SMEA Professor of Practice Yoshi Ota and Ocean Nexus’s international report was highlighted in a recent UW News article. The report titled, “Towards an Equitable Approach to Marine Plastics Pollution” presents how marine pollution impacts the human population and promotes an equity-focus to addressing this issue. The report features topics from COVID-19 to Coca-Cola. You can read the complete article by Hannah Hickey here. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
After 8 years of working in the environmental sphere—working in ecotourism, high school education, environmental consulting, and in the National Park Service—I felt my skills and knowledge had plateaued and I needed to finally pursue a Master’s degree so that I would have greater capacity as a leader to integrate large-scale ecosystem health, community and culture, environmental justice, and climate adaptation. 

SMEA is saddened to share the passing of Terry Johnson. Please see Alaska Sea Grant’s Remembering Terry Johnson article here. 

The School of Marine and Environmental Affairs is looking for a dedicated team member to join our staff as the Assistant to the Director. If you’d like to apply or know someone who would be a good fit, please share the UW Hire post here. 

SMEA graduate and former Canadian Studies FLAS fellow, Samantha Farquahar (’19), received the Fulbright-Hayes award to continue her fisheries research in Arctic Québec (Nunavik). Below is the article posted in the Department of Education’s IFLE newsletter. Congratulations, Samantha!

Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad fellow studies fisheries, food systems, and indigenous food security in Canada

Samantha Farquhar, a doctoral student in the Integrated Coastal Sciences program at East Carolina University (ECU), will travel to northern Quebec next year to study and document how fisheries relate to food systems in nearby coastal Canadian communities. 

This issue of the Alumni Focus shines on Jenny Waddell, the Research Coordinator for Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS). Jenny’s career is representative of the many SMEA graduates who have been selected for the prestigious Knauss Fellowship (a national award administered locally by Washington Sea Grant – and the application process just opened).
Jenny graduated from SMEA in 2001 with a thesis on sustainable tourism development for Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras. 

In 1972, the Board of Regents of the University of Washington authorized the formation of the Institute for Marine Studies. In the last 50 years SMEA has graduated nearly 800 alumni who are putting their skills to work around the world — a formidable force for improving human and environmental well-being. Here we report on a representative few alumni to inspire current students and to link alumni to friends. 

SMEA faculty continue to contribute to the scholarship of marine and environmental affairs. In 2022, we published two books and over 30 articles in prestigious environmental, marine, and interdisciplinary journals. Many of these were co-authored with our students and our postdoctoral scholars. Below is a collection of these works. Faculty names are in bold; names of students and postdoctoral scholars trained by our faculty are underlined. 

Dear SMEA friends!
It is the season when we review what we have accomplished, thank those who helped us, and plan for the next year. Year 2022 has been very productive with 33 students graduating and a wonderful cohort of 35 first-year students joining us. Upon their arrival, the first-year students were offered an exciting set of applied team projects (capstones) that we developed with our partners, including Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association, Seattle Public Utilities, Washington Maritime Blue, and University of Montana Flathead Lake Biological Station. 

 
SMEA Professor Terrie Klinger and SMEA Affiliate Professor Jan Newton, were recently featured in a UW Today article titled Fighting ocean acidification, one oyster at a time. The article discusses the impacts of ocean acidification on the shellfish industry and how the industry has adapted after scientists, shellfish growers and other partners collaborated and came up with tools to manage corrosive water.