August 31, 2021
It’s been just five years since the first phone call came in with the news we all feared. I was returning from a morning dog walk and got the message from Crab Team volunteer Craig Staude: a European green crab had been captured at Westcott Bay, on San Juan Island. Though we had been looking very hard for these crabs, no one ever wanted to find one.
This was the first ...
Read MoreAugust 30, 2021
NOAA Sea Grant awarded California, Oregon and Washington Sea Grants $599,988 for a project to help address the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the West Coast seafood industry. The project seeks to enhance seafood availability along the U.S. West Coast by developing marketing resources and infrastructure and conducting associated trainings for West Coast seafood providers and handlers; improve seafood access by increasing public knowledge; increase utilization of (and support for) seafood through a public awareness campaign; ...
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August 23, 2021
August 30 of this year will mark the fifth anniversary of the first confirmed detection of invasive European green crab along the inland shorelines of Washington which occurred on San Juan Island. Three weeks later, the region will hit the same milestone for the second confirmed detection: Padilla Bay, near Mt. Vernon.
As home to a National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), Padilla Bay is one of the ...
Read MoreAugust 13, 2021
In honor of the 50th anniversary of Washington Sea Grant and back-to-school month, we’re digging through our photo archive to share moments from our program’s history. Here is a photo from 1994 of teachers taking an educational wetlands tour of the UW Arboretum in Seattle, Washington. Educational activities are a key aspect of WSG’s mission ...
Read MoreJuly 21, 2021
We are pleased to announce that recent University of Washington (UW) graduate Alanna Greene was selected as a finalist for the 2022 class of the prestigious John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship program.
Since 1979, the National Sea Grant College Program has provided one-year fellowships working in ...
Read MoreJuly 21, 2021
The record-breaking heat that hit the Pacific Northwest from June 23 to 28, 2021, caused harm to many intertidal shellfish and invertebrate species on Washington beaches.
On many beaches, species such as cockles, varnish clams, butter clams, and native littleneck clams—normally buried out of sight—popped to the surface of the substrate in large numbers. Manila clams were also impacted in some areas. Surfaced clams were observed to be gaping, a sign of stress, or had already died from the ...
Read MoreJuly 20, 2021
It will now be easier for recreational boaters to safely pump out vessel sewage and keep Washington’s waters clean with an expansion of mobile pumpout services in South Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands. The
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July 16, 2021
In honor of the 50th anniversary of Washington Sea Grant, we’re digging through our photo archive to share moments from our program’s history. Here is a photo from 1972 of Dr. Lauren “Doc” Donaldson, former director of what is now known as the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, holding a ...
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One strength of the Crab Team protocol is that it enables us to confidently compare findings among sites, and track changes over time – even if different people are doing the sampling. With sampling on this scale, even the small steps can be important to what we learn from the data. Protocol in Focus allows us to expand on these details, and offer an opportunity to see all the behind-the-scenes planning that goes into methodology.
The molt ...
Read MoreJune 25, 2021
Welcome to our Cool Critters series, where Marine Ecologist Jeff Adams shares the unique features of his favorite animals native to the Pacific Northwest. To wrap up Cephalopod Week, today’s Cool Critter is the Opalescent Squid!
The opalescent or market squid (Doryteuthis opalescens) is winter’s most colorful, family-friendly fishing! They are relatively small, ...
Read MoreJune 22, 2021
By Kathleen McKeegan, WSG Science Communications Fellow
It’s not a matter of if, but when. New tsunami hazard maps published by the Washington Geological Survey and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) show that a large earthquake on the Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ) off ...
June 18, 2021
Welcome to our Cool Critters series, where Marine Ecologist Jeff Adams shares the unique features of his favorite animals native to the Pacific Northwest. In honor of Cephalopod Week, today’s Cool Critter is the Giant Pacific Octopus!
The Giant Pacific Octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) is the largest octopus species, reaching lengths of up to 16 ...
Read MoreJune 17, 2021
Back in the summers of 2018 and 2019, the shellfish industry in Washington state was rocked by mass mortalities of its crops.
“It was oysters, clams, cockles — all bivalve species in some bays were impacted,” said Teri King, aquaculture and marine water quality specialist at Washington Sea Grant based at the University of Washington. “They were dying, and nobody knew why.”
Now, King and partners from NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Northwest ...
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The pandemic revealed acute food insecurity, health risks, and economic vulnerabilities in fishing communities in Washington State, particularly amongst Washington tribal nations who grappled with these challenges in addition to direct COVID-related impacts that included outbreaks, quarantines, closures and delayed harvests.
Washington Sea Grant initiated two pilot demonstration projects for the Makah and Lummi Tribes, to swiftly deliver food security and extension services while building resilient marine food systems within these coastal communities for future catastrophic events. They coordinated a seafood ...
Read MoreJune 8, 2021
Welcome to our Cool Critters series, where Marine Ecologist Jeff Adams shares the unique features of his favorite marine animals native to the Pacific Northwest. Today’s Cool Critter is the Giant Pink Sea Star!
The Giant Pink Sea Star (Pisaster brevispinus) is one of the largest and heaviest sea stars in the world, and is possibly the prettiest pink the Pacific. This sea star can dig, and then stretch its ...
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