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. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
I decided to pursue an MMA because I knew that to get to my goal of working in fisheries management, I would need a specialized degree. The MMA degree is inherently interdisciplinary, as are my interests, which made it a good fit for me.
Why did you decide to come to UW’s SMEA for graduate school? 

A new paper authored by SMEA alum Britta Timpane-Padgham, and SMEA Professor Terrie Klinger aims to provide clarity among scientists, resource managers and planners on what ecological resilience means and how it can be achieved. The study, published this month in the journal PLOS ONE, is the first to examine the topic in the context of ecological restoration and identify ways that resilience can be measured and achieved at different scales.  

SMEA Professor Nives Dolsak and UW Center for Environmental Politics Director Aseem Prakash recently wrote an article for The Conversation titled “Climate politics: Environmentalists need to think globally, but act locally.” President Trump signed an executive order this week to roll back the Clean Power Plan, his predecessorʼs signature measure to cut carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. Trump calls such measures job-killers, and his pledge to strike them down won him votes in Rust Belt states. 

Congratulations to SMEA alumni Hilary Polis (’16) and SMEA Postdoc Stacia Dryer for their recent article published in Ecological Economics. Their article “Public Willingness to Pay and Policy Preferences for Tidal Energy Research and Development: A Study of Households in Washington State” looks at the Puget Sound area in Washington State, which has significant tidal energy resources, but a ways to go to develop the industry. 

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). 

SMEA would like to welcome its newest post-doc Ramon Gallego! Ramon comes to SMEA from the University of Auckland, where he was a Postdoctoral Fellow. Ramon is working with Assistant Professor Ryan Kelly measuring the effects of ocean acidification using environmental DNA. Ramon’s office is on the 2nd floor of the MAR building, Room 235. Stop by and say hello or email him at rgallego@uw.edu. 

Congratulations to SMEA postdoc Jimmy O’Donnell for leading his new paper “Spatial distribution of environmental DNA in a nearshore marine habitat” to publication! Additional authors include SMEA Assistant Professor Ryan Kelly, SMEA alumna Natalie Lowell, and collaborators Jameal Samhouri, Ole Shelton, and Greg Williams. The paper shows that environmental DNA in the nearshore marine environment (in this case Carkeek Park in north Seattle) does not travel very far at all, such that eDNA samples show a very local snapshot of marine biodiversity. 

SMEA Professor Nives Dolšak and UW Professor Aseem Prakash recently authored an article featured on The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage titled “Yes, consumers can change public policies — sometimes. Here are the challenges.” The article discusses how consumer movements can succeed in changing corporate policies, but political consumerism faces challenges and has a harder time changing public policy. To read the full article, click here. 

Join SMEA as we welcome Ussif Rashid Sumaila, who will speak about “Effective high seas management is necessary for the sustainability of the global ocean” Thursday, March 2, 2:30-3:20 in Fishery Sciences (FSH) 102.
Dr. Sumaila is Professor and Director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the University of British Columbia. He received his Ph.D. from Bergen University, Norway, and holds a B.Sc.