Continuing his impactful work in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (Y-K Delta), Associate Professor of Rhetoric Sean Gleason is working with Nalaquq, an Alaskan Native-owned organization working to preserve and protect ancestral lands, to implement a $289,579 grant to research climate change in Quinhagak, Alaska. The five-year partnership with the Alaskan Ocean Observation System aims to gather and communicate real-time marine data for the Yup’ik communities of Goodnews Bay, Quinhagak, Eek, and Kongiganak. After careful consultation with local Yupiit, Nalaquq will help install a SOFAR buoy network and deploy an additional 30 drifter buoys at locations where data can best be accessed by cellphones and handheld Garmin GPS units.
“We hope this project will assist Yupiit who rely on small marine vessels for daily travel throughout the Y-K Delta,” Gleason says. “Doing so will also allow first responders access to real-time data streams during rescue missions while providing meaningful data about ocean conditions near Yup’ik subsistence place names in open waters.”
Read more about the grant and the project here.