Water, besides being an incompressible 70% of my body, is an inescapably large part of my life. I grew up on the coast of Alaska, spent high school summers processing salmon, rowed for all four years of college, and worked for three summers as a kayak guide. Since moving to Seattle, I have been an interpretation volunteer at the Seattle Aquarium for more than two years, and have worked at The Center for Wooden Boats for nearly a year and a half.

Beginning with guiding, I became very interested in marine biology and ecology, and increasingly in climate change – not because green is the new black, or any such hyped media nonsense, but because the more I learn, the more I understand how it will affect the watery world of which I am so fond. My interest focuses specifically on the northern Pacific, where a continuity of habitat and species connects the Russian Far East with the Pacific Northwest and I have the language skills to fully access Russian scientific literature, as well as English-language publications.

I loved guiding because I was on the water in a place I loved, sharing how amazing everything was; every trip was a chance to see the area from a new perspective and pushed me to answer a new set of questions. As volunteer coordinator at a bustling non-profit, a portion of my time is still spent collecting information and forming it in an appropriate way to communicate to a thousand volunteers. Research and communication of information in a widely accessible way is the sort of work I would like to continue to do, but with a greater focus on marine resources.

I wish to study the marine environment of the northern Pacific as a resource drawn upon by many different groups – different countries, different groups within countries. The Pacific provides transport for industry, recreation for local users or visitors, food resources for native groups or for people in far-flung locations, who receive their salmon flash-frozen – and I have been directly or indirectly involved with nearly all of these ways, which will become increasingly historical as the oceanic cycles are disrupted by dead zones caused by algal blooms, over-fishing, by-catch and the unintended consequences of fish-farming depleting stocks, and acidification disrupting the livelihood of the ocean’s primary producers.

Marine resources have been an important part of my life and I want them to be there for future generations. To preserve marine resources, we need sensible policies. To write sensible policies, policy-makers need to be informed. To value and follow policy, the public needs to be informed. Information begins with scientists in the field, but does not always translate well from scientific journals to public knowledge, which gives rise to intermediary positions to translate and make science available and interesting to those who don’t know smelt from smolt, and don’t necessarily care, either.

I wish to gain broad understanding of the dynamics of the marine ecosystem and its interactions with various user groups, and then to use that understanding in public outreach and education, which could be either in the public or private sector, as a flack or as a science writer, or a job title which very clearly states “Outreach and Education Coordinator.” I believe this is a goal which can be best accomplished through the School of Marine Affairs.