Second year graduate student Celeste Barnes-Crouse was recently interviewed by the UW Graduate School about Seattle’s ban on single-use plastic take-out containers, straws and utensils that took effect in July. In the article, Celeste discusses Seattle’s plastic straw ban and states “I think 2018 will be remembered as the year hating plastics became cool.” In 2017, Seattle hosted the first city-wide campaign, called Strawless in Seattle, to help remove single-use plastic straws from the U.S. 

A big congratulations to recent SMEA graduate Valerie Cleland who was selected as a Washington Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow for 2019. The 2019 finalists will become the 40th class of the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship program. The 66 finalists represent 30 of the 33 Sea Grant programs. For the first time Guam Sea Grant successfully recruited a Knauss fellow.  

On Thursday, June 7, the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs held its graduation ceremony in the Fishery Sciences Auditorium. A welcome was given by SMEA Director, Terrie Klinger, followed by opening remarks from the College of the Environment Dean, Lisa J. Graumlich. The keynote address was delivered by Rosenburg Professor of Environmental Studies, Emeritus, Williams College and former Program Officer for Science at the Packard Foundation, Dr. 

Alaska Sea Grant recently announced the six graduate students that were selected to spend a year working with state and federal agencies to support healthy coastal communities and the marine environment. Three of the six 2018-19 State Fellows are SMEA students; Nyssa Baechler, Diana Perry, and Kayla Schommer. The fellowships strengthen Alaska’s workforce by cultivating future professionals working in marine science and policy, fisheries, and related disciplines. 

Currents is SMEA’s student-run blog dedicated to sharing timely and relevant discussions of pressing environmental issues, particularly in regards to marine and coastal systems and the interactions between humans and nature. Throughout the school year these students write posts about topics they find interesting and relevant in ocean science and policy. For the month of May they decided to try something a little different; they are running a series they’ve titled Simply Science. 

Congratulations to Lily Zhao on being awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) fellowship. Zhao was the awardee for ‘Human Dimensions of Coral Reefs’. The fellowship will allow Zhao to continue her doctorate studies and research on how coral reefs and the coastal communities that depend on them can best recover from severe environmental shocks.
In all, the NSF named 2,000 individuals as this year’s recipients of awards from its Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). 

Log into Twitter on a Sunday and search for #SundayFishSketch; you’ll find a plethora of illustrations of fishes and other marine species. These illustrations are submitted by scientists, artists and anyone else inspired to create, from all over the world. One of these contributors is 1st year School of Marine & Environmental Affairs (SMEA) graduate student Spencer Showalter. Showalter said “My sophomore year [at Boston University], I traveled to Belize for a research class, and part of the assignment was to keep a field journal and draw a ridiculous number of fishes. 

500 million single-use plastic straws are used in the US everyday. Many organizations across the country have been working for years to raise awareness about the impacts of single-use plastic straws on the environment. This year Seattle hosted the first city-wide campaign, called Strawless in Seattle, to help remove single-use plastic straws from the US waste stream. Here at SMEA the Student Environmental Affairs Society (SEAS) and Currents Blog Teams joined forces to sponsor #StrawlessSMEA; a challenge to SMEA students and faculty to say NO! 

SMEA graduate students Kaitlin Lebon and Katie Keil each contributed pieces to a series for the student blog Currents illustrating researchers’ experiences at sea. Lebon’s piece takes an inside look at field science in the Arctic through Kylie Welch— a Faculty Research Assistant with the Goñi Lab at Oregon State University. Keil’s piece describes her own experiences on the University of Washington’s R/V Clifford A Barnes to collect water chemistry parameters, various plankton samples, and krill. 

Written by Katie Keil
Although my summer was already comically overbooked with a month-long summer course at Friday Harbor Labs, two nine day research cruises for my thesis, and a trip back home, when Dr. Tim Billo invited me to join him in teaching a backpacking course, I couldn’t say “yes” fast enough. I rescheduled my flight home, and started preparations for ENVIR 495C, Landscape Changes in the Pacific Northwest – an interdisciplinary ecology and environmental philosophy course taught through the lens of a 9-day backpacking trip in Olympic National Park.