Pacific Region

Alaska Sea Grant
Sea Grant Raises $9,000 for Scuba Safety and Marine Education

• A Sea Grant staff member based at the nation's top seafood port, Unalaska-Dutch Harbor, and other scuba divers, organized the new Unalaska Divers Association.


• The association will promote education, safety and community service through diving operations in Unalaska.


• The Sea Grant staffer was named chair of the association, and organized a fund-raiser for local divers who perform rescue operations for the City of Unalaska, and for the National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) Alaska region.


• The sold-out event generated $9,000, drawing 135 people from the small, close-knit community in the remote Aleutian Islands. Proceeds were split between the Unalaska Divers Association and travel funds for the Unalaska High School National Ocean Sciences Bowl team to compete in the 2008 Alaska region NOSB in Seward, Alaska.

University of Southern California Sea Grant
Sea Grant Research Quantifies Threats from Invasive Seaweed Caulerpa taxifolia and Initiates Campaign to Prevent Further Bioinvasions

• The potential for the invasions of aquatic nuisance species is high in temperate Southern California waters. Caulerpa taxifolia, a noxious invader, colonized large areas of the Mediterranean Sea and was subsequently found in bays in Southern California.


• Sea Grant research revealed that this and other seaweeds had the potential to spread throughout the region and in other temperate regions, most likely through improper disposal of aquarium organisms.


• A major public service campaign was launched in September 2006 with the message "Don't Release a Pest, Freezing is Best," and has been successfully disseminated to thousands of aquarium retailers and hobbyists. In addition, training for Customs and Fish and Game officials was initiated in order to reduce the importation of Caulerpa and other potentially invasive aquarium organisms.

California Sea Grant
Sea Grant Offers Nontoxic Antifouling Strategies for Boaters, Saving Money and Improving Water Quality

• Boat owners use copper paints to control hull fouling that slows, sailboats and increases powerboat fuel consumption.


• Copper leached from these paints harms marine life.


• New regulations require 2,000 San Diego Bay boat owners to cut 76 percent of copper discharges by 2022. Boat owners and businesses need effective alternatives to maintain California's $16 billion per year boating business, while protecting water quality.


• Sea Grant found that nontoxic coatings cost more than copper paint to apply and keep clean, but the cost is offset by the nontoxic coatings' longer service life. Nontoxic coatings remained on several boats after 4.5 years and the owners were satisfied.


• In contrast, copper paints must be replaced after 2 to 3 years in San Diego (yearly in some parts of the U.S.).


• Long-lasting, nontoxic epoxy and ceramic-epoxy coatings will enable San Diego Bay boat owners to avoid cost increases from complying with new regulations, and reduce discharges of toxic, heavy metals into this sensitive ecosystem. Coastal boat owners in other areas can help improve water quality without incurring extra costs by using nontoxic coatings.

Hawai'i Sea Grant
Hawai'i Sea Grant Sea Grant Research Supports Watershed Restoration

• Hilo Bay is an important wildlife and fishery area and one of the longest, most accessible and least used sand beaches on the island of Hawai'i due to its designation by Hawai'i's Department of Health and United States' Environmental Protection Agency as one of the seven most troubled watersheds in the state, having high turbidity and excessive nutrients.


• Sea Grant is quantifying terrestrial inputs of organic and inorganic nutrients from the Wailuku River to Hilo Bay and assessing their fate and impacts on coastal water quality.


• This study confirmed that storms deliver high concentrations of organic nutrients and sediments to Hilo Bay, but that these are less concentrated and available to microbes and other creatures than those delivered during calmer conditions.


• Notably, leaves from invasive trees studied breakdown faster than those from native trees, potentially resulting in excess nutrients in the Bay. Information collected through this project will used to refine the proposed restoration and monitoring plan for Hilo Bay.

Oregon Sea Grant
Oregon Sea Grant Develops Testing of Fecal Source Discrimination in Water Using Molecular Markers from Bacteroides

• Fecal pollution poses significant human health risks and also threatens the area's shellfish industry. But, it's often difficult to tell whether the pollution is coming from cows or humans, and controversy over that question has blocked many efforts to correct the problem.


• A Sea Grant researcher has developed a new method of tracking fecal sources, using biotechnology to identify genetic fingerprints of fecal bacteria found in Tillamook Bay.


• Unlike previous methods, these tests have the advantage of speed. They do not rely on growing indicator organisms but measure the gene patterns directly from water samples.


• The researcher is working with the Tillamook Bay National Estuary Project, which routinely samples and monitors the bay, to see if her tests can show exactly where these fecal markers are turning up, and when.


• This method is also being used in several parts of the United States, Canada and throughout Europe (by a European Union project). A European research group has developed and published a quantitative PCR method from human based on this genetic marker, showing that this Sea Grant-funded research has had widespread influence.

Washington Sea Grant
Sea Grant Supports Development of Novel Therapeutics from Marine Bacteria

• The recent discovery of a major new marine actinomycete genus (Salinospora) underscores the importance of marine bacteria as an untapped resource for novel biologically active metabolites.


• In collaboration with a pharmaceutical industry partner, Sea Grant researchers characterized the biosynthesis of the gene cluster for the Salinospora product, salinosporamide A, a potent inhibitor of the 20S proteasome.


• Salinosporamide A has entered phase I human clinical trials to treat multiple myeloma and solid tumors.


• The discovery of the salinosporamide A biosynthetic gene cluster and an understanding of its biosynthesis may have large and long-term impacts on future production of this drug and its analogs using modern biotechnological approaches.