Things happen in the near-shore ocean off Oregon that don’t happen everywhere else in the Eastern North Pacific, along the path of the California Current. Life abounds—as do challenges, some of them perennial and some of them specific to this moment in Earth’s history.

Join marine ecologist Kirsten Grorud-Colvert, PhD, for a wide-ranging talk about the sea beside us in a presentation titled “Into the Deep: Exploring Oregon’s Ocean” at the Seaside Public Library. It is the final program in the 2016 Listening to the Land speaker series, which this year has focused on the theme of water.Admission is free; refreshments are served.

Grorud-Colvert will begin by talking about some of the dynamism of our coast and certain features unique to our ocean. She’ll give us a look at our underwater reefs as she discusses upwelling and its role in the productivity of our ocean. She will address challenges such as sea star wasting syndrome and ocean hypoxia, or “dead zones.” And she’ll explore steps Oregon is taking—with marine reserves in particular—to conserve its ocean.

Kirsten Grorud-Colvert is on the faculty of Oregon State University, where she has studied marine systems and ocean organisms from the Florida Keys to the near-shore ocean off Oregon. She uses data from many different marine species and habitats to look at what happens when you protect an area in the ocean and what we can learn from these areas in order to design even better protection. She also directs the Science of Marine Reserves Project, a team of marine ecologists, graphic designers, communication specialists and marine reserve scientists around the globe developing effective ways to share scientific data about marine reserves with the general public.

Listening to the Land is an annual winter speaker series presented monthly by North Coast Land Conservancy and the Necanicum Watershed Council in partnership with the Seaside Public Library.