Congratulations to SMEA first year Kanae Komaki, who was accepted by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) to do a policy internship this summer in Kingston, Jamaica!
The ISA is an international organization under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to manage seabed and subsoil in the high seas and the areas beyond the continental shelf. During her internship, Kanae will be working with the ISA’s Secretariat (Office of Environmental Management and Mineral Resources, and Office of Legal Affairs) during the ISA’s Legal & Technical Commission Meeting and the 23rd General Assembly.  

SMEA graduate student Jessica Hernandez was recently featured on the UW’s Race & Equity Initiative blog. The piece titled New Course Shines Light on Environmental (In)Justice highlighted a course Hernandez developed along with Isabel Carrera, another masters student in the College of the Environment. The class “Decolonizing the Environmental Discourse” was offered winter quarter and examined environmental injustice from the point of view of decolonization, exploring the perspectives of the people and communities most affected by environmental practices, policies and hazards.  

Five SMEA students were awarded Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships from the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies; Valerie Cleland, Thao Huynh, Brandon Ray, Karen Villeda and Lily Zhao.
Valerie Cleland, first year Masters student, was awarded a FLAS award for the academic year through the Canadian Studies Department. She will be studying Inuktitut- the Inuit language of the Canadian Arctic. 

By Amy Brodbeck
‘Awesome’…’Jargon’…’Awesome’!
A couple of weekends ago, I held signs with these words to provide feedback for my peers as they practiced their one-minute ‘elevator’ speeches about their research. As one of forty graduate students who participated in the two-day science communication conference called ComSciCon PNW, I left feeling truly empowered to increase the role of science in public discourse. 

Congratulations to SMEA second year, Jessica Hernandez, for being selected as one of the 2017 Husky 100! Each year, the Husky 100 recognizes 100 UW undergraduate and graduate students from Bothell, Seattle and Tacoma in all areas of study who are making the most of their time at the UW. See Jessica and fellow students honored with the Husky 100 award https://www.washington.edu/husky100/ 

SMEA 1st year graduate student Kanae Komaki was selected as an intern at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in Tasmania, Australia. CCAMLR is the International organization that manages the Antarctic’s Marine Living Resources, and is often showcased as a successful example of international environmental cooperation. She will be in the division of Fisheries Monitoring and Compliance developing a proposal to manage the IUU fishing surveillance in the Antarctic Ocean using satellites. 

Congratulations to Hannah Bassett and Jessica Hernandez on being awarded National Science Foundation (NSF) fellowships. Bassett  was the awardee for ‘political ecology’ and Hernandez was the awardee for ‘environmental justice.’ The fellowships will allow Bassett and Hernandez to continue their doctorate studies and research. In all, the NSF named 2,000 individuals as this year’s recipients of awards from its Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). 

Congratulations to SMEA Assistant Professor Ryan Kelly, Research Associate Jimmy O’Donnell and second year graduate student Jimmy Kralj on their latest publication in Frontiers in Marine Science titled: “Genetic and Manual Survey Methods Yield Different and Complementary Views of an Ecosystem.” The article published on January 9 compared results of environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys and traditional methods of measuring biodiversity and concludes that in order to confidently interpret eDNA results in the context of existing ecological study, it is necessary to compare the results of eDNA with those of more established methods of ecological sampling. 

SMEA Professor Patrick Christie, Co-PI Brad Warren of Global Ocean Health, and second year SMEA Student Haley Kennard, co-hosted a workshop with the Tulalip Tribes this past Monday, December 12th at the Tulalip Tribes Headquarters. The workshop, entitled “Navigating Coastal Squeeze: Identifying Needs and Priorities to Scale Up Estuarine Restoration in Puget Sound” was generously funded by Washington Sea Grant and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

The School of Marine & Environmental Affairs is excited to share the latest on the Capstone Project; Socioeconomic Impacts of Harmful Algal Blooms.
The social, economic and cultural impacts of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the U.S. are not well documented. The human toll of HABs extends far beyond the lost fisheries landings and tourism-related income that are commonly used to assess impacts.