Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation

Thiamine Deficiency Complex is an emerging health concern for California’s Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Low egg thiamine concentrations contribute to the condition being expressed in newly hatched fry leading to increased rates of early mortality. Increased rates of mortality in early life stages could further jeopardize already depleted populations of Chinook salmon in California’s river systems. In 2020, a study of egg thiamine concentrations at Coleman National Fish Hatchery and Livingston Stone Fish Hatchery revealed nearly 50% of the sampled populations contained egg thiamine concentrations below 5 nmol/g which is the egg thiamine concentration threshold for 95% fry viability. This study assesses egg thiamine concentrations from Chinook salmon sampled in the Klamath River Basin during their 2020 and 2021 annual spawning migrations. The study will also assess relationships between egg thiamine concentration and other variables including water temperature and distance of migration, and it will also evaluate relationships between egg diameter and egg thiamine concentration.

See the media created for this project here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/b49ec1acfdc9435dabeeca0c2606eda1

Climate change poses a threat not only to the environmental and physical aspects of the places where people live, but also to their identities and ways of living, as well as those of the communities around them. Conducted as part of the requirements of the Master of Advanced Studies in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), this capstone project consists of a climate vulnerability assessment of the La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site World Heritage Site in Puerto Rico, based on a literature review of existing scientific data. Its purpose is to inform a broader effort led by SIO’s Human Ecology Lab, which will complement this top-down approach with a bottom-up assessment of climate change threats to the area based on the perspectives of local stakeholders. This project includes two products: the full climate vulnerability assessment presented below and an online summary of its main findings with interactive maps, which can be found at https://arcg.is/1quumK. Ultimately, this project contributes to the ongoing development of a climate vulnerability assessment tool for cultural heritage that can be used independently by stakeholders to meaningfully assess the vulnerability of their own cultural heritage to climate change through a decentralized process that can inspire local climate action, inform decision-making at different levels, and be repeated consistently as the components of vulnerability change over time.  

Please see the media created for this project here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/79ebff9ddfd741d788141b1b10cb0b54

The health of fish stocks greatly depends on the largest individuals within a population due to their high fecundity and genetic value, which contribute to the overall resilience and adaptability of the population. However, large fish are a common oversight in data-limited management decisions. Because of this, size truncation, the removal of large fish from an exploited population, poses significant ecological and management implications. This research presents a comprehensive analysis of size truncation in three rockfish species in Southern California – grass rockfish (Sebastes rastrelliger), squarespot rockfish (S. hopkinsi), and speckled rockfish (S. ovalis). This study applied Convergent Cross Mapping (CCM), which is a powerful statistical methodology often used for detecting causality in complex, non-linear ecosystems. I used CCM to identify the non-linear factors driving the size of both large and small fish, and the relative strengths of each factor, for three commonly caught species in California. Using an extensive dataset spanning 2004-2022 from the California Recreational Fisheries Survey (CRFS), alongside environmental variables including Scripps Pier ocean bottom temperature and Biologically Effective Upwelling Transport Index (BEUTI), this research identifies key patterns and relationships affecting fish size. The results reveal the complexities between fishing pressure and environmental variables, revealing that these factors exert distinct influences across different species. Most notably, fishing effort emerged as a stronger driver of big fish size than small fish size, while the opposite was true for temperature. These findings can provide valuable insights into the intricate dynamics contributing to size truncation and fishery recruitment, with implications for sustainable fisheries management.

Peru is a megadiverse country and has one of the most productive seas in the world. Despite its potential richness as a site for extensive marine research, exploitative industries dominate its waters, with guano and anchoveta being some of the most lucrative and significant to the global market. To a foreign audience, Peru is not often thought of for the biodiversity of its oceans and coast, and sometimes, this is invisible to its own population. With increased threats from climate change and El Nino impacts, and less than 4% of its water with a protected status, it runs the risk of running its own resources dry. However, small and locally focused marine conservation projects have been researching the ocean, its species spanning over the past 40 years and working to develop a marine conservation ethic from the ground up in a place with extensive barriers to education and training, funding, and policy framework. This project took interviews with 20 leaders of these small projects and used qualitative analysis of their response to identify top challenges of funding, fishermen relationships, and a lack of educational training. Top needs were identified as the importance of staying in one place for site monitoring, improving collaborations with fishermen, and improving the livelihood of the communities in which they research. With these themes in mind, small steps are provided that could support their sustainability, recognition, and capacity.

The United Nations has declared 2021-2030 the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development; increasing ocean literacy is an integral part of the larger network of actions intended to address the numerous environmental crises the global ocean faces. Many aspects of Ocean science remain opaque to the public, including the world of planktonic organisms. The arts provide an expansive laboratory for communicating and interacting with scientific topics, including in modes that engage visual and kinesthetic learners. I designed an interactive art

installation and STEAM lesson plan for elementary students, with the intention of creating a somatic mode to engage with complex topics in biological oceanography. The topic was biological-physical interactions with plankton, with a focus on turbulence, based on the research of Scripps Institution of Oceanography Professor Peter Franks. Prototypes of the art installation “Plankterception” were exhibited at two events at the Birch Aquarium, where the public interacted with the work and engaged with the scientific material through conversations with me and accessing an informative website. The lesson plan was distributed to elementary school teachers in the San Diego Unified School District as a resource to celebrate World Oceans Day, using drawing and dance as a tool to think critically about plankton physiology.

See website created for this project here: https://www.plankterception.com/

The recent surge in interest for restoring kelp forests in California has created a confusing and crowded landscape to navigate. Additionally, most existing resources are in the form of formal reports or journal articles, both of which rely heavily on specific terminology and can be physically locked behind a paywall. It is therefore unreasonable to assume interested members of the public and policy makers can reliably access or understand the intricacies of the kelp restoration landscape. To address these gaps, this project develops a multimedia web-based resource that provides unique access to kelp restoration projects happening in California. Through photos, videos, audio and maps, users can interact with the StoryMap and learn directly from stakeholders and learn how they are using various methodologies to restore kelp in California.

See media created for this project here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/d35a011b5dd747b89d4d94d324e62693

LOCAL OCEAN is an uplifting documentary film that provides an insightful, earnest portrait of the struggles and value of seafood producers in the San Diego community, breaking down the "us vs. them” public perception surrounding commercial fishing.

More about this project can be viewed here: 

https://www.bizwallace.com/

Plastic pollution has penetrated every part of our earth and oceans with long lasting consequences that we are only beginning to understand and address. The environmental and health impacts are widespread, affecting our lives in ways we can no longer ignore. Raw plastic production is also contributing to our reliance on fossil fuels, which is contributing to climate change. This crisis requires systemic change from the source. Without wide-scale extender producer responsibility, the unregulated production combined with our consumer driven societies has allowed the waste of plastic products to burden the end user. However, our throw away culture is beginning to shift. Consumer awareness is trending towards sustainability and zero waste solutions. This momentum has led to an emerging solution-focused idea, circular economies. By designing products for reuse to put back into the production loop we can save materials, energy, and waste from polluting our environment.

This issue has become apparent in the restaurant industry with varying levels of effort to move away from single-use plastics. I noticed a gap with restaurants trying to navigate towards more sustainable practices and finding the best packaging alternatives that could serve them. My capstone helps close the loop by connecting these businesses with the resources they need to streamline their path to sustainability. The purpose of this project was to make circular economy foodware services and sustainable packaging product replacements more easily known and accessible. It was also created as a resource to help restaurants comply with local and state level laws and ordinances around packaging bans. I did this by creating a one-stop-shop website with an online directory of sustainable vendors, a how-to guidebook, and case study stories. Collaborating with Surfirder’s Ocean Friendly Restaurant program, this project is intended to support their restaurant network here in San Diego and nationwide. The goal was to make restaurant owners transition convenient, affordable, and more accessible in their move away from single-use plastics.

See media created for this project here: https://www.thecirculardirectory.site/ A Guide to Sustainable and Reusable Packaging Case Studies

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States led to significant growth in food insecurity throughout the country and revenue loss for its commercial fisheries. A Maine nonprofit called the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association (MCFA) started a seafood accessibility program, Fishermen Feed Mainers, to provide solutions to these problems by buying locally caught seafood and donating it to food insecure communities in the state. As a majority of the program’s funding comes from grants and donations, which can be unreliable, MCFA is considering value-added seafood products as a potential source of

revenue. This project identifies the market opportunities MCFA can capitalize on in order to create a profitable value-added fish product to help fund Fishermen Feeding Mainers. These opportunities informed two sets of business recommendations: Market and Product, and Supply Chain. The recommendations offer suggestions on ways MCFA can competitively market a value-added product, which value-added products to prioritize producing, and the supply chain partnerships they should take advantage of.

Elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) have been both culturally and socioeconomically significant in Baja California, Mexico, for over a century. Artisanal shark fisheries in Mexico account for approximately 40% of the national catch, and artisanal fisheries account for up to 80% of elasmobranch fishing activity in Mexican waters, according to data collected in 2011. Yet, there seems to be a behavioral change among artisanal shark fishermen for various reasons, resulting in a shift in shark conservation that needs to be explored. Collaboration between fishermen and local scientists is important when reimagining shark conservation among artisanal fisheries in Baja.

See project media here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/2201db1ddc06425b9c1f3e5d18af3f23