The reason I came to OSU is for the amazing program they have out here at
Hatfield Marine Science Center. We get to come out here and do this for class
credits. It's amazing.
Rockfish, surfperch, flatfish.
If I had to guess incident I would say it's juvenile (inaudible)
The ocean is absolutely critical to life on our planet
and we know it's changing so we have to have some way
to sort of keep our hands on
the pulse of the planet.
When we have lecture
the students get the theories, but when they come out to the field you can just see
that there's a whole
new level of understanding.
I think if many of us look back on the courses that
meant the most to us
it is the hands-on classes. That's what Hatfield provides
and what the Marine Studies Initiative will be emphasizing.
We've never had a student
who didn't love the coast. Never.
Not a single one, they love it.
See, these guys are soaked, but they're having a good time.
Their training here allowed them to take on jobs that are very, very influential.
All around the world, in academics, in government,
in private industry.
So one of the things I really love about work with oysters and working with this facility
is it involves a lot of different aspects,
you've got the farmers that we work with a lot,
we also have chemical oceanographers that are helping us kind of define our seawater systems
but we also work a lot with some the economics people looking at
what are going to to the impacts
if the oyster industry starts to suffer.
The teams here are not just scientific teams, they are members of the community or members of industry
that are
partnering with us on on these projects, so that's what makes
Hatfield a rather unique place
The ocean and the coast mean so much to different people for different reasons
and the Marine Studies Initiative allows integration of that
rather than separation of that.
Because of the way we're structuring the Marine Studies
they're gonna end up with that interdisciplinary approach. And it doesn't
matter if they're going to work in the ocean or not they will be ocean literate
but they will also have a
skill set that they can apply anywhere.
As we go forward, it is critical for our students
to understand their role in society. And a way to do that is to get this
cross-disciplinary
education. It's to have those social science classes, it's to spend time on the
coast with students from other majors where
they can learn from them and understand that big picture that they're trying to
be a part of.
It's so important actually to not limit this to Marine Science,
because if you think about the ocean in its fullest form as a place of recreation
as a place of art, as a place of literature, as a place of general
excitement.
And you think about the number of people who live around the ocean
how much the ocean affects us in terms of food, in terms of recreation, just its
very presence
is the Liberal Arts that begins to help us make sense to the complexities around
that in the most interesting kinds of ways.
This is how we grow critical thinkers this is how we grow the policy makers of
the future
this is how we grow artists and musicians and writers who have a focus
on the
marine environment, is by allowing everybody to
live and work together in a place like the Hatfield Marine Science Center.
To be successful in marine studies you have to be able to have some knowledge
across-the-board
and add all these different things. You can't go into
marine policy and not understand how a policy decision is gonna affect communities.
It's no coincidence that Newport
fleet is known for innovations in fishing gear
and activism in the political arena because
it's part of the community. We're in touch and exchanging with the people who
are gathering the knowledge and making management decisions, and I think it's
really healthy
We're there because we have a passion for the science, we have a passion for the
organism. We with a passion for the tool
and to be able to take that into your community is just a really powerful thing.
Nothing compares to the opportunity here, to collaborate with various
agencies, to interact with the local community
and to work with students.
Having this Marine Studies Initiative
and the expansion of the faculty will spread over into
the different federally and state agencies that are here, and it will
help to better prepare us for the future.
I think the Marine Studies Initiative will continue
OSU's leadership in ocean sciences and marine related activities
and I think that we're gonna march right to the front
on the global scene solving societies challenges.
Some other key issues that
we're addressing
such as ocean acidification, such as sustainability of
natural resources, such as renewable energy,
coastal resilience. Those are issues that are going to be
critically important, already are critically important
around the world. So globally people should be very interested in what we're
doing here, it's not just an experiment. It's going to have a very large impact.