T3 students explore mariculture in Cordova and Valdez
T3 Alaska students, staff and supporters pose for a photo during a recent visit to the City of Valdez City Council Chambers.
August 20, 2024
Eight Teaching Through Technologies ocean science summer program students had a precious experience in mariculture and blue economy during a week-long visit to Cordova and Valdez, Alaska, in July.
While in Cordova, the students learned about mariculture and salmon fisheries from Tommy Sheridan, ACEP-ARCTIC Cordova coordinator and the lead for the Alaska Blue Economy Center. They then toured the Native Village of Eyak’s kelp farm in nearby Sheep Bay and the Prince William Sound Science Center, engaged with the Copper River Watershed Project and its work on Eyak Lake and the Copper River Delta. They also enjoyed some of Sheridan’s “world famous” kelp pickle soup.
“My biggest takeaway is that mariculture is really important,” said Johnathan Free, a North Pole High School student who participated in the T3 summer program. “I learned that mariculture provides food and environmental benefits like kelp de-acidifying the ocean. I’d like to keep learning more about mariculture to help protect the ocean.”
The students also learned about Cordova Electric Cooperative’s work from its CEO Clay Koplin, including the recent construction of an edge data center at one of the cooperative’s hydroelectric facilities. Edge data centers are small, decentralized facilities that offer computing and storage services closer to where data is generated and consumed. The edge data center CEC is building with Greensparc, a data service company, will be powered by excess hydropower capacity.
Koplin and others believe that the introduction of this cutting-edge digital infrastructure to Cordova offers the community and its stakeholders a unique opportunity to explore how artificial intelligence, or AI, could revolutionize the local blue economy, while providing students with valuable workforce development through AI-related training made possible by these investments.
The group’s educational and experiential journey continued to Valdez. They went on tours of Valdez Fisheries Development Association’s cold storage and fisheries incubator facilities and its Solomon Gulch Hatchery for salmon, led by Amanda Glazier of Prince William Sound College.
The students worked with staff from the Prince William Sound Regional Citizen’s Advisory Council on local environmental sampling and monitoring and enjoyed a daylong kayak adventure in Port Valdez and Prince William Sound.
To sum up the week full of activities, the students, staff and supporters presented to the City Council of Valdez, which has generously funded the establishment of a T3 site at Valdez High School. Valdez T3 students will engage in mariculture curriculum through T3’s mariculture club for additional education workforce development in the field.
“I learned how mariculture jobs are on high demand, because of the increase in kelp farming and the need for ocean preservation,” reflected Eldridge Gumbs, a T3 participant from North Pole High School. “With this, I’m really considering going into a mariculture job as a possibility after high school.”
The communities of Cordova and Valdez are linked in many ways, including shared interests as they relate to innovations in energy development and mariculture. University partnerships such as ACEP-ARCTIC help develop those interests to the benefit of both communities, their region and the state as a whole. T3 students had a chance to be part of this effort.
The Cordova-Valdez visit was led by Brian Reggiani, the T3 Alaska student engagement lead.
The ARCTIC program, short for the Alaska Regional Collaboration for Technology Innovation and Commercialization program, is an Office of Naval Research initiative, designed to promote commerce and partnerships between Alaska and the Arctic and Pacific regions through advancements in energy through resiliency research, technology development and deployment and education.