Rocky Shore Lectures

Sara Hamilton with research subject.

CoastWatch is collaborating with Bandon’s Shoreline Education for Awareness (SEA) on a series of educational events this winter and spring.  In connection with Bandon’s Earth Day festivities, we are presenting two talks on rocky shore ecology at the Bandon Public Library (1204 11^th St., S.W.), although not consecutively.

At 10 a.m., Sara Hamilton, a doctoral student in the Department of Integrative Biology at Oregon State University, will present a talk based on her PhD research, “Kelp Forests in Oregon:  Where, When and Why?”  Hamilton has a wealth of information to impart on a vital nearshore ocean ecosystem that Oregonians tend not to be familiar with.

Later that day, at 2 p.m., Bruce Menge, Distinguished Professor and the Wayne and Gladys Valley Endowed Professor of Marine Biology in the Department of Integrative Biology at Oregon State University, will speak on “Rocky Shore Ecology: Recent Climate-Related Disruptions to a Previously Stable Ecosystem.”  Dr. Menge, one of the nation’s most renowned intertidal ecologists, will provide background relevant to CoastWatch’s sea star population survey, as well as to CoastWatch monitoring in rocky shore ecosystems and the work of SEA’s docents in educating the public visiting the shore.

For more information, contact Bill Stenberg of SEA, (503) 593-5010, billberg47@gmail.com, or Fawn Custer of CoastWatch, (541) 270-0027, fawn@oregonshores.org.