New Jersey is the first state in the country to make climate change a part of the public school curriculum. Rutgers University hosted a workshop Thursday to help educators integrate the topic across the curriculum. The workshop included hands-on and interactive sessions with other teachers. “These tools are designed to create an environment in innovation and new ideas, prepare our students to meet the reality of our shared climate challenges, and to develop the next generation of climate leaders,” said first lady Tammy Murphy. Sarah Ruppert, a fine arts teacher at Delaware Valley Regional High School in Hunterdon County, said her students are eager to know more. “I do see students taking on and feeling challenged by climate change, from just wondering how to help to wondering what evidence and where it comes from.” “We know that sea level rises in New Jersey twice as faster as other places across the nation. We know that 84% of kids want to learn about climate change education. … We know 89% of students have reported that they have stress anxiety from climate change and are thinking about it overtime,” said Edward Cohen, assistant director of the Center for Math, Science, Computer Education at Rutgers. Major funding for Peril and Promise is provided by Dr. P. Roy and Diana T. Vagelos with additional funding from The Marc Haas Foundation, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, and the Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family. Original article at NJ Spotlight News

As Chair of the Marine Technology Society New Jersey Student Section, PhD Candidate Joe Gradone recently hosted a research symposium at the Rutgers University Marine Field Station and Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve in Tuckerton, NJ. This symposium brought together over 25 undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty and staff from Rutgers University, Stockton University, Princeton University, and the New Jersey Institute of technology for a day of networking and student presentations.  Original article at MTS

The Federal States of Micronesia (FSM) is one of the most highly vulnerable Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Pacific. Climate hazards are projected to severely threaten FSM communities’ food security – primarily because of crop loss, degraded arable land, price/supply shocks, and forced migration of outlying communities. The project is a comprehensive national effort to focus on increasing the resilience of FSM’s most vulnerable communities to climate change-induced food insecurity. Planned measures include introducing sustainable agricultural practices and developing climate-resilient agriculture value chains. More information at Green Climate Fund

Following the Fall mission of RU23 by the MOO students along the Rutgers Endurance Line out of RUMFS, the students have successfully deployed, piloted, and recovered RU23 for a Spring mission. This allows for a seasonal comparison of the NJ shelf waters and served as vital experience of working with operational technologies as part of an ocean observing lab. These two deployments are the foundation of a new student-led sampling effort along this transect over subsequent cohorts of MOO students – an opportunity unique to the MSc. of Operational Oceanography program of Rutgers University. In line with this effort, MOO Program Advisor Alexander López has been selected to be in the 2023-24 cohort of the Provost’s Teaching Fellows. Chancellor-Provost Conway initiated the Teaching Fellows Program in 2021 to support faculty excellence and pedagogical innovation aimed at improving student learning outcomes through the adoption of new practices and redesigned courses. The program is a collaboration between the Chancellor Provost Office and the Office for Teaching Evaluation and Assessment Research (OTEAR). Moving forward, this exciting experiential learning opportunity and research effort will be incorporated into the fall curricula. The Endurance Line has been sampled for decades by COOL across various grants and projects, and now the MOO students will lead the effort across cohorts, monitoring the real-time seasonal dynamics and changes to the NJ shelf waters.

Afonso Ferreira is a marine biologist at MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre with an interest in marine phytoplankton ecology and phytoplankton variability and bloom phenology through satellite ocean color. A graduate from the University of Lisbon (Portugal), Afonso has participated in several research projects in the Portuguese coast, using remote sensing to provide relevant information for fisheries, water quality management, and aquaculture. Currently, he is a PhD candidate at the University of Lisbon and his research is based on time-series data of environmental parameters obtained from satellite remote sensing with the aim of disclosing links between climate-driven variability and marine phytoplankton in the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean regions.

Salvatore Fricano is helping plan for the first worldwide navigation of a new underwater ocean glider Salvatore Fricano grew up spending summers on the Jersey Shore, where the vastness of the ocean captivated his imagination. “I just saw the horizon with nothing on it and it looked like an adventure waiting to happen,” he says. “I was interested in exploring it more than anything.” Arriving at Rutgers, Fricano delved into the study of the ocean and its impact on the world during the second week of his first year. He had just finished his third “Introduction to Oceanography” class when he asked his professor, the late Gary Taghon, whether hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico affect temperatures in Western Europe. Impressed with the question, Taghon asked him to walk to the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences building, where Fricano met two technicians who were scheduled to set sail the next morning and recover one of Rutgers’ autonomous underwater ocean gliders, which collect observational data about the ocean and serve as a critical tool in the monitoring and forecasting of storms. Full article at Rutgers Today

Q&A on Recent Whale Strandings and Offshore Wind Energy Development   Are whale strandings increasing along the Jersey Shore? Recent whale strandings along New Jersey and New York continue a period of increased humpback whale mortalities along the U.S. East Coast that began in 20161,2. In April of 2017 it was declared an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) for humpback whales by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as defined by the Marine Mammal Protection Act1. Have there been similar strandings in the past and why? Three other UMEs for humpback whales have occurred since 2000. In 2003, there were 16 mortalities; in 2005, 7 occurred; and in 2006, 48 mortalities were recorded. The causes of these UMEs are still undetermined3. This most recent increase that has been occurring since 2016 is similar to that observed between 1985-19924. The similarities include a notable increase in frequency and sightings, an increase in the number of strandings (many in mid-winter when they are believed to be primarily in tropical regions), and the age of the whales at mortality (juveniles)1-11. What are potential causes of whale strandings? Many factors can contribute to the stranding of an individual whale. These include illness, vessel strikes, entanglement in discarded fishing gear, high-intensity, low-frequency acoustic surveys, and contributing factors such as climate variability, long-term climate change, and predator-prey interactions.6,8,10,12 The port of New York and New Jersey is now the busiest port in the U.S, with cargo handling capacity increasing by 5.7% since 2021 and surpassing the Port of Los Angeles last year.13 Vessel density and speed are highest in nearshore waters where it is believed the juvenile humpback whales are foraging at the surface.5,6,8,11,14 The majority (93%) of humpback whale mortalities in the New York Bight caused by vessel strikes were juveniles.11 Furthermore, vessel strikes have been identified as the culprit for half of the necropsied whales that have stranded since 2017 – that’s six times higher than the 16-year average of 1.5 whales3 – while necropsy (a type of autopsy) analyses for the other stranded whales are ongoing. Adult humpback whales, along with fin, minke, and north Atlantic right, forage farther offshore. In addition to changes in human activity across our region, the habitat of the whales and their prey changes rapidly. Characteristics of the ocean off our coast undergo remarkable variability across days and weeks to seasons, years, and decades.15 This intense ocean variability drives an equally variable ecosystem – from the primary producers (planktonic algae) to highly migratory fish and marine mammals. Tight coupling between ocean conditions and the habitat preference of local and migratory species can cause their distributions to vary significantly from season to season and year to year. Furthermore, our coastal waters are situated in one of the most rapidly warming regions in the world. Following the recent increasing trend of carbon dioxide emissions without additional policy changes and action, local ocean temperatures in the mid-Atlantic would increase by 3-4°C over the next 70 years16. Ocean warming has led to vulnerability among approximately half of the U.S. Northeast Shelf species17, and the dominant response of fish species to ocean warming has been to shift their distribution range poleward18-20. A primary food source of humpback whales, Atlantic menhaden have been increasing in biomass in the region since the 1980s21, and anecdotal observations suggest that their distributions have been shifting closer to shore and staying later into winter. We do not know why. Coincidentally, these nearshore areas are where juvenile humpbacks have been observed feeding at the surface5,6,8,11,14, potentially increasing susceptibility to vessel strikes or entanglement. Are the strandings related to the research and monitoring occurring because of New Jersey’s offshore wind energy development project? Ongoing planning and surveying activities conducted by offshore wind developers for the different projects include acoustic surveys for site evaluation. There have been recent claims that these acoustic surveying efforts have caused this recent uptick in whale strandings. At this point, there are no data or evidence linking whale mortalities to any one specific factor, including offshore wind development.10,12,22 Not all acoustic surveys are the same. Unlike the large acoustic arrays for oil and gas surveys or military sonar that use high-intensive low frequency acoustics, the wind acoustic surveys are of high frequency or lower intensity low frequency which are harder for baleen whales – including humpback whales – to hear.12,23 Notably, the recent strandings of humpbacks and other marine mammals have been occurring from Florida through Maine1, covering a large region with very different stressors. To properly assign cause to any stranding, all factors must be considered. Why is it important to determine the cause(s) of whale strandings and what research efforts are needed to address this issue? Most reports are too quick to assign the cause of whale strandings without much concern for data and scientific input. Now more than ever it is critical that we consider the evidence and the complexity of the entire system before drawing conclusions about the causes. Many factors, natural and human-caused, impact ecosystem health. Decisions, particularly those as paramount as calls to shut down the development of a climate-mitigating renewable energy, need to be based on scientific data and solid evidence and consider the entirety of factors contributing to observed or perceived impacts. At this point, there are no such data or evidence linking whale mortalities to any one specific factor including offshore wind development. We encourage the decision makers to consider all the changes occurring in and factors impacting the coastal ocean habitats utilized by these whales. In addition to ongoing baseline monitoring and planned offshore wind impact studies, it is imperative to bring together the marine mammal and broader oceanographic communities now to investigate and identify all potential drivers of this ongoing UME event before any blame can be directed toward a specific entity or activity. What must be considered when planning responsible development of offshore wind?  The need is clear to develop sustainable solutions to combat the single biggest threat to our ocean and the planet