Young Wavemaker Webinars

Cape Perpetua Collaborative presents Young Wavemakers, a webinar series spotlighting young people making waves in marine science and conservation on the Oregon Coast. In this episode of Young Wavemakers, we speak with Natalie Donato. Natalie is a junior honors student in marine biology at Oregon State University in the Chapple Big Fish Lab. She studies the sensory biology and ecology of sharks, skates, and rays. Her current focus is studying the electroreceptor system of sharks, using photograph-based 3D models. She also works on rocky intertidal habitat, and uses 3D modelling to understand aggregating anemone colonies. Natalie is also a professional artist. She designed logos like the Big Fish Lab logo, made pieces like the sharks of Oregon license plate, and participated in artist showcases, such as her current work as an OSU Art-Science Fellow. Her artwork is part of the Fellowship Showcase at the PRAx building on OSU campus going on now, and she has an art piece in the 42nd annual Art About Agriculture Competition and Touring Exhibition, which is currently at the Giustina Gallery in the LaSells Stewart Center at OSU. Natalie recently won “Best presentation” at the Best of the West Symposium Western Division of American Fisheries Society, won the nationally competitive Goldwater Scholarship and Udall Scholarship, and the OSU Honors College Joe Hendricks Award for Academic Excellence (among many others but we don’t have enough time to list all of Natalie’s awards!) Natalie enjoys hiking, wildlife photography, and one of her favorite music genres is punk rock.

Grace Hunt is a third-year Undergraduate student at Oregon State University studying Zoology. She is originally from Southwest Washington and enjoys spending time on her family's farm. While at OSU she has been able to get a wide variety of coursework opportunities in entomology, paleontology, and natural resources. In addition to working as a summer intern for the Cape Perpetua Collaborative, Grace works at OSU as a TOUR Ambassador and completed fieldwork in Northeastern Nevada, sampling Speckled Dace this past summer.  This project is a culmination of a literature review and research on the representation of Pacific Lamprey in Oregon Marine Reserves. The course of this project begins with outlines of the history, biology, and cultural significance of Pacific Lamprey. Reviews of ODFW and related government agency websites for resources on Pacific Lamprey. This information was then compared with the information on Tribal agency websites. This project is designed to be an introduction to those who are unfamiliar with Pacific Lamprey as well as a resource that can improve upon the information we present to the general public on endangered and lesser-known species.

Aliya Larsen grew up on the Oregon Coast and spent her summers in high school volunteering at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. She currently goes to school at Carleton College in Minnesota and is studying mathematics with a minor in Spanish. She also loves taking science classes and hopes to apply her studies to biostatistics or environmental engineering. Aside from school, she runs cross country and track for her college team and has enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of the running community and the support it provides. She also enjoys working with kids and has spent time as a running camp counselor, volunteering at after school programs, and tutoring. This summer, Aliya worked with the Cape Perpetua Collaborative to do research on tide pools. She was specifically looking at comparing the biodiversity in a marine reserve and a non protected area by looking at three tide pools in the Cape Perpetua marine reserve and 3 tide pools in Seal Rock. Then, throughout the month of July, she collected data twice a week from each tide pool. She kept track of the species she saw and counted the abundance of each of them and looked at any irregularities in the tide pools as well and how they shifted from week to week. She then used this data to create graphs for each distinct species she saw in both Cape Perpetua and Seal Rock to compare the abundance. With these numbers, she also made graphs that predicted what the data would look like throughout the month of August. Overall, the data set shows that Cape Perpetua had a higher abundance of tide pool creatures compared to Seal Rock. There were some graphs that were less clear, but overall Cape Perpetua had more sea life, and had the only sea urchin recorded. This experiment was limited given that it took place in such a short time frame. It would likely take a few years of data collection to accurately determine if Cape Perpetua or Seal Rock has more biodiversity and abundance of species.

Connor Willeford is a Jellies and Live Food Aquarist II at Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Aquarium in Springfield, Missouri. He received his AAS in Aquarium Science from Oregon Coast Community College (2021) and has been involved in the aquarium industry in an educational and professional capacity for almost 8 years now. As jellies and live food aquarists, he and his team are in charge of maintaining a wide diversity of jelly species and jelly cultures for display across multiple exhibits, including one of the biggest jelly exhibits in North America. They are also tasked with the culturing of multiple different live foods both for the jellies and other sections at their facility. Iowa is probably far from the first choice people would have as a place for getting introduced to marine sciences, but that is where Connor Willeford got his early start at Central Campus in Des Moines, Iowa while a part of their marine science high school program. From there this career path would take him to the Florida Keys, San Francisco, Connecticut, back to the Midwest with Missouri and (by far most importantly) the Oregon Coast where he would develop his skills and learn from some of the best and most knowledgeable people in the industry. In this talk, Connor will give a rundown of his career so far, giving perspective on the unique paths people can take to get involved and progress in the public aquarium industry while also highlighting all of the help and connections that lead back to his time spent on the Oregon Coast.

Meet Sequoia Newberg, a sophomore at Newport High School and a dedicated conservationist passionate about getting more youth involved in marine conservation. With a history of volunteering with conservation organizations such as the Surfrider Foundation, SOLVE, and the Seattle Aquarium, she’s harnessed her enthusiasm for the ocean to combat plastic pollution and champion the health of marine ecosystems. This presentation will navigate the personal journey of a young conservationist in the vast ocean of marine stewardship. While exploring the importance of organizational opportunities for youth participation in conservation, Sequoia will use her own experiences to illustrate the positive impact that youth volunteers have on the environment, their community, and within themselves.

Introducing our first Young WaveMaker Seminar of 2024: Check out Emily’s Marine Life Photos on Facebook and Instagram! Emily Bjornsgard (she/her) is the Lead Aquarist at the MaST Center Aquarium in Des Moines, Washington. She is a graduate of Western Washington University (BS Biology, Marine Emphasis, 2020) and of Oregon Coast Community College (Aquarium Science Certificate, 2021). During her time in Oregon, she also worked in the Hatfield Marine Science Center Visitor Center and volunteered at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. As MaST’s Lead Aquarist, Emily is responsible for the aquarium’s live animal exhibits, including the health of the animals and the functionality of the aquarium’s life support, which displays approximately 250 Salish Sea species. The marine ecosystem of the Pacific Northwest is home to thousands of amazing species, from sponges to seals! However, unless you are a frequent visitor to the intertidal zone or a diver, there are very limited options to see and interact with these animals directly. Aquarium staff throughout the Pacific Northwest work diligently to care for these incredible creatures, so that everyone can take a glimpse into their world. While speaker Emily Bjornsgard was studying at the Oregon Coast Community College in the Aquarium Science Program, she spent most of her free time on the beaches photographing the coastal marine environment. She now blends this experience with the Aquarium Science exhibit design training to create and care for intriguing displays as the Lead Aquarist of the MaST Center Aquarium, Highline College’s marine lab and aquarium in Des Moines, Washington. In this talk, she will discuss design concepts that contribute to impactful aquarium exhibits, and also some photography tips that you can take with you on your next aquarium or beach trip!

See Sof's Interpretive Dance Here! https://youtu.be/L0uCwykETeQ Sof Fox is an undergraduate marine biology student at the University of Oregon. With minors in science communication, environmental studies, and dance, they are interested in the connections and overlap between disciplines. They recently served as an Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholar, working on marine reserve interpretation and science communication at the Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve in Port Orford. Enthusiastic about ecology and human connections to the environment, Sof hopes to work with coastal communities on solutions to increase resiliency against the climate crisis. Science communication is a fundamental task that many of us have participated in at least once, whether it was summarizing scientific research in an academic setting or simply having a conversation with a friend about a fun animal fact! But what does science communication actually mean? This talk will delve into what science communication looks like, why it’s important, and the impact it can have when done effectively. Additionally, I will share experiences from my time at the University of Oregon and on the Southern Oregon Coast as a student and science communicator to further explore what marine science communication can look like in practice.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) of 1972 defines stocks of marine mammals as groups of animals of the same species or similar taxa within a common spatial arrangement that interbreed when mature. Rachel’s Masters Project examines how the definition of marine mammal stocks has changed over time in the U.S. to better inform other countries as they develop a program of stock assessments. To illustrate these changes, and the divergent approaches taken by federal agencies, two detailed case studies are presented: Alaska harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) and the Florida manatee (T. m. latirostris). The diversity of viewpoints that exists among agency scientists regarding how stocks should be defined under the MMPA will also be highlighted, followed by recommendations for other countries as to how they can create or improve their marine mammal stock assessment process to meet the standards set by the United States. Rachel Hilt is a 2023 graduate from the Master of Environmental Management (MEM) program at Duke in the Coastal Environmental Management concentration. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri Rachel developed a passion for marine life early on despite living in a landlocked state. She received a bachelor’s degree in Marine Affairs from the University of Miami, FL and has undertaken research on a variety of marine megafauna including sea turtles, humpback whales, and bottlenose dolphins. During her field work Rachel refined her interests in protected species management and critical habitats with a focus on marine mammals that brought her to the Duke University Marine Lab to work under the supervision of Dr. Andrew Read.