HRI Ocean Health group receives donation from local shark tournament

HRI's Ocean Health group poses with organizers of a local shark tournament who donated $5,000 to help fund an HRI shark research project. At left, Todd Neahr and Russell Weir pose with HRI's Megan Robillard and Dr. Greg Stunz. At right is Mickey Berry with Sharkathon.
Photo: Jeff Janko
Sharkaton, a land-based shark tournament at Padre Island National Seashore (PINS), recently donated part of its proceeds to HRI Endowed Chair Dr. Greg Stunz and his team of researchers from HRI’s Ocean & Human Health group. The funds will be used to continue HRI’s shark tagging initiative. Sharkathon organizers, who run the annual catch-and-release event that attracts up to 600 anglers, are very supportive of HRI’s research goals of trying to better understand shark movement patterns at PINS.

Su presents at national meeting
HRI Post Doctoral Research Associate Dr. Lihong Su attended and gave a presentation at the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 2009 Specialty Conference in San Antonio, Texas, November 16-19. At the meeting, he presented an oral presentation entitled, "Algorithms for extracting river delta features from airborne lidar points." Su has been working on a research-quality topographic lidar dataset of the Nueces River Delta, Texas. This is part of his work with HRI Endowed Associate Research Professor Dr. James Gibeaut on techniques to analyze various remote sensing data sets to track coastal change.

HRI Associate Director to Hawaii, Cuba
HRI Associate Director Dr. Wes Tunnell attended one of the near final meetings of the US National Committee of the Census of Marine Life in Hawaii in September. As Vice Chair of the Committee, he will be attending the final events of this highly successful, decade-long, world-wide program in London in October 2010. HRI's Biodiversity of the Gulf of Mexico is an Affiliate Project of the Census, and it represents one of the few all-taxa inventories of marine biodiversity of a Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) anywhere in the world.
   Tunnell also was a plenary speaker at ColacMarCuba09 in Havana, Cuba, in October. His presentation covered the State of Research in the Gulf of Mexico and included aspects regarding HRI, gulf-wide research and the new Gulf of Mexico LME for Mexico.

Shirley named to advisory board of Marine Science & Technology Foundation

HRI's Dr. Tom Shirley, pictured here during a recent deep sea expedition, has been named to the Science Advisory Board of the Marine Science & Technology Foundation.
HRI's Endowed Chair of Marine Biodiversity & Conservation Science Dr. Tom Shirley has been named to the Science Advisory Board of the Marine Science & Technology Foundation (MSTF). HRI Advisory Council Chair Dr. Sylvia Earle is the Chairperson of the board.
   The MSTF's purpose is to increase knowledge and understanding of the world’s oceans through scientific research and development and utilization of improved and adapted technologies to facilitate ocean exploration. The program activities of MSTF include but are not limited to studies and investigation of deep ocean environments, global climate change, marine biology, renewable energy and natural resource, marine research and the study of all aspects of marine science and engineering.

Montanga, Kim participate in coastal marine workshop in Seoul, Korea

HRI's Dr. Paul Montagna, second from left bottom row, and Dr.  Hae-Cheol Kim, second from left top row, attended the First Workshop on Joint Research Activities for Integrated Marine Policy held in Seoul, Korea.
HRI Endowed Chair Dr. Paul Montagna and HRI Postdoctoral Research Associate Dr. Hae-Cheol Kim were invited to Seoul, Korea to participate in the "First Workshop on Joint Research Activities for Integrated Marine Policy." The workshop was also attended by three faculty members from the University of Washington School of Marine Affairs. The purpose of the workshop, sponsored by the Korea Maritime Institute, was to gather advice on managing riparian habitats, conservation zones and shipping. Korea, once known as the land of embroidered rivers, had great free-flowing rivers prior to the industrialization that took place after World War II, which ended in expansive coastal wetlands. Now, nearly every river and stream is dammed or channelized, and wildlife is beginning to suffer as a result. HRI will provide expertise to begin the process of assessing environmental flows in Korea, and help provide solutions that benefit long-term sustainability of coastal resources in that country. Montagna and Kim are part of HRI's Ecosystem Studies & Modeling group, which studies the marine environment from a systems perspective.