Photograph of Gilbert Klingel (left) and Reginald Truitt (right). Truitt is standing in the Bentharium hatch.

Scientists underwater: Reginald Truitt, Gilbert Klingel, the Bentharium and the Aquascope

Bill Dennison ·
13 March 2015
Science Communication |     1 comments

Celebrating 90 years of UMCES series … As I was looking through the newspaper clippings and photographs of Reginald V. Truitt, founder and first director of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, I was intrigued by a photograph of Truitt standing in a metal hatch protruding from the water and shaking hands with another gentleman. On the back of this photograph, the following words were inscribed "R.V. Truitt & Gilbert Klingel" and "Developers of the Bentharium" along with the year "1935".

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Participants at the Mackay report card design workshop, 24 February. credit: Simone Richards

Mackay Report Card Workshop – Mackay, Queensland Australia 24 February 2015.

Heath Kelsey ·
9 March 2015
Environmental Report Cards | 

As a follow-on from the Gladstone Harbor Report Card, which IAN helped design last year, I had the chance to help Queensland Environment and Heritage Protection (EHP) develop a draft report card for the next region, in Mackay. I attended the workshop in Mackay on February 24, to facilitate the discussion about report cards, discuss issues related to report card development, and help sketch out the draft report card in a storyboard exercise.

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The Orinco River Basin. Credit: WWF

Our first report card in South America – The Orinoco River Basin, Colombia

Simon Costanzo ·
6 March 2015
Environmental Report Cards | 

This February, I headed further south in America than I have ever before…..to Colombia in South America (still in the northern hemisphere though at 3o N). This trip was on invitation from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Washington D.C. with the aim to set up a report card for three tributaries of the Orinoco River within Colombia - The Meta, Bita and Guaviare Rivers.

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60 Minutes’ correspondent Bob Simon. Credit: Jim Spellman/WireImage

Remembering Bob Simon: A class act

Bill Dennison ·
27 February 2015
Science Communication | 

Bob Simon's untimely death is a cause for sadness. I had the good fortune of spending some time with him when I was living in Australia and Bob was there to film a story on the Great Barrier Reef. I know the exact day I met Bob Simon: 10 April 1999. The reason I remember this day so well was that my second child, Laura, was born at 2:30 am on 10 April.

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The Elizabeth River Project’s Floating Classroom. Credit: Elizabeth River Project

Kick-starting Collective Impact in Five Easy Report Card Steps

Heath Kelsey ·
23 February 2015
Environmental Report Cards | Science Communication | 

This is the first of two posts about the application of report cards to enable a collective impact process. The collective impact model facilitates positive change … Collective Impact is a term used to refer to collaborative projects that create “needle-moving” changes to complex and intransigent problems. I ran across the term for the first time a few days ago, and it resonated strongly with me.

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Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife field headquarters.

Talking about moose and climate change in snowy Massachusetts

Bill Dennison ·
16 February 2015
Science Communication | Applying Science | 

Brianne Walsh and I traveled to Westborough, Massachusetts for a scientific synthesis workshop on climate change and moose in the North Woods of Northeastern U.S. The workshop was located at an amazing new facility which serves as the field headquarters for MassWildlife (Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife). This building was opened last autumn and is a zero-net-energy building which includes an artificial trout stream stocked with brook trout in the atrium.

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Map of Australia showing the major climate regions - the Northern Territory is the northern region in the middle of the map. Credit: http://www.metvis.com.au/gallery/index.html (location labels added)

Environmental Literacy for the tropical Northern Territory, Australia

Heath Kelsey ·
12 February 2015
Environmental Literacy | 

As part of our ongoing project with Charles Darwin University to synthesize the research on the flood plains of Kakadu National Park, we review the fundamentals of the environment and characteristics of the region, specifically the coastal tropical areas in the northern part of the territory. The Northern Territory is the third largest state or territory in the country with about 17.5% (1.3 million km2) of the land area.

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The W. J. DeFelice Marine Center makes a striking appearance on the horizon, seen from Little Caillou road.

Does rising sea level signal the end for LUMCON, or a beginning?

Bill Nuttle ·
4 February 2015
Environmental Report Cards | 

On December 10, I traveled to Cocodrie, Louisiana, to visit Dr. Nancy Rabalais. Nancy is the Director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), and she has done more than anyone else to draw attention to hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. Nutrients in runoff from the Mississippi watershed trigger low-oxygen conditions in the shallow coastal waters of the Gulf, just as they do in many estuaries around the world including the Chesapeake Bay.

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