Science on Tap - Tsunami Travellers

Dr. Jessica Miller will be the featured speaker at the Hatfield Marine Science Center’s Science on Tap event on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 6 p.m.,  at the Rogue Brewery's South Beach location (2030 Marine Science Dr.) in Newport.  

Dr. Miller’s talk, "Tsunami travellers: what have we learned from a mega-rafting event?" will describe research conducted on organisms arriving via tsunami debris from Japan, indicating a heretofore unrecognized type of damage caused by plastic marine debris -- the transport of non-native species around the world's oceans.

Between 2012 and 2017, scientists documented nearly 300 species of marine animals arriving alive in North America and Hawaii on hundreds of vessels, buoys, crates, and many other objects released into the ocean by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of March, 2011. In a recent article in the prestigious journal Science, Dr. Miller and her co-authors suggested that expanded coastal urbanization and storm activity, which may be enhanced due to climate change, could mean that the role of marine debris as a novel vector for invasive species may be increasing dramatically.

Unexpected was that coastal species from Japan would not only survive the trip through the hostile environment of the open North Pacific Ocean, but continue to survive for many years -- four or more years longer than any previous observations of species found living on what are called "ocean rafts." 

HMSC’s Science on Tap is at Rogue Ales & Spirits' South Beach waterfront location, Brewer's on the Bay, in the downstairs Board Room. Doors open at 5:15 p.m., and the presentation will begin at 6 p.m. The family-friendly event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and early arrival is recommended. Food and beverage will be available for purchase. 

More on the speaker:
Dr. Jessica Miller is an Associate Professor at Oregon State University, based at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. Her research is focused on the ecology and life history of species found primarily along the west coast of the United States, such Chinook salmon, black rockfish, and Pacific cod. Her lab, part of the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station and Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, studies how organisms move throughout the ocean (their transport, dispersal, and migration) and how that movement affects their growth and survival.