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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 2018)
September 28, 2018 News briefs Democracy topic of panel discussion A panel discussion called “Democracy Now: Perspec- tives on the State of the Union” is set as the kickoff for the 2018-19 Ales and Ideas community lecture series on Thursday, Oct. 4. Clatsop Community College President Chris Breitmeyer will moderate the panel made up of faculty members. Doors open with food and beverage service at 6 p.m., although no purchase is re- quired. Minors are welcome. The lecture will be in the Fort George Lovell Show- room, 14th and Duane streets, Astoria. With midterm elections coming up, the start of a new college quarter is a great time to examine democracy and its status in Astoria and the United States. Panel members include Seth Tichenor, Mindy Stokes, Fer- nando Rojas and Nancy Cook. Columbia closes to salmon fishing With fall Chinook salmon returns to the Columbia Riv- er tracking well below pre- season predictions, fishery managers closed fishing for all samon and steelhead from Buoy 10 to Pasco, Wash. However, the daily bag limit for general marine fish (rock- fish, greenlings, skates, etc.) increased to five fish. About 106,000 adult fall Chinook had passed Bonne- ville Dam by Sept. 10, 75 per- cent of expectations based on preseason forecasts. The up- river bright Chinook return are projected to return at 69 percent of expectations. If left open, the fisheries likely would exceed the al- lowable harvest rate. Steelhead fishing closed on the Columbia River Aug. 27. T he C olumbia P ress 5 New website gives fishermen additional tools to navigate B y t iffany W oods Oregon Sea Grant A new tool for commercial fishermen aims to make pre- dicting what happens on the water as easy as looking up a weather forecast. An interactive online map, where fishermen can check forecasts for ocean condi- tions in Northwest waters, is available at nvs.nanoos.org/ Seacast. It’s on the website of the Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems, a partnership that gathers and disseminates data on the ocean. The new site is the culmi- nation of multiple years of research based on conversa- tions with fishermen. Talks started in 2012, when Colin Duncan, an Oregon State University grad stu- dent, asked fishermen about their needs. He met with sci- entists to learn more. His research, which was published in his thesis, laid the foundation for Seacast. org, an experimental site that displays forecasts for sea con- ditions such as wave height and surface currents. In 2016, Oregon Sea Grant provided funding that allowed OSU grad student Tiffany Woods/Oregon Sea Grant Flaxen Conway, a media consultant, left, and Ted Strub show off Seacast.org, a website for fishermen. It displays forecasts for ocean conditions such as surface temperature, salinity and wave height. Jessica Kuonen to advance the project. The funding also allowed researchers to leverage money from Oregon Space Grant and the National Science Foundation. Seacast.org eventually will be taken offline as more fish- ermen get accustomed to the NANOOS site, said Ted Strub, an OSU oceanogra- pher who led the project. “It was always the plan for the experimental site to be transitioned to a more per- manent site,” he said. Kuonen aimed to under- stand how fishermen use ocean forecasts to make deci- sions, why scientists provide the data they do in forecasts, and how both groups per- ceive risk and uncertainty re- garding ocean conditions. Kuonen, who graduated in marine resource manage- ment in 2018, interviewed 11 captains, four fishermen’s wives and one industry rep- resentative. She also spoke with 17 scientists. Results indicated that more useful forecasts for ocean conditions could be created if data providers and the fish- ermen who use that informa- tion were to work together. “The future of enhancing the usefulness of ocean con- dition forecasts ultimately lies with the data provider and end-user communities,” she wrote in her thesis. “The genesis could be cooperative research, where fishermen collect observations from the ocean environment and pro- vide feedback.” Sick? Injured? Get diagnosed and treated by a doctor or nurse practitioner over the phone or by video chat. See if you qualify (no insurance needed)... cmhvirtualcare.anytime.org OR 1-888-972-8022 2111 Exchange St., Astoria, Oregon • 503-325-4321 www.columbiamemorial.org • A Planetree-Designated Hospital