Oregon Sea Grant, the marine research, public engagement and education program at Oregon State University, has awarded $1.15 million to five OSU scientists.
The researchers will use the funds to study sea urchin farming techniques; electromagnetic fields’ impact on marine life; effect of low oxygen conditions on crabs; prevention of beach erosion; and mud blister worm infestation of oysters.
Oregon Sea Grant receives a share of congressionally appropriated funds every two years that it awards – via a competitive process – to scientists at Oregon universities who are studying ocean and coastal issues important to the region and the nation. For 2022-24, the program is awarding all of that funding to researchers in three colleges at OSU. Each project will receive about $230,000.
The lead researchers and their projects are:
- Ford Evans, College of Agricultural Sciences: Feeding seaweed to sea urchins that are collected from the wild and farmed in tanks to fatten them up and improve their market value;
- Sarah Henkel, College of Science: Evaluating how electromagnetic fields might impact skates and Dungeness crabs to understand how high-voltage cables from wave and wind energy may affect marine life;
- Francis Chan, College of Science: Developing a low-cost camera system for crab pots that will help fishermen minimize the amount of crabs in their pots that die from low oxygen in the ocean;
- Greg Wilson, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences: Studying how waves affect beaches that have a mix of sand and gravel, with the goal of developing guidance on the placement of cobblestones on beaches to prevent erosion;
- George Waldbusser, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences: Studying how mud blister worms affect oysters and whether the location of the oysters makes them more or less susceptible to infestation.
