Speaker:  Nancy Steinberg, Science Communicator Research Publishing & Outreach, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, OSU

Topic: The Newport Hydrographic Line: Sixty years of learning from an imaginary line in Oregon’s ocean

The Newport Hydrographic Line is a series of oceanographic sampling stations located along latitude 44.65°N extending 200 nautical miles from shore. Wayne Burt, founder of Oregon State University’s oceanography program, developed the idea for the Newport Line and implemented a monitoring program along the line run by faculty in the fledgling department. With some gaps, standard sampling has been conducted at stations along the line for the intervening sixty years. For nearly 25 years, biweekly hydrographic sampling along the Newport Line has been carried out by NOAA and Cooperative Institute for Marine Resource Studies (CIMRS) personnel based at the Hatfield Marine Science Center. This talk will present a history of the Newport Hydrographic Line, describe the regular and intermittent sampling programs that have been conducted along its length, and profile some of the key people who have kept it going. I will also discuss the evolution of technologies used for monitoring and some of big-picture scientific discoveries made using Newport Line data.