GulfWatch Alaska: Ecological Trends in Kachemak Bay was produced by Lauren Bell and entered in the 2014 AOOS Short Film Contest. The film highlights the annual field efforts in one location involved in GulfWatch Alaska, a comprehensive long-term ecosystem monitoring program across the Gulf of Alaska created in teh wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Lauren Bell is a master’s student in marine biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her research attempts to trace who-eats-who-eats-what in marine ecosystems around Alaska, so that we can predict how energy flow through marine food webs may be altered with a changing climate. Lauren was born and raised in Homer, received her B.S. in marine biology from Stanford University, and now lives in Sitka, where she is attempting to finish writing her thesis in between kayak trips, scuba dives, and explorations of the rainforest.
See the full list of contest films.