Featured Work
In August 2024, I became NOAA Fisheries first Science Communications Specialist focused on Pacific salmon. I created a robust communications strategy that spanned dozens of projects across the West Coast, and included written features, data visualizations, events, social media, video and audio products.
My position was eliminated early in the Trump administration, and much of my work was left unpublished after the election. Below, I include one such unpublished article, as well as news coverage of my termination, which occurred alongside the firings of more than 24,000 other federal workers.
‘This caught everybody off guard,’ fired Santa Cruz NOAA employee says
When Jerimiah Oetting heard that his name was on a list of probationary employees who could be laid off as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal workforce, he began downloading the files and documents he would need off his computer.
A science communications specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Oetting, 36, had been working at NOAA Fisheries’ Santa Cruz laboratory at UC Santa Cruz’s Coastal Sciences campus since August 2024 after spending...
A science communications specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Oetting, 36, had been working at NOAA Fisheries’ Santa Cruz laboratory at UC Santa Cruz’s Coastal Sciences campus since August 2024 after spending...
‘I’m Heartbroken’: California Scientists Left Adrift by Mass Federal Layoffs at NOAA | KQED
Welch said their work flowed into each other. The physical scientist developed forecasts and ocean models for changing ocean temperatures. Welch applied that data, relating it to animals, and turned it into tools for fisheries managers. Koller summarized the work and presented it to the general public.
Koller was fired after only four months of service. It took him about a year to land the job.
“I was terminated from my position at the exact same time that the training wheels were coming off,” s...
Koller was fired after only four months of service. It took him about a year to land the job.
“I was terminated from my position at the exact same time that the training wheels were coming off,” s...
Brendan Lehman
![]()
$9.2 Million in Inflation Reduction Act Funds Awarded to Academic Partners for Pacific Salmon Recovery Science
NOAA Fisheries awarded more than $9.2 million in grants funded by the Inflation Reduction Act to academic partners that will help recover threatened and endangered Pacific salmon.
Public Radio
I was the news director at KAZU News, the NPR-affiliate serving the Monterey Bay region of California. I rebuilt the station's newsroom and bolstered its news coverage during several leadership transitions. My team's reporting earned numerous national and regional awards, including two Edward R. Murrow awards for Continuing Coverage and Writing.
I have also produced stories for NPR, Marketplace, and KQED's California Report.
Other Featured Articles
Below is a chronology of work I produced as a freelancer, intern and student, with my favorite work featured at the top.
Controversy grows over recipe for rodent problem on Farallon Islands: rat poison
Isolated from the frenzy of San Francisco by 30 miles of ocean, the Farallon Islands appear desolate from a distance — nothing more than a rocky silhouette against the setting sun. But up close, the islands are bursting with life. Petrels, gulls, cormorants, murres and tufted puffins are just a few of the species that make the Farallones the largest seabird colony in the contiguous United States, earning it the moniker “the Galapagos of California.”
California’s ban on shark fins doesn’t stop the trade from passing through its ports
This story evolved out of one of my first assignments as a student in the UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Program. It became an investigative feature that required independently filing my first FOIA request, and revealed a previously unreported shark fin seizure at the Port of Oakland — one of the largest in U.S. history. I conducted over a dozen interviews, some with tight-lipped federal employees and special agents for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
An abridged form was published on the front page of the Mercury News — it was also published online in its full 2,400 words. This piece helped me land an internship with the Mercury News in the winter of 2020.
An abridged form was published on the front page of the Mercury News — it was also published online in its full 2,400 words. This piece helped me land an internship with the Mercury News in the winter of 2020.
Vaccines came slowly for most vulnerable in Santa Cruz County
An investigation I led into the vaccine rollout in Santa Cruz County revealed that some of the area's most vulnerable residents received inoculations over a month after the vaccine became available, even as the county expanded access to seniors in the general population that weren't living in congregate care. The slow pace of the federal pharmacy program may have caused unnecessary deaths in a population that has suffered the brunt of the pandemic nationwide.
Not JUST data
Ruha Benjamin argues the importance of contextualizing data in the fight against racial injustice. One of my favorite pieces on her work, and the work of the Ida B. Wells JUST Data Lab that she founded at Princeton.
Of lava lamps and living cells
Maybe it was all the late nights staring through a microscope, pondering the materials of cells. Or perhaps it was the work-induced hallucinations that followed —the soft, squishy building blocks of life, stuck in his vision, superimposed on the cold and rigid bricks of Boston. Whatever caused it, Brangwynne saw cells and their structures a little differently than other scientists, and it would lead him to a major discovery that had been hiding in plain sight.
Get to know your inner-blobs. My feature for Princeton's Discovery: Research at Princeton Magazine
Get to know your inner-blobs. My feature for Princeton's Discovery: Research at Princeton Magazine
Forecasting the next COVID-19
Pandemics happen. Here's how we could prevent the next one. My cover story for Princeton's annual research magazine.
Why bat scientists are socially distancing from their subjects
Oct 23, 2020 — Science News: There’s nothing Winifred Frick likes better than crawling through guano-filled caves and coming face-to-face with bats. As chief scientist of Bat Conservation International, she is on a mission to promote understanding of bats and protect imperiled species from extinction.
For months, though, Frick has avoided research that would put her within spitting distance of bats.
For months, though, Frick has avoided research that would put her within spitting distance of bats.
The Big Data of Biodiversity
UCSC Science Notes: Along the central California coast, a crescent of rocky shoreline cradles the waters of the Monterey Bay. Its reefs and tidepools are teeming with sharp and squishy creatures that call the briny coastline home. But during an afternoon low tide on an unseasonably warm February day, a patch of coast just south of the town of Monterey is crawling with dozens of alien visitors: clipboard-wielding scientists in rubber boots, shouting to each other over the din of the wind and waves.
Point Reyes National Seashore
After a wildfire burned parts of Point Reyes National Seashore and threatened homes in the surrounding community, the park hired me to create a communications strategy that would explain the science of wildfires to the park's visitors and neighbors. The new podcast series I created, called "The Natural Laboratory," was focused on the park's complex relationship with wildfire. I painstakingly crafted each episode, from the music to the reporting, writing and editing. The park plans to continue the series with interpretive staff and future science interns.
Links below will direct you to the Apple Podcast page for each episode.
The Natural Laboratory Ep3 — How Wildlife Withstand Wildfires
Point Reyes is home to a great variety of animals. Half of North America's birds have been spotted in the park, not to mention its reptiles, amphibians, fish, and mammals. How do these creatures respond to a fire? In this episode, Jerimiah Oetting speaks to park scientists to learn how certain vulnerable species might be impacted by wildfires. Join us as we hoot for owls and track one of the more elusive and curious species in the park, the Point Reyes mountain beaver.
The Natural Laboratory Ep2 — New Growth
Now that 2020's historic fire season is over, the plants at Point Reyes National Seashore are in recovery mode. Jerimiah Oetting speaks with fire ecologists and botanists about what that recovery will look like in the coming months and years, and what we can learn from Indigenous practices of managing the landscape with fire.
The Natural Laboratory Ep1 — The Legacy of Fire at Point Reyes on
Point Reyes National Seashore was part of California's historic wildfire season in 2020. The Woodward Fire was relatively small, but it still threatened nearby communities with evacuations and smoke. In the first podcast episode of the Natural Laboratory series, Jerimiah Oetting dives into how the Woodward fire compares to its predecessor, the 1995 Vision Fire. He also explores how climate change and fire suppression drive the increasing intensity of wildfires in the West.
Princeton University
As a science writer for Princeton University's Office of the Dean for Research in 2020, I wrote long-form magazine features, including the cover story, for Discovery: Research at Princeton Magazine, as well as press releases with the comms team.
Not JUST data
Ruha Benjamin argues the importance of contextualizing data in the fight against racial injustice. One of my favorite pieces on her work, and the work of the Ida B. Wells JUST Data Lab that she founded at Princeton.
Of lava lamps and living cells
Maybe it was all the late nights staring through a microscope, pondering the materials of cells. Or perhaps it was the work-induced hallucinations that followed —the soft, squishy building blocks of life, stuck in his vision, superimposed on the cold and rigid bricks of Boston. Whatever caused it, Brangwynne saw cells and their structures a little differently than other scientists, and it would lead him to a major discovery that had been hiding in plain sight.
Get to know your inner-blobs. My feature for Princeton's Discovery: Research at Princeton Magazine
Get to know your inner-blobs. My feature for Princeton's Discovery: Research at Princeton Magazine
Forecasting the next COVID-19
Pandemics happen. Here's how we could prevent the next one. My cover story for Princeton's annual research magazine.
A taste for humans: How disease-carrying mosquitoes evolved to specialize in biting us
There are two paths. One leads to the arm of Noah Rose, a postdoctoral research fellow at Princeton University. The other leads to a guinea pig.
For some species of mosquitoes, their preference for humans reveals something about their evolution — and the ecology of their ancestral homes. New research, published July 23 in the journal Current Biology, identifies the genetic components underlying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes’ affinity for humans and indicates that their human-seeking behavior can be
For some species of mosquitoes, their preference for humans reveals something about their evolution — and the ecology of their ancestral homes. New research, published July 23 in the journal Current Biology, identifies the genetic components underlying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes’ affinity for humans and indicates that their human-seeking behavior can be
Santa Cruz Local
In the first months of the global pandemic, when California began sheltering in place, I produced a podcast series called Santa Cruz Local Answers. In each of its five episodes, I leveraged my science journalism background to answer listener-submitted questions related to COVID-19. The series received thousands of listens.
I also contributed to Santa Cruz Local as a freelancer covering local news.
Vaccines came slowly for most vulnerable in Santa Cruz County
An investigation I led into the vaccine rollout in Santa Cruz County revealed that some of the area's most vulnerable residents received inoculations over a month after the vaccine became available, even as the county expanded access to seniors in the general population that weren't living in congregate care. The slow pace of the federal pharmacy program may have caused unnecessary deaths in a population that has suffered the brunt of the pandemic nationwide.
Capitola child care program becomes more affordable with county help
The City of Capitola offers a city-sponsored child care program, as Soquel Union Elementary School District campuses remain closed due to risk of COVID-19 spread. (William Duncan — Santa Cruz Local)
CAPITOLA >> Families that attend Soquel Elementary, Main Street Elementary, Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary and New Brighton Middle School will have more affordable access to a city-sponsored supervised homework help program that frees parents to work.
The Capitola City Council voted unanimously Thur
CAPITOLA >> Families that attend Soquel Elementary, Main Street Elementary, Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary and New Brighton Middle School will have more affordable access to a city-sponsored supervised homework help program that frees parents to work.
The Capitola City Council voted unanimously Thur
Ramsay Park bike pump track plan moves forward
WATSONVILLE >> The Watsonville City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved plans for a bike pump track located at the site of an older skate park in Ramsay Park.
The vote included an agreement between the city of Watsonville and the Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz, a mountain bike trail nonprofit organization, that would lead construction and design. Funds for the project came from private donations to Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz.
“This pump track is really just the start of our endeavors of
The vote included an agreement between the city of Watsonville and the Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz, a mountain bike trail nonprofit organization, that would lead construction and design. Funds for the project came from private donations to Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz.
“This pump track is really just the start of our endeavors of
Santa Cruz County rail corridor transit options to be narrowed
SANTA CRUZ >> One transit option from four final contenders for the Watsonville-to-Santa Cruz rail corridor is expected to be recommended by Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission staff in October. The decision could shape the future for Santa Cruz County commuters for years to come.
The recommendation comes from these options:
• an autonomous train on wheels, similar to a bus
Detailed cost estimates also will be included in the transportation commission’s “virtual open house” Oc
The recommendation comes from these options:
• an autonomous train on wheels, similar to a bus
Detailed cost estimates also will be included in the transportation commission’s “virtual open house” Oc
PODCAST: Tough decisions- Child care during a pandemic — Santa Cruz Local Answers, episode 5.
Parents and child care providers worry about the risk of transmission of COVID-19. Santa Cruz Local's Jerimiah Oetting answers your questions about child care rules in Santa Cruz County during the coronavirus emergency: How can we expect young children in daycare to socially distance? What is the county doing to ensure these facilities are safe? This is the fifth installment of "Santa Cruz Local Answers," where Jerimiah tackles your coronavirus-related questions. Submit your questions: www.santa
PODCAST: What's the plan for antibody testing? — Santa Cruz Local Answers, episode 4
Santa Cruz Local's Jerimiah Oetting answers your questions about antibody testing: What is it? Is it available in Santa Cruz County? How reliable are the tests? And is the county pursuing antibody testing? This is the fourth installment of 'Santa Cruz Local Answers,' where Jerimiah tackles your coronavirus-related questions. Submit your questions to www.santacruzlocal.org/coronavirus. Or email a question to answers@santacruzlocal.org. Get Santa Cruz Local's free email newsletter: https://mailchi
PODCAST: What's the status with Project Roomkey? — Santa Cruz Local Answers, episode 3
Santa Cruz Local's Jerimiah Oetting answers your questions about Project Roomkey, the state effort to provide hotel rooms to vulnerable parts of the homeless population. Where is Santa Cruz County at with the project?
PODCAST: How can UCSC help with COVID testing? — Santa Cruz Local Answers, episode 2
Santa Cruz Local's Jerimiah Oetting answers a listener's question on what UC Santa Cruz is doing to help with COVID testing. This is the second installment of 'Santa Cruz Local Answers,' where Jerimiah tackles your coronavirus-related questions.
PODCAST: Your Questions On Testing — Santa Cruz Local Answers, episode 1
Santa Cruz Local's Jerimiah Oetting answers your questions on coronavirus testing: Who gets tested? What is the process? How long does it take? Why is testing limited in Santa Cruz County and when will that change? Jerimiah talked to a medical leader, a scientist and others to get some answers. This is the first installment of 'Santa Cruz Local Answers,' where Jerimiah tackles your coronavirus-related questions. Submit your questions to www.santacruzlocal.org/coronavirus . Read the transcript to
The Mercury News
In the winter of 2020, I interned at the San Jose Mercury News.
I present my work here in PDF format. Links to the original work can be found in the PDF.
California’s ban on shark fins doesn’t stop the trade from passing through its ports
March 3, 2020 — Mercury News: Through a FOIA request and contacts I made through federal and state agencies, I uncovered one of the largest shark fin seizures in U.S. history at the Port of Oakland. The seizure illuminated that shark fins — which are illegal to possess and sell in California — were still transiting through the state's ports, typically en route from Central America to Hong Kong.
Data show Bay Area residents challenged the limits of shelter-in-place orders
Data show Bay Area residents challenged the limits of shelter-in-place orders
Coronavirus: How to tell if your misery was really COVID-19
Was your recent fever, cough and unremitting phlegm just another routine illness, or was it COVID-19? Stanford University hopes to offer an answer, as it races to expand manufacturing of its new coronavirus antibody test for use by the public within two months.
Coronavirus: Stanford deploys new test that tells healthcare workers if they've been exposed
Stanford Health Care is offering a new test to its doctors, nurses and other health care workers to learn who has been infected with COVID-19 – and might now carry antibodies that could protect them from re-infection.
Urban sprawl is on the rise but not in the Bay Area
As metropolitan areas expand rapidly to fit the world’s ever-growing population, a first-ever global study of street networks indicates that sprawling roads are on the rise, cementing a future in many places where relying on personal vehicles is the norm.
Bay Area rocket scientist turns 100
On the brink of his 100th trip around the sun, the secret to David Altman’s long and illustrious life isn’t rocket science. At least, not entirely.
San Francisco public utility acquires Wool Ranch property in Milpitas
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission recently purchased nearly 800 acres of verdant, rolling hills and expansive bay area views east of Milpitas, a property known as Wool Ranch, adding cohesion to its collection of protected lands that surround the watershed feeding the Calaveras Reservoir.
Scientists say the Pacific Coast blob is to blame for whale entanglements
New research unravels the perfect storm of complex environmental factors that contributed to the rash of whale entanglements in recent years, providing crab fishermen and conservationists with new tools to prevent future incidents.
Study finds single-payer health care plan saves money
As Democratic candidates propose a spectrum of health care options on the debate stage, the Medicare for all plan floated by progressive candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders offers a utopian vision of health care in America: universal coverage with no premiums or co-pays. But what about the costs?
King tides rolling in along the coast Friday
Ocean waters will reach further inland Friday morning, as one of the year’s biggest tides pulls water to its high point.
Female firefighters exposed to cancer-linked chemicals
Female firefighters in San Francisco have higher concentrations of certain cancer-linked
chemicals in their blood than women in other occupations, according to the first study to
investigate how women in the profession are exposed to chemicals in the line of duty.
chemicals in their blood than women in other occupations, according to the first study to
investigate how women in the profession are exposed to chemicals in the line of duty.
UCSC Science Communication Program
Below are examples of my early class and internship work while attending the UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Program. The list includes a variety of publications, representing the diverse science communication training provided by the program. Also included are pieces I wrote during my internship with the Monterey County Weekly.
Crowdsourcing pollution data could benefit public health
Wildfire smoke regularly threatens air quality over vast regions of places like California. But a new study finds a network of low-cost sensors placed in private homes could paint a more detailed picture of localized pollution, especially in areas where data on air quality is limited.
The Birds and the Bees of Santa Cruz, answered by UCSC students
A few months ago, readers sent a second round of Santa Cruz-related science questions for students from UCSC’s Science Communication Program to investigate—here are their answers.
Caltrans aims to save Big Sur’s bridges by zapping them with electricity.
Over the next year and a half, Caltrans plans to jolt new life into Big Sur’s historic Big Creek Bridge, essentially turning it into a big battery.
Dead Reefs Keep Calcifying but Only by Day
When coral reefs are healthy, countless nickel-sized coral polyps slowly calcify with minerals from ocean water, forming protective stony structures that act as reef “skeletons.” But as corals die at alarming rates around the world amid ongoing ocean warming and acidification, many reefs are being recolonized by mats of turf algae that spread across the skeletal remains.
Camera traps yield surprises in West Africa’s largest protected area
Protected lands in the tropics are often managed to curtail poaching, creating a refuge for vulnerable wildlife that face risks of extinction. However, a new study in West Africa’s largest protected land complex offers a snapshot of human and wildlife activities within three national parks — and poaching played a smaller role than other ways humans used the land.
A new farmers market staple offers up Vietnamese cuisine with a vegan twist at two Salinas locations.
The Wednesday farmers market at Natividad Medical Center in Salinas has a lot to offer when in season. One vendor sells homemade hummus, another sells aromatic coffee. Baskets of colorful fruits and vegetables line the shelves of produce stands. But Dan Duong and her family felt like something was missing.
Whales are being killed by shipping traffic at alarming rates. A new initiative aims to help.
Of the many cargo ships in California, only a tiny fraction pass through the large swathes of marine habitat along the coast, such as the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. It’s unknown how many of these ships collide with whales, but research indicates the number is much higher than what endangered populations of blue, fin and humpback whales can withstand.
Marina green-lights short-term rentals, with some conditions.
Marina is becoming the next city to legalize and regulate short-term rentals. Marina City Council voted 4-1 on Oct. 11 to approve an ordinance permitting short-term rentals in the city, with some changes to an earlier version of the ordinance first approved in September.
WATCH: Octopus devouring whale carcass in deep sea caught on video
Imagine the lifeless form of a massive baleen whale, falling silently through the lightless environment of the deep ocean. Thousands of pounds of blubber and bone eventually crash into the sea floor at depths of over 10,000 feet, deeper than some Sierra Nevada mountains are tall.
The Maiden, a famous yacht recently featured in a documentary, docks in Monterey.
Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey is known for its narrow corridor packed with chowder hawkers, musical buskers and enticing shops. On Friday afternoon, Oct. 11, dozens of visitors pushed past the usual revelry of the wharf for what awaited at its end: the yacht known as Maiden.