SMEA Director and Professor Terrie Klinger and her colleagues on the West Coast Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia (OAH) Science Panel released a comprehensive report April 4 that states ocean acidification and the related problem of hypoxia, or low oxygen levels under water, “will have severe environmental, ecological and economic consequences for the West Coast”. As reported on KUOW, the panel called for reducing pollutants that drain into water bodies like Puget Sound from surrounding cities and farms.  

Thanks to Nathan Bennett, Tommy Swearingen and Dan Tonnes and who recently gave informative and well-received presentations!
Nathan Bennett, “Considering Equity in Marine Conservation and Fisheries Management”
When: Thursday, May 12, 12:00 -1:00 PM
Where: Fisheries Teaching & Research Bldg (FTR) Room 034
Nathan Bennett is an environmental social scientist who conducts research on marine conservation and environmental management in Southeast Asia, Latin and North America. 

SMEA Professor Nives Dolsak along with a team of researchers from British, American and Australian institutions co-authored a paper titled “Engage key social concepts for sustainability” that was recently published in Science. The paper concludes that social science can contribute significantly to advancing and assessing conservation efforts. As stated in the UW Today article “the authors propose a set of social indicators that can be used to gauge how ecosystem management affects four essential factors in human lives: well-being, values, agency (the ability to act purposefully) and inequality. 

SMEA second year students Maggie Allen and Danielle Holstein attended and presented at the International Congress for Conservation Biology in Montpellier, France this past August. 

Congratulations to Professor Eddie Allison, Post-Doc Nathan Bennett, Professor Nives Dolsak, Assistant Professor Ryan Kelly, SMEA Alumna Natalie Lowell, Post-Doc Jimmy O’Donnell and SMEA Alumni Jesse Port on their publications that have come out winter quarter covering a variety of topics in marine and environmental affairs.
EDDIE ALLISON
Christophe Bene, Robert Arthur, Hannah Norbury, Edward H. Allison, Malcolm Beveridge, Simon Bush, Liam Campling, Will Leschen, David Little, Dale Squires, Shakuntala H. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
I had the opportunity to go on an exchange to the University of Calgary during my undergraduate where I took a class which touched on Arctic security and Arctic politics. These are not standard subjects in political science or international relations courses but are a rising subject in those fields. 

SMEA students Lindsay Gordon and Grace Ferrara recently returned from a 3-day ‘think-tank’ in Honolulu, Hawaii where they focused on the Human Dimensions of Large-Scale Marine Protected Areas. This think-tank was hosted by large-scale marine protected area network Big Ocean and SMEA professor Patrick Christie along with other contributing organizations and sponsors such as National Geographic, NOAA, Conservation International, and Pew Charitable Trusts. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
My background is in Environmental Science and over the years I have developed a love for ocean and environmental conservation. In our current political climate, it is more important than ever for scientists and academics to be able to communicate the knowledge we have and to take steps towards protecting our world. 

The School of Marine and Environmental Affairs had a strong showing at this year’s Arctic Encounter Symposium, a yearly meeting hosted at the University of Washington’s Law School. Students and faculty were speakers, moderators, representatives of consulting firms, as well as there to just learn as much as possible from the diverse gathering. 

This year two of our 2015 School of Marine and Environmental Affairs graduates were awarded the Marc Hershman Marine Policy Fellowship. This fellowship teams up recent graduates with mentors in state government or NGO host offices in Olympia, Tacoma, or Seattle. This year-long fellowship offers them the opportunity to work on ocean and coastal science and management issues, with many former fellows going on to jobs in state and local government, private industry, and NGOs.