Fellowship spotlight: Jake Cohen

Jake Cohen is an Alaska Sea Grant State Fellow working with the Kodiak Area Native Association (KANA) to support tribal ocean acidification (OA) monitoring programs on Kodiak Island. Since 2019, four communities on Kodiak Island have participated in a statewide community sampling program for ocean acidification, a tribal-led effort to understand how OA is impacting coastal waters crucial to subsistence harvest. On the heels of funding and pandemic setbacks, Cohen’s fellowship is focused on creating a lasting plan for the OA monitoring program to address tribal interests.

During his fellowship, Cohen has traveled around the state to speak with researchers and learn from the successes of peer communities. In the coming months, he will meet with tribal samplers to share data, discuss the future of the OA sampling program, and provide training on sampling procedure. He will also work to build partnerships between Kodiak tribes and other researchers and organizations that collect data on ocean acidification and other stressors to important subsistence resources, expanding the information available for tribal climate adaptation planning.

Cohen is presenting the findings from his year with KANA at several conferences, including the Kodiak Area Marine Science Symposium, and the Arctic Congress in Norway. He has also participated in an array of fieldwork ranging from a fin whale necropsy to a 12-day cruise around Kodiak sampling for Alexandrium cysts.

“The fellowship has been a great opportunity to apply my skills from grad school to issues facing communities in our state,” said Cohen. “It has also introduced me to a network of people focused on conducting research and implementing plans to adapt to the changes in our marine environment.”

Before beginning his fellowship, Cohen obtained a master’s degree in oceanography from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, conducting research in the Northern Gulf of Alaska focused on community structure of marine microbes. He hopes to use the skills and connections made during the fellowship to work at the intersection of oceanographic research and community climate adaptation in Alaska.