Anchorage Hosts 2013 Alaska Marine Science Symposium

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—

The Alaska Marine Science Symposium opened in Downtown Anchorage Monday, with a keynote speech on the topic of marine debris.

The five-day symposium at the Hotel Captain Cook brings together more than 1,000 marine scientists and resource managers from across the country.

Monday’s keynote speaker, Jessica Miller from Oregon State University, talked about invasive species that come with debris from the Japanese tsunami. She focused on a large floating dock that washed up on a beach in central Oregon, which scientists say brought with it at least a dozen species not native to the state.

Miller says there are no known instances of the organisms surviving an ocean voyage of 10,000 kilometers, and the presence of invasive species on tsunami debris gives scientists the ability to document their travels.

“So some of these species are on the 100-worst-invader list, in terms of they have caused a lot of harm and there is a push to get rid of them in other places,” Miller said. “So then, when you do have them arrive in a healthy state onto the coastal shores, that's a really big concern and you at least want to equip yourself to remove what you can control.”

Other topics at the symposium include the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands. Scientists will also give an update about research in the Gulf of Alaska.

Contact Ashleigh Ebert