June 11, 2018
Last week, WSG Crab Team spent three full days in the mud at Lagoon Point on Whidbey Island. After two European green crab were discovered there last year, one during regular volunteer monitoring and a second during the subsequent rapid assessment, Crab Team HQ decided another multi-day trapping assessment could help us better understand the status of green crab at the site. ...
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May 11, 2018
HEOR or HENU? Crab Team volunteers know it’s one of the most challenging questions we face during sampling. Telling hairy shore crabs (HEOR) apart from purple shore crabs (HENU) can be very tricky, especially when all you have is two tiny molted carapaces. It’s not only shore crabs; several groups of crabs can be tricky to distinguish from each other, even if you know what you are looking for.
As you learn a new set of species, whether it’s birds, ...
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May 10, 2018
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.
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10
MAY
April 27, 2018
Yesterday’s blog post covered the highlights from the first green crab special session at the 2018 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference. Today, we’ll break down the second special session that focused on management of invasive European green crab and provide some reflections on the conference as a whole.
Session 2: “Addressing European Green Crab in the Salish Sea: A Rare Opportunity for International Collaboration Toward Effective Aquatic Invasive Species Control and Prevention”
During the second ...
Read MoreApril 26, 2018
Between April 4th and 6th hundreds of scientists, managers, and policymakers descended upon the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle for the 2018 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference. From salmon and orcas to microplastics and harmful algal blooms, presentations at the conference covered an incredibly wide variety of topics — including invasive European green crab. WSG Crab Team collaborated with Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife to host two ...
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April 25, 2018
Finding a few isolated pockets of invasive European green crab in Washington’s Salish Sea over the past two years indicates the early stages of a possible range expansion. Certainly, it is the goal of WSG Crab Team and management to protect shorelines from the damage this crab has done in other parts of the world. In order to do that, it’s important not only to know where green crab are found – and to try to remove them ...
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(Header photo: Allen Pleus, Aquatic Invasive Species Unit Lead for Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife with one of the green crab captured in Padilla Bay during the collaborative assessment trapping effort in 2016.)
February 6, 2018
The very first publication by Crab Team was just released in Management of Biological Invasions this week (you can read it), and while there are six authors listed, it was a contribution made by hundreds. The paper had two ...
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Header photo: assisting with the Cape Eleuthera Institute’s green sea turtle research.
January 17, 2018
Hello, Crab Team community! My name is Kelly Martin and I am thrilled to be joining the Washington Sea Grant Crab Team this year as a program assistant! I am currently a first-year graduate student at the University of Washington School of Marine and Environmental Affairs interested in bridging the gaps between scientists, policy makers, and the general public. ...
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November 21, 2017
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.
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21
NOV
February 5, 2018: CORRECTION
Since this report was made, we have determined that the evidence originally submitted of the crab’s identity was not verifiable as a direct observation of the crab. Because European green crab is currently very rare in Washington’s Salish Sea, the majority of reports are of mistaken identity. This is why photographs of the crabs captured are required before we can confirm a sighting. It is therefore with some relief that we retract this ...
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Header image courtesy of Zach Moore/USFWS
October 25, 2017
At the end of August, Crab Team received an email on our “tip line” from a beachwalker who had spotted a European green crab near Hobuck Beach in Makah Bay. The photograph submitted enabled us to immediately confirm the sighting, which was a new record for that area. The crab was located on Makah tribal land, and the Makah subsequently undertook a rapid assessment trapping effort to determine the extent of any green ...
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October 12, 2017
Following the recent capture of a single European green crab at Lagoon Point, on Whidbey Island (read more), Crab Team staff and volunteers, in consultation with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), headed back to the site last week to carry out assessment trapping as an expanded early detection effort. Over three days, the group conducted 114 trap sets, and captured only one additional European green crab.
This type of assessment trapping is the first step ...
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September 19, 2017
Crab Team volunteers at Lagoon Point, on the west side of Whidbey Island, captured a single European green crab in their final sampling effort for this year. The male crab, at 47 mm across the carapace, is most likely a 2017 crab, part of this year’s cohort. A team of four volunteers from the island has been monitoring the site, April through September, for the past two years, but this is the first evidence of European green crab ...
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August 23, 2017
A single European green crab was captured in Sequim Bay last week by Neil Harrington, an Environmental Biologist with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. Since the discovery of a small population of green crab in nearby Dungeness Bay this April, Harrington has been steadily trapping his way around Sequim Bay on the lookout for more of the invaders. Intensive trapping by Harrington and coworkers over the last week did not capture any additional European green crab, suggesting that ...
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August 14, 2017
It looks as though Crab Team, now a network of 52 early detection sites monitored by more than 200 volunteers and several dozen staff from partner agencies, might have another ally out in the mud. Last week, during regular monthly sampling in a channel at the south end of Padilla Bay, Lindsey Parker found a European green crab. This was definitely notable, because we would rather not find any green crab, but not entirely surprising because the monitoring ...
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