July 20, 2017
Trapping to remove invasive European green crab from Dungeness Spit National Wildlife Refuge is in its 15th week since the initial discovery of four individuals during April of this year. As of last Friday, partners with US Fish and Wildlife Service (UWFWS) and Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) had captured and removed 89 crabs from Dungeness Bay. Since our last update a few weeks ago, a few notable developments have ...
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Header image: Allen Pleus (WDFW)
June 22, 2017
Four European green crab were captured at Dungeness Spit in early April – the third location in inland Washington where green crab have been found. Since the initial discovery 10 weeks ago, staff and volunteers from US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife personnel (WDFW) have been conducting intensive trapping and removal efforts in this newly-uncovered population. To date, 76 live green crab have been removed from the ...
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(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 ...
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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.
Of the three Crab ...
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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 ...
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November 8, 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.
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 ...
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November 3, 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. Of course, reading back on it after spending September in the mud, our previous eagerness to get in the field now seems…charming.
We staff members of the Crab Team couldn’t take ...
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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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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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Header image by Allen Pleus (WDFW)
September 29, 2016
One green crab was captured on the second day of trapping, a 58 mm male, at ...
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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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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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September 23, 2016
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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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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