Media Advisory

TO:                    Assignment Editors and PSA Directors

FROM:                UAF Student Support Services Project

SUBJECT:           UAF Leads Nation in Marine Science Research
                              Public Invited to Hear Highlights

LOCATION:         Wood Center Conference Rooms C & D, UAF Campus

DATE & TIME:     Tuesday, Feb. 25, 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.

The Coastal Marine Institute (CMI) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, a partnership of the U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service, the state of Alaska and UAF's School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, will present a day-long series of free lectures highlighting investigations into potential impacts of offshore mineral resource development in Alaskan waters. MMS has the prime responsibility for environmental assessment in support of offshore oil leasing. Through CMI, expertise within UAF and Alaska state agencies is being focused to provide scientific information.

SFOS Dean Vera Alexander will open the Feb. 25 session at 9 a.m. in the Wood Center Conference Room. Presentation highlights include investigations of Steller sea lion whiskers and bone to compare Steller diets over a 45 year span, as well as research on why some fishes on the North Slope spawn in freshwater but go to sea often to feed, a behavior scientists call "amphidromy." By comparison, salmon only go to sea once during their lifetime to feed.

Other presentations include data comparisons from oceanographic instruments moored in the Chukchi Sea over the winters of 1993-94 and 1994-95, and discussion of a large sample of marine mammal tissues recently archived at the UA Museum of the North. Attached is a full agenda of the day's presentations.

FOR MORE INFORMATION contact: Research Associate Sue Hills, Institute of Marine Science, (907) 474-5106.

DPD/2-19-97/97-057med.adv