DONATE
Although it was more than a decade ago, Aubrey Ellertson Church has clear memories of standing at the Chatham Fish Pier with other fisheries observers waiting to be picked up by boats they were assigned to that day.
Church lived outside of Boston at the time, working out of ports from Maine to New Jersey gathering data about fishing trips used to help monitor the health of fisheries.
“I remember Chatham being a cool port to go into,” she said.
Years ago, researchers were looking for butterfish off Cape Hatteras because that is where they were supposed to be at that time of year. Fishermen told them the fish were in the Gulf of Maine.
“None of the academic oceanographers had heard of that,” said Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution senior scientist Glen Gawarkiewicz.
Oceanographers also thought melting ice in Greenland, caused by climate change, would bring cold fresh water from the north to the continental shelf. Fishermen said the opposite was happening. The fishermen were right.
Take a piece of paper, grab a pencil, and draw a scientist — or draw one in your mind’s eye. Is “he” holding a test tube, wearing a white coat, standing in a lab and looking like crazy-haired Doc Brown from “Back to the Future”?
That image is far too limiting and not at all what Sarah Oktay, executive director of the Center for Coastal Studies, wants people to conjure.
Forty years ago — that Old Testament number meant to connote a long time (raining 40 days and nights, wandering in the desert 40 years) — Walter Baron built his workshop on a side road in Wellfleet. He knew what he wanted to do, he did it, and he still does:
Build boats.
Hawai’i has invested in aquaculture to promote the islands’ food security and diversify the economy, to find out more we visited two key facilities supported by the state. Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center (PACRC) is a unique coastal facility that supports aquaculture and marine science programs at the University of Hawai’i Hilo. PACRC research and education activities focus on growing native ornamentals, foodfish, and oysters, as well as aquaculture technician workforce training for 20 to 30 students annually and restoration of native species
The term “green economy” has been in play for a while now, and we have a pretty good idea what it means at least in the abstract; an economy that builds jobs and prosperity while keeping environmental impact in mind, reducing or even reversing damage.
Of course how it translates on the ground and on the water, the real tradeoffs and specific measurements, is another matter and worth a long discussion that could begin with coffee and end with beer.
e-Magazine PDF’s