February 27, 2019
Introducing Otter Spotter, a map-based otter sighting website helping to improve data collection, engage the public, and encourage stewardship of a living landscape inhabited by otters and many other mammals – a project that meets the needs of people and wildlife.
FEB
January 23, 2019
Three European green crab have been found in Samish Bay, north of Mt. Vernon, a new detection location for the globally-damaging invasive on Washington’s inland shorelines.
The three adult crabs, including an egg-bearing (gravid) female and two males, were captured by shellfish growers working for Taylor Shellfish Farms on three successive nights in early January. The growers recognized the crabs as invasive while handling oysters and sorting out other animals, and quickly reported them to Washington Department of ...
Read MoreJAN
November 1, 2018
The turning of the leaves signals a winding-down of green crab trapping activities. Just as it feels right to us to hunker down and stay warm, cooler water temperatures also cause green crab to become less catchable in the fall and winter. Crab Team monitors have pulled and stored their last traps, and, as of today, all of the data are into Crab Team HQ here in Seattle. While we have provided snapshots and updates ...
Read MoreNOV
October 17, 2018
NOAA Sea Grant announced the award of $11 million in grants for 22 projects to further advance the development of a sustainable marine and coastal aquaculture industry in the U.S.
Washington Sea Grant is pleased to receive funding for one of the 22 projects titled: Consumer-focused strategies for understanding market acceptance of domestic finfish aquaculture
Although finfish aquaculture has advanced its methods and addressed many legitimate public concerns, throughout the US, and Washington State in particular, the ...
Read MoreOCT
September 25, 2018
WSG Crab Team volunteers at Kala Point, near Port Townsend, captured a single European green crab during their final early detection sampling effort for the 2018 season on September 8. In follow up trapping efforts in the area, staff from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) captured an additional green crab at Scow Bay, a marshy area between Indian and Marrowstone Islands. The two captures add to the list of sites at which green crab have been ...
Read MoreSEP
September 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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SEP
August 8th, 2018
Last month, Washington Sea Grant Crab Team staff traveled to the Makah Reservation in the northwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula to participate in the Makah Tribe’s European green crab trapping efforts. As you might remember, in October of 2017, we reported the very first sighting of a green crab in Makah Bay. Since then, Adrianne Akmajian, Marine Ecologist for the Makah Tribe, has been leading extensive trapping efforts to better understand and manage the population ...
Read MoreAUG
July 5th, 2018
As we wrote last week, the first half of this monitoring season has seen several new detections of European green crab, but as green crab appear to be ramping up, so is the group of humans ready to control them. WSG Crab Team is now a project with five team members (including two full time staff), more than 200 volunteers, and 25 partner staff from agencies and tribes. That’s a lot of people ...
Read MoreJUL
June 29, 2018
The first half of the 2018 WSG Crab Team monitoring season is coming to a close, and with that comes a status update on European green crab in Washington’s Salish Sea. Since April, live green crab or molts have been detected at five sites, two of which are new detection sites:
- One male green crab (57.5 mm carapace width) was captured during a follow-up assessment at Lagoon Point
JUN
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. ...
Read MoreJUN
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, ...
Read MoreMAY
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.
Read More
MAY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 6, 2018
CONTACT:
Aaron Barnett, WSG Boating Program Specialist aaronb2@uw.edu
Just in time for summer boating season, the first pumpout station in the San Juan Islands in nearly 20 years is up and running at West Beach Resort on Orcas Island. The new pumpout site is the only one on the north side of the island, and boaters heading to or from remote places such as Sucia Island or Canada can easily stop in and use the free ...
Read MoreMAY
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 MoreAPR