A year in the life of a Knauss fellow
Contributor: Aubrey Jane, University of New England graduate supported by Maine Sea Grant and current Knauss Fellow
The first eight months of my time as a Maine Sea Grant Knauss Fellow with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) have been eventful. I’ve developed skills in the social sciences, explored the nexus of fisheries and offshore wind, grown into roles as a meeting facilitator and strategic planner, and traveled far and wide for all kinds of rewarding professional development experiences. During these last 8 months, I’ve also been able to spend considerable time in Maine, maximizing my participation in local New England events and public meetings.
The fellowship has given me time to think about some of the most pressing issues in the Gulf of Maine and beyond. I’ve had to confront my own views on the development of ocean energy infrastructure. As someone who studied lobsters for her graduate degree, I found myself constantly questioned about offshore wind. I’ve now spent countless hours reading hundreds of public comments on offshore wind development, analyzing and summarizing criticisms of BOEM’s processes. I’ve spent time in the discomfort of being new at things (e.g., organizing a strategic planning retreat for a BOEM modeling initiative). With all of the projects I’ve had my tentacles in, I have learned so much, and now envision my career path quite differently than how I did a year ago before starting the fellowship.
I have a lot more I’m grateful for too, like the chance to travel to Hawaii to present an analysis of public comments on fisheries-offshore wind interactions. I made so many connections at the American Fisheries Society meeting in Honolulu, learned to hula with some of my coworkers at the meeting’s grand networking luau, and swam with Galapagos sharks in my down time. Presenting at this meeting was invaluable as I was able to connect with folks from each of the regions I analyzed and confirmed with them that the comments fully embodied the feelings of the fishing communities in each region.
A Hawaiian adventure: (left) presenting “Regional profiles of offshore wind-fisheries concerns in the Pacific” with BOEM colleagues, (middle) a shark I swam with on the North shore of Oahu, (right) the grand networking luau at the Hawaii Convention Center.
The fellowship has also supported presentations of my graduate research. I was able to travel to South Carolina for the annual Benthic Ecology Meeting with some of my colleagues from Bigelow Laboratories for Ocean Sciences and present on the nuances of rearing larval lobsters. Of course, with any conference there are always valuable networking opportunities. The cherry on top of this conference was that this was my last time presenting this research before both of the papers that came out of it were published (one in the Journal of Crustacean Biology, one in PlosOne).
Mainers take on South Carolina: (left) embracing my inner ‘male professor in cargo pants at a conference’, (middle) indulging in as much southern seafood as possible, (right) a pre-flight birding trip to the swamp.
Speaking of Bigelow… I’ve also had the opportunity to engage in informational interviews with folks throughout the federal government, including Dr. Rick Spinrad, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Dr. Spinrad and I connected over having worked at Bigelow. It was a joy to hear what Bigelow was like back when it was first established in 1974 – much different from what it’s grown into these days.
Getting the full D.C. experience: (left) presenting at the National Museum of Natural History, (middle) visiting the library of congress, (right) corpse flowers in bloom at the National Botanic Gardens.
I’ve made frequent visits to DC, all of which treated me very well. I presented “From little lobsters to lunch” at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History’s Sant Ocean Hall as part of their Expert Is In program. This week, I’m going down to get a tour of the Pentagon and visit NOAA’s ocean exploration office. I have a lot more to look forward to as well. At the end of October, I’ll be at sea for three weeks on a NOAA research cruise. The other BOEM fellows and I are also planning a visit to the Gulf of Mexico office, and we’re aiming to get flown out to an oil rig to see it in person. In addition to all of that, I have quite a lot of writing to do to get some of my work published, so I’m going to end this blog post here and get back to that now!
Posted 14 November 2024