PORT ANGELES — Community members can learn about debris from Japan’s 2011 tsunami that is traveling across the Pacific Ocean to lodge on regional coasts when two experts talk at Peninsula College’s first Studium Generale program of the spring quarter Thursday.
The free program will begin at 12:35 p.m. in the Little Theater at the college campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., in Port Angeles.
Ian Miller, Washington Sea Grant coastal hazards specialist, and Steve Fradkin, coastal ecologist with Olympic National Park will present “Washing Ashore on Our Wild Coast.”
Miller — who is based both at the college and University of Washington facilities in the region — works with commercial and recreational fishermen, tribes, marine industries, port districts, federal and state resource agencies and local elected officials to help coastal communities address and mitigate such hazards as sea level rise and tsunamis and to help develop long-term environmental plans.
Fradkin led the research team that examined the Japanese dock that washed ashore in December on a beach north of the Hoh River.
The team included Allen Pleus, the aquatic invasive species coordinator for the state Department of Fish & Wildlife, as well as Oregon State University scientists and additional National Park Service and fish and wildlife personnel.
The team sampled the species on the dock and identified 29 known to occur in Japan as well as two pelagic species.
The invasive species were later removed and the dock has been dismantled.
Miller completed his undergraduate studies at Western Washington University and lived in Port Angeles for 10 years before starting his doctoral program in ocean sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Before joining Washington Sea Grant, Miller served as the education director of Olympic Park Institute and as Washington field coordinator for the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation.
Fradkin completed his undergraduate studies at Michigan State University, where he also earned a master’s degree.
He received his doctorate from Dartmouth College, followed by post-doctorate research at the University of Oregon, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology.
He has been a coastal ecologist with the park since 2000.
For information on other upcoming events during the spring quarter, see www.pencol.edu or go to www.facebook.com/PeninsulaCollege.