Presenting to local high schoolers for career day. What topics do you think I should hit? So far I'm going over what my job is, what a 'day in the life' looks like, how I got to this job, and ways to have a career in marine science that don't require a PhD. Anything to add or subtract??

Got to attend an awesome ocean trivia night at Pelican Brewery hosted by Winter Waters PNW. Proceeds from the night went to the Oregon Kelp Alliance. So grateful for the creative, passionate folks who made this happen :)

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT: Interested in getting paid a good living wage to live on the beautiful Oregon coast and help restore and protect kelp forests? If so, check out the Oregon Kelp Alliance's new job posting! www.oregonkelp.com/opportunitie...

Hey folks! The Oregon Kelp Alliance recently released our 2024 Oregon Kelp Forest Status Report. It finds worrying losses over the last 15 years in OR's kelp forests but also exciting signs of resilience. Read it for yourself here and feel free to ask me any Qs!
www.oregonkelp.com/wp-content/u...

Had a lovely time at the 2024 Western Society of Naturalists meeting in Portland this weekend! So much great content on kelp forest restoration, including some talks that got me super excited for ORKA's 2025 work.... feeling hopeful :)

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #1,139,337!

Thank you @oregonzoo.bsky.social for inviting me to speak about what we are doing at the Oregon Kelp Alliance. Such committed, passionate, thoughtful folks there. They do some key conservation work (CONDORS!) and I'm excited to think about how ORKA could partner with the Zoo in the future! 🦑🧪

For Halloween, I present Zombie Urchins! When urchins overgraze kelp & form urchin barrens, they destroy their food supply. So how do they survive? They ramp down their metabolism to near-zero, living in a hibernation-like state for months to *years* without eating, reproducing or even moving much🦑

So enjoyed our Evening with Urchins last Saturday in Bandon! Got to tour a dulse and urchin aquaculture farm, learn more about historic and modern ways the Coquille Indian Tribe relate to the ocean, sample fancy uni recipes, and chat with so many people excited about sustainable ocean food! Dreamy 🦑

Cape Arago is the only place in Oregon known to have giant kelp alongside our standard bull kelp. Can you spot the giant kelp, bull kelp, sea grass, and red algae in this drone shot? #PhycologyFriday 🦑🧪🌊

#PhycologyFriday A middle school class in Bandon, OR led by their wildly artistic teacher painted this mural of a happy flourishing on the Port building. It's not only beautiful but also scientific accurate in almost every way! Warms my heart to see Oregonians inspired by their marine environment ❤️

Hi folks! I work for the Oregon Kelp Alliance. An exciting thing we & our partners are finding is how much Oregon's grey whales use kelp forests as foraging grounds. It turns out that the zooplankton the whales like to eat are found more often in places w/ kelp than w/o it. The ocean is amazing ❤️

Dang I've missed posting to Science Social Media after the downfall of Twitter. In honor of it, here's a bit of good news. This year has been a BONANZA for kelp forests in central Oregon. The pic below is a drone shot of a forest near Depoe Bay that was way larger than any year in recent memory :)