Padilla Bay Rapid Assessment: Wrap Up

Header image by Allen Pleus (WDFW)

September 29, 2016

The joint effort by WSG Crab Team, Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW), and Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (PBNERR) to assess the abundance and distribution of invasive European green crabs in Padilla Bay wrapped up yesterday (read about day 1 and day 2). We checked and removed all 186 traps from 31 sites.

One green crab was captured on the second day of trapping, a 58 mm male, at ...

29
SEP
2016

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Green Crab Monitoring

Padilla Bay Rapid Response: Day 2

September 27, 2016

Another stunningly beautiful day to explore Padilla Bay (read about day 1). Day two of our rapid response trapping effort is complete; our teams checked all 192 traps at 31 sites, released native critters and refreshed the bait for an additional day of trapping.

Unfortunately, two additional invasive European green crabs were captured by our traps over the last 24 hours – both young of the year females. One was found about three quarters of a mile north of ...

27
SEP
2016

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Green Crab Monitoring

Padilla Bay Rapid Response: Day 1

September 26, 2016

Emily here to report that Crab Team is on the road again, spending three days in Padilla Bay where the second confirmed capture of European green crab in Washington’s Salish Sea took place only a week ago. The capture occurred less than a week after we returned from San Juan Island, relieved not to have found any additional invasive crabs. Thankfully, we hadn’t yet finished re-stowing the gear.

Similar to our trip to San Juan Island, we are conducting extensive trapping in an effort ...

26
SEP
2016

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Green Crab Monitoring

New Sighting of European Green Crab in Padilla Bay

September 23, 2016

Hot on the heels of the recent capture of the first confirmed European green crab along Washington’s inland shorelines by Crab Team volunteers, a second individual live invasive crab was caught in Padilla Bay, near Mt. Vernon, earlier this week.

The individual crab is a 34 mm female, and the small size suggests she is a young of the year, possibly arriving as a larva last winter. The crab was found by staff of the Padilla Bay National ...

23
SEP
2016

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Green Crab Monitoring

Crab Team’s Rapid Response: Day 2 & 3, the Big Finale!

September 14, 2016

Emily here again, this time from back in Seattle. Our boots are washed, the gear is stowed, and we are all ready for some well-earned rest. But first, a quick update to fill you in on the rest of our rapid response sampling effort on San Juan Island (read about Day 1).

Day 2: After setting traps on Monday morning, we headed out even earlier on Tuesday morning to check the traps, refresh the bait and move some traps ...

15
SEP
2016

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Green Crab Monitoring

Crab Team’s Rapid Response: Day 1

September 12, 2016

Emily here, writing from beautiful Friday Harbor Labs after our first full field day on San Juan Island as part of our rapid response effort. Following the Westcott Bay Crab Team volunteer capture of an adult male green crab, our plan of action was to devote a few days to intensively trapping the marsh where the crab was caught, as well as several sites in the surrounding area to get a better idea of how many more green crabs ...

12
SEP
2016

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Green Crab Monitoring

Protocol in Focus: What is “live epifauna”?

September 8, 2016

One strength of the Crab Team protocol is that it enables us to confidently compare findings among different 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. The 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.

One of the most challenging parts of creating a sampling program ...

8
SEP
2016

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Green Crab Monitoring

Invasive Green Crab Found on San Juan Island

September 2, 2016

Earlier this week in Westcott Bay, San Juan Island, a team of volunteer monitors caught an invasive green crab (Carcinus maenas), marking the first confirmation of this global invader in Washington’s inland waters.

2
SEP
2016

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WSG News Blog

First sighting of European green crab in inland Washington confirmed

September 2, 2016

Crab Team volunteers discovered the first confirmed sighting of a European green crab along inland Washington shorelines while conducting their regular monthly monitoring earlier this week.

Volunteers at Westcott Bay, on San Juan Island, discovered the large adult male in one of their Fukui traps (the larger of the two types we use). Because the crab was an adult, it is believed that it washed in to the area as a larva in 2015 or 2014, possibly ...

2
SEP
2016

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Green Crab Monitoring

Small Spills, Big Problems, Sound Solutions

July 25, 2016

To paraphrase an old saying, “There’s no use crying over spilled oil.” Yet many are concerned with oil pollution in Puget Sound and in the San Juan Islands.

What people don’t realize is that the biggest source of spills so far in the region has not been tankers and freighters, but small recreational and commercial vessels. Small spills, such as oily bilge discharge, account for 75 percent of the oil dumped into local waters over the last 10 years.

In ...

26
AUG
2016

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WSG News Blog

Tides of Change: A Capitol Hill Briefing

June 30, 2016

Senator Cantwell’s office recently hosted a Capital Hill briefing called Tides of Change on economic and social changes resulting from our changing oceans. The briefing featured a panel of experts, including WSG’s Social Scientist Melissa Poe, who spoke to a room filled with 60 legislative staff, federal agencies, and non-governmental organizations and several Sea Grant fellows.

30
JUN
2016

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WSG News Blog

Protocol In Focus: Why Do We Use Two Types of Trap?

One strength of the Crab Team protocol is that it enables us to confidently compare findings among different 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. The Protocol in Focus will allow us to expand on these details, and offer an opportunity to see all the behind-the-scenes planning that goes into methodology!

Some volunteers have noticed that the Fukui traps are more often ...

7
JUN
2016

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Green Crab Monitoring

River and Ocean Film Festival

24
APR
2016

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Local Activities, Ocean Learning

2016

burrowing shrimp

Revised imidicloprid permit application submitted.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency releases a Preliminary Aquatic Risk Assessment (RA) to Support the Registration Review of Imidacloprid.

21
APR
2016

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Burrowing Shrimp

To Be Sustainable, Conservation Needs to Consider the Human Factor

April 12, 2016

International researchers urge including the social sciences in ecosystem management, highlighting indicators of human well-being developed by Washington Sea Grant and the Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

For too long, sustainability goals and environmental management have failed to consider the human side of conservation—how decisions affect people’s lives, and how human culture, values, and equity affect conservation outcomes. Social science can contribute significantly to advancing and assessing conservation efforts. These are the conclusions of a paper published April 1 in ...

1
APR
2016

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WSG News Blog