregon Hatchery Research Center, February 2006.

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MARINE FISHERIES ECOLOGY — JESSICA MILLER

June 2006 – Jessica Miller reports that the construction and equipping of the Marine Fisheries Ecology dry laboratory is complete. This month she’ll be bringing in a summer technician, Abby Nickels (who will become an MS student in the fall), and an undergraduate student. Both will work in the lab.

Jessica has been working to complete on-going projects, initiate new efforts, and incorporate students into the program. Current funded efforts include:

“Elemental and Stable Isotopic Determinations),” with Fred Prahl, OSU-COAS ($35,000) (subcontract on Bonneville Power Administration Project, Historic Habitat Opportunities and Food-Web Linkages of Juvenile Salmon in the Columbia River Estuary and Their Implications for Managing River Flows and Restoring Estuarine Habitat). January to September 2006.

“Restoration of the Olympic oyster, Ostrea conchaphila, in Netarts Bay, Oregon,” The Nature Conservancy, Portland, OR ($40,000). July 2006 to June 2008.

She also has three proposals pending:“The role of the stream-estuary ecotone in

the growth and survival of coho salmon in Coos Bay, Oregon,” submitted to the OSU Agricultural Research Foundation, $9,000.

“Salmonid life-history strategies” (component of BPA proposal, Columbia River basin juvenile salmonids: survival and growth in the Columbia River Plume and northern California Current), $50,000.

“Interactions between Shellfish Aquaculture and Eelgrass: Do Culture Practices Influence Eelgrass Sustainability and Provide Essential Fish Habitat,” Western Regional Aquaculture, pre-proposal approved, full proposal due July 26, 2006.

Jessica recently gave two presentations, one at the 2006 Western Groundfish Conference in January, entitled “Population connectivity in two species of Pacific rockfish (Sebates melanops and S. pinniger): An application of otolith chemistry.” In May, she presented “Following fish through

their ears: Applications of otolith microchemistry” to the Oregon MidCoast Watersheds Council.

She’s serving as co-organizer of a symposium on “Dispersal and Connectivity in Marine Populations in Marine Populations,” to be held at Larval Biology meetings at University of Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, in August. She will also be a participant in a Q & A panel for viewing of “Common Ground” video with Port of Siuslaw commissioners in June.

Jessica submitted a revised manuscript, to Marine Biology in May, and has completed three reviews, for Journal of Fish Biology, Geochimica et Cosmochimica, and Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.

Her new students include Abby Nickels, MS, Oregon State University, September 2006, committee chair (Abby is also the Recipient of the Markham First Year Award, $10,000) and Stefanie Gera, NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) co-mentor with Ric Brodeur, NOAA-NWFSC, who’ll both be working in the lab this summer. She’s serving as committee member for Marisa Litz, MS, Oregon State University and Jose Marin, MS, University of Oregon.

Jessica Miller and Janet Webster exchange comments during a tour of the Oregon Hatchery Research Center, January 2006.

David Sampson, shown making last minute adjustments to a framework designed for capturing video of rockfish passsing out of the back of a trawl net.

This device, a substitute cod end which releases the fish, is being developed to investigate the feasibility of using video as a alternate way of looking at fish, to augment rockfish survey data.

Currently, the project staff are in the preliminary investigative stages, and are experimenting with different positions of light and camera for insuring identification.

This project, funded and supported by industry and government, is a good example of collaborative effort.

To date, the field trials have been conducted on fishing vessels Nicole, from Astoria, and the Pacific, from Newport. Photo by Keith Matteson of ODF&W.

MARINE FISHERIES SCIENCE — DAVID SAMPSON

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June 2006 — During much of January and February David Sampson was involved on behalf of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), who provide half of his support, in analyses of commercial landings and recreational catch-per-angler data for a revised assessment of yelloweye rockfish, which was being prepared by staff from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

David represented Oregon at the March and April meetings of the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) of the Pacific Fishery Management Council and in May served as an SSC reviewer of the new Pacific mackerel stock assessment.

For research activities during the winter and spring he continued his involvement with the Canary Rockfish Project, which is funded by the Pacific Groundfish Conservation Trust to investigate alternative methods for conducting scientific surveys of canary rockfish.

In April David assisted with field sampling aboard a chartered fishing boat from Port Orford

to capture canary rockfish on rocky deepwater reefs and measure their sex ratio.

In May and June he participated in field trials with two versions of a non-lethal survey trawl, in which fish are “captured” on videotape as they escape through a fish excluder in an open-ended trawl. Results to date are very encouraging and David hopes to work towards development and implementation of a regional survey of rockfish grounds.

During spring David began two new projects, with two new graduate students as assistants. One project, which is funded by Oregon Sea Grant and includes Gil Sylvia and Steve Theberge as investigators, is developing case studies of two West Coast stock assessments as training aids for fishery managers and stakeholders.

The other project, which is also funded by Oregon Sea Grant with additional funds from ODFW, is developing software tools for exploring and evaluating management and data collection options for Oregon near shore fish resources.

MARINE MAMMAL PROGRAM — BRUCE MATE

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June 2006 — The Marine Mammal Program wrapped up a busy research season last summer and fall, studying Gulf of Mexico sperm whales and Eastern North Pacific blue and humpback whales in the summer, and working with Mediterranean fin whales in the fall.

Data from the 36 satellite-monitored tags applied in June–October 2005 continued to stream into the laboratory through the first quarter of 2006. Analysis of these data continues into the second quarter. While these analyses are conducted and initial conclusions drawn, program staff have also been busy writing papers from earlier research seasons, including four sperm whale papers, one on Chilean blue whales, and one on Gabon humpbacks.

In addition, a paper by Etnoyer et. al., co-authored by Bruce Mate, has been accepted but not yet published.

Craig Haislip, our photo ID specialist has been busy cataloguing approximately 3,000 whale photographs taken during the 2005 field seasons, as well as adding photographs of whales and our new research vessels to our website. Other improvements have also been made to the website, including updating the publications page and adding a page highlighting our new curriculum for grades 6–9, titled “The Great Whales.” The site itself is scheduled for a complete revision in fall 2006 to bring it in line with existing OSU styles and to take advantage of audio, video and slide software.

We have completed the hiring of two new professors, Scott Baker, cetacean biologist and associate director, and Markus Horning, a pinniped

ecologist, and are currently in the process of bringing aboard their support staff. Program staff have undergone a reshuffling of offices to make room for the new arrivals, and we are looking forward very much to the new dynamics resulting from these changes and additions.

Gray whales tagged in March 2005 in Baja transmitted for up to 321 days and resulted in >86,000 km of track lines. This was the first time this species entire spring migration and feeding range have been documented and identified respectively. The feeding data reveal much more intense use of the high arctic (Chukchi Sea) than previously known and is probably associated with a recent warming trend/regime shift in the Bering Sea. These data were presented to the International Whaling Commission meetings in May 2006.

In April, the group hosted a 4-day synthesis workshop for collaborators on 4 years of MMS-sponsored sperm whale work in the Gulf of Mexico. Work conducted on seismic effects in proximity to sperm whales was presented at an IWC-sponsored workshop.

The Marine Mammal website is located at:http://marinemammalprogram.org

One of the Marine Mammal Program’s gray whale resighting crews, looking for whales off the Oregon coast that they had previously tagged in Baja. (The signals from the satellite-monitored radio tags let them know when the whales were passing by Newport.)

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MARINE FISHERIES GENETICS —MICHAEL BANKS

June 2006 — Michael and the Marine Fisheries Genetics Lab have had an active year. Two of Michael’s students have graduated and are leaving HMSC.

Daniel Gomez-Uchida completed his doctoral degree in fisheries genetics and has gotten a postdoc fellowship in marine conservation genetics at Dalhousie University, where he’ll be working with Daniel Ruzzante. Daniel, his wife Celia, and their daughter Amalia will be leaving the US in early December to spend the holidays with their family (Portugal) before leaving for Halifax.

Jeremiah Bernier completed his MS in Gene Expression for Run Timing in Chinook. He’ll be leaving soon for Lausanne, Switzerland, where he plans to pursue his Ph.D.

This summer, the Lab will host three high-school students — Willow Banks, Michael Mpitsos, and Niki Sylvia — who will be assisting with work on the Coastal Salmon/Klamath crisis.

The Lab will also be hosting one of the students participating in the 10-week Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) internship program. REU pairs each student with a faculty mentor, and the Marine Genetics Lab student, Christian Andresen, from El Paso, will be working with Isabelle Meusnier on clock genes CRY and BMAL.

Greg Moyer is currently working on a manuscript that summarizes his on-going work addressing issues of hatchery supplementation.

Kathleen O’Malley, a Ph.D. candidate, is pursuing characterizing the circadian rhythm gene, CLOCK, in Chinook salmon.

Marc Johnson, also a Ph.D. candidate, is initiating work on the genetics of homing and straying in coho salmon through studying olfactory receptors

Mattias Johansson is finishing up a project looking up population genetics of copper rockfish at the fine scale along the coast of Oregon. He’s also starting a new project looking at sequence and expression level differences in olfactory and pheromone genes among closely-related rockfish species.

Sampling for Rebecca Baldwin’s study of sardine population structure through study of their parasites is progressing well. She plans on continuing her parasite community surveys on Pacific sardines, and will begin to extract DNA from parasite species chosen as potential biological tags in identifying sardine populations.

Renee Bellinger has been acting as science coordinator for the launch of a pilot project, project CROOS (Collaborative Research on Oregon Ocean Salmon), a genetic, biological and marketing project that will use real-time genetic stock identification of Chinook salmon harvested off the coast of Oregon to assign individuals to their most likely population of origin, link with marketing of salmon, and record oceanographic and biological data to elucidate patterns of ocean migration of Chinook salmon with special attention to the distribution of stocks from the Klamath River.

Recent publications include a study of predator-prey dynamics among seals and salmon (Marine Biology. 147:1459-1466), the influence of barriers to movement on coastal cutthroat trout population structure (Ecological Applications. 15(2):628-637), comparing otolith microchemistry and genetics in assessing black rockfish population structure (Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Science. 62:2188-2198). Three other articles are currently in press, two on rockfish population structure and effective size estimation and one on genetic diversity among coho.

Jae Park, Paul Reno, Chris Langdon, Rebecca Baldwin, Dave Nisbet, Michael Banks, at the Hatchery Research Center.

OSU SEAFOOD LABORATORY — MICHAEL MORRISSEY

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June 2006 — Over the past six months, two of Dr. Morrissey’s graduate students have completed their degrees. Rosalee Rasmussen defended her Master’s Thesis May 15 and Tomoko Okada defended her Ph.D. on May 5. Rosalee’s research was focused on mercury content in albacore tuna and the effects of canning. The mercury content in local, troll-caught albacore tuna was found to be much lower than the mercury in the albacore from national companies, and canning was found to slightly increase the mercury concentration in the meat. Three papers were published as a result of this thesis research. The initial mercury study and a mercury review paper were published in the Journal of Aquatic Food Product Technology, and a study investigating the effects of canning has been accepted for publication in the journal Food Chemistry.

Dr. Morrissey and Rosalee have also been working in collaboration with a number of institutions to investigate the cadmium levels in oysters along the Pacific coast. Monthly sampling efforts were carried out from August to March and the effects of age, size, and seasonality were examined. We are currently studying the effects of processing on the cadmium levels in oysters, with the preliminary study indicating a possible decrease in cadmium as a result of processing.

Tomoko’s research was focused on the extraction of oil and omega-3 fatty acids from Pacific sardines. Pacific sardines are a relatively new fishery to the area and, although they are high in omega-3 fatty acids, the majority of the fish are sold for use as tuna bait. Tomoko developed a method for isolation and extraction of the omega-3 fatty acids in sardines utilizing an enzymatic hydrolysis reaction and determined the optimal processing parameters for production of a fish oil concentrate.

The past six months, she has been working on developing an immobilized-enzyme system to entrap lipase in a chitosan-alginate-CaCl2 hydrogel for the purpose of concentrating omega-3 PUFAs from sardine oil. The study demonstrated a simple, non-toxic, versatile method to immobilize lipase in alginate-chitosan matrix by polyionic interactions to produce

omega-3 PUFAs concentrate. The use of immobilized lipase systems for increasing omega-3 PUFA concentration in sardine oil provides new process opportunities for the growing Pacific sardine industry.

Applied research was also accomplished in the area of product development for the Community Seafood Initiative (CSI). Some of these products include frozen shellfish products that are microwaveable. The CSI team is evaluating the commercial feasibility of these products through the Stage-Gate process which allows a team of experts or gatekeepers to make sure different criteria are met before the next stage in product development happens.

In February, Dr. Morrissey helped organize and run the 2nd annual CSI Micro-canners Workshop in Astoria as well as a symposium on risks and benefits of seafood consumption held at the AAAS meeting in St. Louis. Dr. Morrissey also presented papers at the Pacific Fisheries Technologists Meetings in Anchorage in March and recently returned from Tromso, Norway where he presented work on product development activities and served as an external advisor to the EU SEAFOODplus project.

SEAFOOD MICROBIOLOGY & SAFETY — YI-CHENG SU

June 2006 — Dr. Yi-Cheng Su at the OSU Seafood Laboratory completed the molecular biology study on pathogenic V. parahaemolyticus isolated from Oregon and Washington coastal water. Results were presented at the 2006 Pacific Fisheries Technologists annual conference in Anchorage, AK, in March 2006.

Dr. Su’s graduate student, Jingyun Duan, presented a poster on “Antimicrobial activity of wine against Vibrio parahaemolyticus” at the conference and received an award for the best graduate student poster presentation.

Currently, Dr. Su’s research team is

investigating effects of low temperatures on seawater and electrolyzed water depuration for reducing Vibrio parahaemolyticus in oysters. This project is sponsored by Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference (ISSC) and The Gulf Oyster Industry Program of National Sea Grant to develop intervention procedures to reduce Vibrio contamination in raw oysters.

Dr. Su recently received a scholarship from the National Fisheries Institute to examine the “Application of electrolyzed oxidizing water as a post-harvest strategy to control histamine formation in fish”.

He also attended a Seafood HACCP Train-The-Trainer workshop offered by The Seafood HACCP Alliance in cooperation with The Association of Food and Drug Officials and became a certified HACCP trainer in April 2006. He is planning to offer Seafood HACCP courses to the industries in the near future.

SEAFOOD SCIENCE & SURIMI EDUCATION — JAE PARK

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June 2006 — During this period, we completed the 6th Surimi Industry Forum and 14th OSU Surimi School (May 2-4) successfully. Dr. Sylvia gave an welcome speech to the Surimi School attendees. The highlight was the Surimi Industry Forum with over 120 attendees including four CEOs of the United States’ leading manufacturers of surimi or surimi seafood.

We also had 25 sponsors this year and recognized two companies (American Seafoods and Takasago International) with 10-year sponsor plaques.

My MS student Zach Reed (Food Science major) received a Surimi School Scholarship Award during the sponsor’s presentation hours.

A visiting Professor, Jin Kim, returned to his country, Korea, at the end of February.

A new visiting scientist Ms. Raquell Llorente came from AZTI (food research institute) in

Bilbao, Spain in April for a two-month visit. Two MS students (Kang and Reed) are going

to move to Astoria soon to join one Ph.D. student (Park) and my research assistant (Hunt) for their never-ending research. We look forward to productive summer.

Aquaculture - Chris Langdon 3 Fish Disease - Paul Reno 5 Marine Fisheries Ecology - Jessica Miller 6 Marine Fisheries Genetics - Michael Banks 9 Marine Fisheries Management - Susan Hanna 4 Marine Fisheries Science - David Sampson 7 Marine Mammal Program - Bruce Mate 8 OSU Seafood Lab - Michael Morrissey 10Seafood Microbiology & Safety - Yi-Cheng Su 11 Superintendent’s Message - Gil Sylvia 1Surimi Lab/School - Jae Park 11

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The Marine Fisheries Genetics Lab has earned itself a reputation as “family-friendly.” Eliana, daughter of Renee and Jason, joined the group on September 12, 2005, followed a few months later by Amalia, daughter of Daniel and Celia. Jeremiah, son of Isabelle and Cedric and baby brother to Marius, made his appearance ten days later. And in a few weeks, Greg and Melina will welcome their first child. Daniel, a first-time father, comments: I am getting used to my full-time job as a dad now. It is TOUGH, but lots of fun seeing Amalia growing so quickly and learning new things. Now she discovered she has legs and feet, and keeps bringing them to her hands! Very Cool!

Renee and Eliana

Daniel and Amalia

Marius, Isabelle, and Jeremiah