Title: Aleutian Life Forum
Title:
Aleutian Life Forum
Composition:
The Aleutian Life Forum is an annual research conference whose mission is to ‘celebrate and encourage the understanding of the diversity of life in the Aleutians.’
The first ALF was held in August of 2005, with the goal of establishing the lessons learned from the Selendang Ayu oil spill. Over four days, 33 speakers for Alaska, Washington, Canada, Mississippi, and California discussed their role in the Selendang Ayu oil spill and the lessons that were learned in this response. The community was encouraged to attend and participate in question/ answer periods and round table discussions. In all, we had approximately 70 registered attendees with many more walk-ins.
The second ALF was held in August of 2006, with the goal of establishing and implementing a community-based coastal monitoring program. This forum brought together representatives of several monitoring programs from Alaska, Washington and California, with representatives of local native communities and organizations to determine a protocol to establish coastal community monitoring to observe long-term changes in the ecosystem. Over the three day meeting, 50 participants attended meetings, workshops and practicals, to determine the best possible way to monitor our coastlines.
Dates:
August 17-20, 2005 and August 10-12, 2006
Audience:
The attendance at the two Aleutian Life Forums has been incredible with approximately 50 participants at each that have come from all over the state of Alaska and the Pacific coast. Community involvement has grown from the first year to the second with locals offering historical input to visiting researchers combining knowledge and culture.
Effect:
In the past two years, the Aleutian Life Forum has enjoyed a wonderful success. This conference has been an effort to bridge the gap between researchers/ fisheries managers/ educators and local community members. The forum has offered locals a level playing field to have their interest and opinions heard by those instigating policy and programming. The large attendance of community members at talks and round-table discussions is encouraging to the future of this project.
Products:
In addition to web, TV, radio and newspaper coverage, the Aleutian Life Forum is producing a well informed and respected group of community members. The proceedings from the first ALF is in print and has been distributed throughout Alaska and the second proceedings is in the works.
Sea Grant tenants addressed:
Education, Outreach, Research
Speaker list for 2005 Aleutian Life Forum: ALF speakers 2005
Speaker list for 2006 Aleutian Life Forum: ALF speakers 2006
Information on ALF 2005: Lessons learned from the Selenday Ayu oil spill:
ALF 2005
Information on ALF 2006: Coastal community monitoring in Alaska:
ALF 2006
Proceedings from ALF 2005 avail at: seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/pubs/AK-SG-06-02.html