Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
I want work in fisheries policy, I’m hoping an MMA will allow me to do that. Before SMEA, I went to law school and interned with NOAA in Alaska. At NOAA and in the last couple years of law school, I figured out that I am fascinated by fisheries management and not so much law and legal work. 

Professor Nives Dolšak was recently interviewed on NPR’s “On point” discussing travelling responsibly. She and her co-author, Aseem Prakash, Professor and Director of the Center for Environmental Politics, have been advocating for responsible academic professional flying. In March 2018, they wrote a piece in Huffpost entitled “The Climate Change Hypocrisy Of Jet-Setting Academics”. Since then, they have been writing and working with the UW and their professional associations on how to devise policies that would enable and induce responsible professional flying. 

Congratulations to recent SMEA graduates Tressa Arbow, Rachel Assink, Ashley Bagley, Angela Cruz and Alex Sweetser on being selected for the Washington Sea Grant State Fellowship 2019-2020. The Washington Sea Grant State Fellowship (formerly the Marc Hershman Marine Policy Fellowship) offers a unique educational opportunity for soon-to-graduate or recently finished graduate students engaged in studies pertaining to ocean and coastal policy issues. 

Recent SMEA graduate Zoe van Duivenbode was featured in the College of the Environment’s June newsletter, highlighting her work as a marine educator at Kalaloch Beach in Olympic National Park, where she developed ways she could connect the lessons of the sea to tourists on their summer vacation. Zoe was awarded the Future Park Leaders for Emerging Change Internship, a program for graduate students to work on climate issues related to emerging needs in national parks.  

On Thursday, June 13, 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 SMA alumna and commander of sector Puget Sound, a region that ranges from the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the eastern border of Montana, Captain Linda Sturgis. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
Since marine debris entered into my radar when I was 10 years old, this topic has pretty much become what I see as a lifetime objective for me. This led me to pursue an undergrad degree in Environmental Studies from the Program on the Environment (POE), which is also at the UW. 

Congratulations to SMEA alumna Kaitlin Lebon, whose MMA thesis “Evaluating alternatives to reduce whale entanglements in commercial Dungeness Crab fishing gear” was published in Global Ecology and Conservation. Since 2014, the U.S. West Coast has experienced a sudden increase in reported whale entanglements with commercial fishing gear. The increase has been particularly drastic in reported entanglements between Humpback whales and commercial Dungeness crab gear. 

Professor Eddie Allison and co-authors recently published an article in Frontiers in Marine Science titled “Securing a just space for small-scale fisheries in the blue economy.” The article discusses how Blue Economy/Blue Growth initiatives see the ocean as the new economic frontier, but the largest group of ocean-users – women and men who service, fish and trade from small-scale fisheries (SSF) are being squeezed for geographic, political and economic space by larger scale economic and environmental conservation interests. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
I’m one of those people who was kind of in limbo after undergrad. I’d just gotten a degree and a job in marine biology, but I didn’t feel like continuing doing scientific research. I also didn’t know what I felt like doing either. I only knew that I still liked learning stuff that’s going on in the ocean, and that I wanted to do more social justice work someday. 

Congratulations to SMEA student Angela Cruz and SMEA student organization SEAS (Student Environmental Affairs Society) on their respective Husky Green Award nominations. The Husky Green Awards are given annually to recognize students, faculty and staff from the Seattle, Bothell and Tacoma campuses who show environmental leadership and dedication. The Husky Green Awards are celebrating the 10th year of recognizing sustainability leadership at the University of Washington.