News Archives

Researchers from Oregon State University, Arizona State University, and Rhode Island's Atlantic Shark Institute caught 10 pregnant porbeagle sharks and tagged them to tack their habitat (Courtesy Dr. James Sulikowski, OSU)

A team of scientists from Arizona, Oregon and Rhode Island had been tracking a pregnant, porbeagle shark for hundreds of miles from New England to Bermuda when it was killed.

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Salmon Shark

“Historically they were called salmon sharks because they were seen at the river mouths up in Alaska eating salmon," Alexandra McInturf, a researcher with Oregon State University, said.


Broadnose Sevengill Shark

Oregon State University researchers have made the first scientific confirmation in Puget Sound of two distinct shark species, one of them critically endangered.


This graphic shows the path of a basking shark from the time it was tagged, then struck by a vessel and then where it was when the tag released. Image courtesy Big Fish Lab, Oregon State University.

Hours after tagging an endangered basking shark off the coast of Ireland in April, researchers captured what they believe is the first ever video of a shark or any large marine animal being struck by a boat.


Lisa Ballance

President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Lisa T. Ballance to serve as a key leader in his administration. Lisa T. Ballance is the nominee to be Chair and Member of the Marine Mammal Commission.


Big Fish Lab working with a shark on a boat

A team made up of researchers from Oregon State, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and NOAA are scanning the waters of South Puget Sound trying to uncover the mysteries of these newly discovered species in our waters.


Two PCFG gray whales.

Gray whales that spend their summers feeding in the shallow waters off the Pacific Northwest coast have undergone a significant decline in body length since around the year 2000, a new Oregon State University study found.


Roberto Ponce Velez

Roberto Ponce Velez, an OSU junior in Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences has been named a 2024 Udall Scholar in the Environment category.


Marbled murrelet, photo by Brett Lovelace

Researchers developed a machine learning algorithm known as a convolutional neural network to mine the recordings for murrelet calls.


Hatfield Marine Science Day

Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport will host its annual science fair and open house from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 13.


Researcher Sara Hutton, a doctoral graduate of OSU, extracts RNA for qPCR to test gene expression of genes effected by pyrethroid exposure in the different generations of inland silverside fish. (Credit: Sara Hutton / Oregon State University)

Although pesticides can rid your home of cockroaches or farm fields of unwanted insects, they also can harm fish and potentially even people, according to a new study from Oregon State University.


This undated photo provided by the Hawaii Wildlife Fund shows microplastics at the beach at Kamilo Point in Naalehu, Hawaii. (Megan Lamson, Hawaii Wildlife Fund via AP)

American drinking water has some of the highest concentrations of microscopic plastic waste of anywhere in the world, a group of environmental experts told the Senate.


Collecting juvenile Pacific cod. Image courtesy of Ben Laurel, NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

Marine heat waves appear to trigger earlier reproduction, high mortality in early life stages and fewer surviving juvenile Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska, a new study from Oregon State University shows.


The ocean is a pretty loud place, and anthropogenic noise is adding another layer to the soundscape.


Faces: Fang-Yu Shen art

Rachael Orben, an assistant professor and researcher at Oregon State University, has been leading efforts to document what puffins eat by taking high quality photographs of the seabirds as they land at burrows on Haystack Rock.


A blue whale surfaces in New Zealand's South Taranaki Bight. Photo credit: Dawn Barlow.

Blue whales - the largest animals on Earth - are making their home in a part of the Indian Ocean where they were wiped out by whaling decades ago.


Oregon State University-Cascades will host a science pub talk Nov. 14 on sharks and research at the Chapple Big Fish Lab at the university's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport.


Whale bones

Commercial whaling in the 20th century decimated populations of large whales but also appears to have had a lasting impact on the genetic diversity of today’s surviving whales, new research from Oregon State University shows.


Taylor Chapple holding a shark

Oregon State University’s Science Pub event return in October to Corvallis focused on the secret lives of sharks. The talk will take place at 6 p.m. Oct. 4 at the Old World Deli. It can be attended in person or viewed online and is free.


Desert Bighorn Sheep

Marie Tosa explores the intricate relationship between social behavior, disease transmission, and survival rules among bighorn sheep.


James Suilikowski and team realing in a baby shark

Scientists are helping bring back shark populations that were overfished in the 1980s and studying baby sharks in an effort to better understand how better to share the oceans. NBC’s Anne Thompson reports for TODAY.


Studying what the whales eat, and what they poop, shows just how ubiquitous microparticle pollution has become.


Trub, a leftover of the brewing process, could be key to scientists’ quest to develop a cheap, effective artificial scent guide for hatchery-raised salmon. Holmes Garden Photos / Alamy Stock Photo

In Oregon, researchers hope a surprising aroma will lure stray salmon back to their home hatcheries.


Waves roll in at Gold Beach on the Oregon coast. Photo by Tiffany Woods, Oregon Sea Grant.

Oregon State University researchers are now visiting nearly two dozen coastal sites to find out what visitors know about Oregon’s Marine Reserves and whether their visits will help foster change in habits to curb climate change.


American dog tick (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

From cleaning up your yard to wearing light-colored clothes, there are things you can do to protect yourself from ticks.


Susanne Brander Headshot - woman with short red hair.

How do emerging pollutants such as microplastics and pesticides affect aquatic ecosystems? Ecotoxicologist Susanne M. Brander joins the podcast today to discuss her work on this poignant topic of research…


2023 Frances Dancy Hooks Award: Dana Sanchez with Maria Chávez-Haroldson

Congratulations to Dr. Dana Sanchez for receiving the 2023 Frances Dancy Hooks Award!


OSU researcher Charles Nye performs a serial dilution on the killer whale DNA taken from the crab pot line it was ensnared in (left); the carcass of the killer whale off the Oregon Coast, outside of Bandon in the summer of 2022.

Earlier this year, KLCC reported on a killer whale carcass spotted off the Oregon Coast. While the carcass was never recovered, an Oregon State University researcher has made some determinations from its genetic residue.


Oregon Gray Whales. GEMM Lab, Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, individuwhale.com

You may have seen some gray whales off the Oregon coast, but how familiar are you with them, really?


Researchers can monitor whales more effectively with the new RDW tag developed by Oregon State University.


Sara Hutton, a third-year doctoral candidate at Oregon State University, uses a microscope to look at fish embryos that have been exposed to microplastics. (Karl Maasdam/InvestigateWest)

Plastic doesn’t decompose but degrades into smaller pieces that will remain in the environment for thousands of years


lamprey

Jordan Ortega caught the six brown trout as an Oregon State University graduate student who's part of a team working to get lamprey back into Miller Lake.


plastic bottles smashed for recyling (Photo Credit: Lisa Risager/flickr)

In March, the global community agreed to establish a legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution. To deliver on this goal, the treaty needs to cover all issues of plastics chemicals as an inseparable part of the problem.


Manta ray in the water

Scientists have identified off the coast of Ecuador a distinct population of oceanic manta rays that is more than 10 times larger than any other known subpopulation of the species.


Building on fire. Smoke in the air.

Lisa Ellsworth, served as an adviser on the film project. Ellsworth, a range ecologist, studies the long-term consequences of fire in forests and the sagebrush country of central and eastern Oregon.   


Steelhead

The number of trout in a southern Oregon stream system showed no decline one year after a fire burned almost the entire watershed, including riparian zone trees that had helped maintain optimal stream temperatures for the cold-water fish.


A tagged fin whale. Photo courtesy Ladd Irvine, Marine Mammal Institute.

Oregon State University researchers have developed a new satellite tag that allows them to better track whales’ behavior, including previously unobservable feeding events during dives.


Aleutian Tern in Kodiak, Alaska. Photo: Lisa Hupp/USFWS

U.S. populations of the seabird have crashed in the past half century. Researchers hope an upcoming series of surveys will reveal how dire the situation is—and if the bird should be considered endangered.


Susanne Brander Headshot - woman with short red hair.

Groundbreaking microplastics research is underway at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, located in Newport on the Oregon Coast.