Environmental Threats

Invasive Green Crab Found at Dungeness Spit

(Photo: European Green Crab found at Dungeness Spit, Sequim, April 2017. Photo by Allen Pleus, Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife)

April 26, 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sequim, WA — A new population of invasive European green crab has been found at Dungeness Spit, near Sequim, Washington, rekindling concern over the potential for damage to local marine life and shorelines.

Staff and volunteers from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), which manages Dungeness Spit National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), captured a total of 13 ...

26
APR

Green Crab Monitoring

Protocol in Focus: Why do we survey the habitat transect every month?

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.

Of the three Crab ...

23
FEB

Green Crab Monitoring

Crab Team Takes Willapa Bay by Storm: Part 3

November 15, 2016

This series of three posts was originally written in August, but was pre-empted by the news of European green crab captures on San Juan Island and in Padilla Bay. Better late than never, here are our field notes on green crab trapping in Willapa Bay during August of this year. Read part 1 and part 2

Day 4: August 17 – wrapping up

Because we were camping literally right next to the marsh we were trapping, we got to sleep in ...

15
NOV

Green Crab Monitoring

Crab Team Takes Willapa Bay by Storm: Part 2

November 8, 2016

Day 2: August 15

Up at 5 am to catch first light at 6. Back to Oysterville to pick up the traps – no green crabs, but a ...

8
NOV

Green Crab Monitoring

Crab Team Takes Willapa Bay by Storm!

November 3, 2016

We staff members of the Crab Team couldn’t take ...

3
NOV

Green Crab Monitoring

Volunteer Voices: The Discovery of a European Green Crab on San Juan Island

October 18, 2016

You’ve heard a lot from us about sightings of the European green crabs that have occurred over the past two months. But we thought you would enjoy hearing about the experience of the first discovery from the Crab Team volunteers who made it. Craig Staude captains the group of 4 Crab Team volunteers who sample monthly at Westcott Bay. He wrote an article on the experience Sylvia Yamada, Oregon State University researcher and green crab expert, for

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18
OCT

0

Green Crab Monitoring

How to Get Your “Eyes on the Beach” Like a Pro

October 6, 2016

The recent captures of invasive European green crabs, the first documented in Washington’s Salish Sea, have garnered a lot of recent media attention. We are thrilled that local residents are eager to help protect shorelines from this global invasive species and have set about looking for European green crabs as they walk the beach, paddle the waters, and pull up crab pots. Given 2,500 miles or so of shoreline, this network of “Eyes on the Beach” is critical to ...
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10
OCT

0

Green Crab Monitoring

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 ...
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29
SEP

0

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 ...
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27
SEP

0

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 ...
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26
SEP

0

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 ...
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23
SEP

0

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 ...
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15
SEP

0

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 ...
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12
SEP

0

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 ...
Read More
8
SEP

0

Green Crab Monitoring

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 ...
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2
SEP

0

Green Crab Monitoring

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