May 14, 2024, by Lisa Teas Conaway

Greg Jensen, Ph.D. experienced Sitka Sound Science Center from our education staff perspective for the last week. Roaming the beaches at low tide with Kindergarteners and First Graders, he helped students identify creatures and practice both scientific surveys and beach ethics. Dr. Jensen enriched our programs with his own deep understandings of subtidal life in the Northeast Pacific Ocean and surprised all of us with an introduction to a small mysid (a shrimp-like crustacean) named Mysidopsis jenseni.  Students and educators alike were inspired by the idea of finding a previously undescribed species.

Dr. Jensen, our last visiting Scientist in the Schools (SIS) for this school year joined us from Bremerton, WA where he runs the Capstone program for Senior research projects at the University of Washington. Dr. Jensen is also an accomplished author with several books documenting intertidal and subtidal life and has his own publishing company Mola Marine where you can find his full list of titles both authored by him and published by his company, including some free downloadable e-books.

While in Sitka Dr. Jensen had the opportunity to visit with several local naturalists and fellow nature enthusiasts including Matt Goff who interviewed him for his weekly nature show airing on KCAW. Dr. Jensen’s interview is scheduled for an upcoming episode and will be archived afterwards at SitkaNature.org. Mr. Goff and Dr. Jensen spoke on his research and book detailing crabs and shrimp of the Pacific coast, though they have many common interests including nature photography. Most of the photos included in Dr. Jensen’s books are his originals. He loves taking his camera with him whenever he dives searching for shrimp and nudibranch along the sea floor and while on dryland he searches for insects and birds. Dr. Jensen smiles while explaining, “I like the challenge of it, getting a good shot.”

Sitka was full of firsts for Dr. Jensen, from working with young students to attending a community Salmon Release Party, and of course visiting both SSSC and Sitka in general. Dr. Jensen expressed admiration for our SIS program and a desire to plan a return trip someday with diving included in the itinerary. SSSC is grateful for Dr. Jensen’s generous sharing of knowledge and time.

SIS brings scientists from across the nation to Sitka throughout the school year to assist with programing and interact with students of all ages. The SIS program is award winning and has been running for over two decades, it was developed in partnership with University of Alaska Southeast. SIS is made possible through generous support from Royal Caribbean Group and Alaska Travel Industry Association Foundation, and more recently by the Karsh Family Foundation in the creation of a fund that supports SSSC’s science education to honor Lisa Busch.