Emphasizing the function and practical application of scientific research is a worthy goal. This is true not merely because of fierce competition for research funding, but also due to the serious environmental challenges we face as a society and the role scientists must play in meeting them.
Texas A&M's 1997 Earth Day celebration provided a great opportunity for oceano-graphy graduate students to make that connection by showcasing the application of their research to environmental problems. On behalf of the Oceanography Graduate Council (OGC), seven students (Dan Bean, Christina Bernal, Mike Flinn, Liz Harris, Chris Paternostro, Patrick Ressler, and Eli Williams) assembled information on research projects in which they were involved, constructed a booth showcasing the projects and their implications for environmental conservation and management, and stayed on hand to answer questions during the course of the day.
Featured research projects included Texas A&M Education and Research on the Caspian Sea (TAMERCS) and the Northern Gulf of Mexico Cetacean Study (GulfCet). Both projects are multidisciplinary efforts to understand and address particular environmental problems.
The TAMERCS effort involves assisting nations in the region surrounding the Caspian Sea (particularly Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic) to protect and develop the natural resources found there. This requires cleaning up contaminated sediments, preventing future contamination, managing the Caspian Sea sturgeon fishery, and promoting safe development of the region's tremendous petroleum reserves.
GulfCet is a study of endangered sperm-whale habitat in the Gulf of Mexico funded by the Minerals Management Service and the Biological Division of the United States Geological Survey. The project combines an oceanographic assessment of the physical habitat and cetacean food stocks with a census of sperm whales and other marine cetaceans by both visual and acoustic means. The goal is to better understand the populations of cetaceans in the gulf in order to determine how they will be impacted by oil and gas drilling operations there.
The Earth Day booth also supplied general information about the Department of Oceanography and its graduate and undergraduate programs. Finally, we distributed a list of relevant web sites and information for contacting elected officials and government agencies involved in science and conservation.
The Earth Day booth provided a great chance for us to learn about each other's research. In addition, it gave us an opportunity to work together in demonstrating to a general audience that oceanographers do indeed address real-world problems with their research. Non-oceanographers who visited the booth were quite interested in what we were doing, and discussing oceanographic research and environmental problems with them was fun and enlightening. Finally, I think we provided some good publicity within the university community for the Department of Oceanography. Hopefully, we can continue our involvement next year!
Patrick Ressler, Chris Paternostro, Christina Bernal, Liz Harris, and
Eli Williams display a poster for the OGC Earth Day booth.
Chris Paternostro mans the booth, which was forced indoors by inclement weather.
OGC's Earth Day Resource List
Texas A&M University Department of Oceanography
http://oceanography.tamu.edu/
General
An index of environmental web pages
The Center for Environmental Research and Conservation
Save Our Sea Life
A central site for locating non-profit and environmental groups, small and
large
Journals
Conservation Ecology (journal)
Long-Term Ecological Research (journal)
Government
United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States National Marine Fisheries Service
United States Geological Survey
