May 19, 2022
Original post: https://wdfw.wa.gov/news/community-science-volunteers-discover-invasive-european-green-crab-hood-canal
OLYMPIA – The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has received confirmation that volunteers with Washington Sea Grant have captured a male European green crab in Nick’s Lagoon near Seabeck in Kitsap County. This is the first detection of ...
March 30, 2022
This is the third in a series of posts on a Crab Team project to develop environmental DNA (eDNA) for use in early detection and management of European green crab. The first posts provided an introduction to eDNA and the benefits and challenges it offers to invasion managers.
In developing eDNA as a useful way to detect and monitor invasive ...
Read MoreMarch 3, 2022
This is the second in a series of posts sharing new research on the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) in detection of green crabs. For our introduction to eDNA, check out the previous post.
As a detection tool, the process of sampling eDNA is relatively simple, but interpreting results can actually be more complicated than you might expect. While the laboratory process and equipment might tell you – within some window of tolerance – whether green crab DNA ...
Read MoreFebruary 24, 2022
Early detection is one of the best ways to thwart an invasive species, but trying to find some of the first individuals to arrive in a new habitat is no easy task. WSG Crab Team built a monitoring network to meet this challenge: by using multiple search methods and finely tuning the search protocols for green crabs, we hope to be able to uncover evidence of green crabs even while they are still extremely rare. Early detection successes ...
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January 20, 2022
Trapping throughout 2021 indicates that the European green crab invasion has grown across Washington’s coastal estuaries, namely Willapa Bay, Grays Harbor, and Makah Bay. This year’s collaborative efforts by many partners to remove crabs and track the invasion also confirmed that green crabs are more abundant and widespread in these locations than they are along inland shorelines, and will likely continue to increase.
2021 marked the second year of intensive and systematic trapping for European green ...
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December 6, 2021
The recent report by the Lummi Nation of more than 70,000 European green crabs captured this year has many wondering what this could mean for efforts to prevent green crabs from establishing in the Salish Sea. This number certainly indicates that the population of green crabs within the sea pond on the Lummi Reservation has grown exponentially since their first detection in 2019 (Mueller and Jefferson, ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 MoreMay 13, 2021
We are thrilled to share that Washington Sea Grant Crab Team won this year’s University of Washington College of the Environment award for Outstanding Community Impact. Crab Team members Kate Litle, Jeff Adams, P. Sean McDonald, Emily Grason, Amy Linhart and Alex Stote were recognized at the ...
December 23, 2020
One of the big successes this year was the launch of a local removal effort in Drayton Harbor. In spite of COVID, in spite of wildfire smoke, in spite of everything that 2020 had to throw at us, the collaborative management team was able to make great strides in trapping the Washington’s northernmost green crab hotspot. From May through October of this year, the crew was out trapping, trapping, and … trapping, with two ...
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December 16, 2020
As we hang up our hip boots to dry until next season (right next to the holiday lights, of course), it’s a good time to stop and reflect on what we were able to accomplish in a fleeting field season that was truly unlike any before it. In addition to our continued early detection monitoring in the Salish Sea, we had ambitious goals to design and launch a broad geographic ...
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November 23, 2020
Trapping for European green crab has mostly concluded for the 2020 season, enabling us to take stock of all that was accomplished this year and provide some status updates on green crab. The obstacles this year were considerable, but volunteers and managers were more than equal to the task, masking, attesting, and distancing, not to mention riding out wildfire smoke, to trap for green crabs. The next few posts will provide updates on what was accomplished and what ...
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October 12, 2020
Hello WSG Crab Team enthusiasts! Now that the whirlwind of the trapping season is winding down, I’m excited to finally introduce myself to you all as the Crab Team Coastal Specialist. I began this role in late July, and while July might feel like years ago, this is still a relatively new position to WSG. In the few months since I began, I’ve been splitting my time between the “office” (which continues to be my kitchen) and the ...
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