New scientists, more funding, big hopes

NEWPORT — Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Program has added two acclaimed scientists, a move that doubled its research money to $2.5 million, tripled its faculty and will expand its studies to every ocean in the world.

“It’s very exciting,” said Bruce Mate, director of the program and a pioneer in the use of satellite tracking technology to monitor whales.

“We’re on the grow,” he added. “Our goal is to be one of the top-ranked groups doing marine mammal work in the future, if not the top ranked. … We have some ambitious plans.”

Those include attracting more donations, hiring more top-notch scientists and turning the program into an institute, which would provide more visibility, said Stella Coakley, associate dean in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

The change to an institute would go through university groups for comment and review but ultimately be decided by the Research Office and the Office of the Provost, Coakley said.

“We’re in the draft stage. The process is being initiated,” she added.

The institute would study marine mammal conservation and include faculty and students from developing countries where conservation issues haven’t been fully addressed.

The two new scientists — Mate was the only regular and research faculty member previously — are Markus Horning, known for his research on seals and sea lions, and Scott Baker, a whale, porpoise and dolphin geneticist who is now the associate director of the program.

“We’ve called ourselves a marine mammal program. Now we really do have the across-the-board expertise that covers about 80 percent of the marine mammals out there,” Mate said.

Both scientists will be based at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, where they will employ research assistants and train graduate students during their projects.

Horning, who was previously at Texas A & M, brought along more than

$1 million in grants, Mate said.

Baker worked at the University of Auckland in New Zealand for the past 13 years, so he didn’t have the same ability to transfer funding, Mate added.

Horning said he decided to switch to OSU because of the population of seals and sea lions in the Pacific, but also because of funding.

OSU’s Marine Mammal Program has a $7 million endowment, and that will pay for 50 percent of his salary. “My previous position was soft money, dependent on grants and contracts. Having to dig up only 50 percent is a huge improvement,” he said.

The research of the Marine Mammal Program is paid for almost exclusively with federal grants or private donations.

“The total state investment in that is, oh, about 2 percent,” Mate said. “There are other programs at OSU that run on soft money. We aren’t unique in that regard.”

Mate thinks there is a much wider audience of donors, partly because of marine mammals’ relatedness to humans, despite their mysterious lives in a vastly different environment.

“The animals are the human equivalent in the ocean, so when they encounter problems making ends meet, we have to ask ourselves what that problem means for us. … They are kind of the canary in the coal mine,” Mate said.

Baker gained international attention in 1994 with the first molecular monitoring of whale meat markets in Japan, which showed protected species of whales were being exploited.

His investigation spurred the development of a new Web-based molecular taxonomy program, which led to the discovery of a new species of beaked whales.

That was the first mammal species recognized primarily from genetic characteristics and the first new species of cetacean identified in 15 years.

Horning will continue to investigate the cause of the decline of Steller sea lions in Alaska.

He hopes to expand those monitoring activities to Washington, Oregon and maybe even California.

Horning also will study seals in the Antarctic and hopes to start up several new projects.

“It’s fantastic to be here,” he said.

Seventeen people work in the Marine Mammal Program, including graduate students, research assistants and office staff.

Kyle Odegard can be reached at kyle.odegard@lee.net or 758-9523.