Green Crab Monitoring

Crab Team Welcomes Hannah Brown as Student Assistant

Crab Team Welcomes Hannah Brown as Student Assistant

June 13, 2025

Hello everyone!

I am so excited to serve as the new Crab Team graduate student assistant. I am passionate about both crab and citizen science, so I feel like I am definitely in the right place here amongst all these crabby people. I just finished my first year of graduate school at the University of Washington in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs and I am currently working on my thesis which uses Dungeness crab data from the Molt Search program. I am looking to model Dungeness crab size classes across space and time in Puget Sound. I was invited to present my ongoing research at the 2025 Molt Search Kick Off Webinar event, a recording of which can be found here: Molt Search Season Kickoff Webinar Recording 6/4. If you have any thoughts or questions about my research I would love to hear from you! My email is hkbrown7@uw.edu.

My Background

Hannah is crouched down on a wide, sandy beach and smiling at a three-inch Pismo clam that she is holding in her hand. The Pismo clam’s foot is out of the bottom of its shell. The foot looks a bit like a tongue.

Surveying Pismo clams on Pismo Beach in California as a part of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Marine Invertebrate Team. Photo: Hannah Brown

My first field work experience during my undergraduate years was with Sea Otter Savvy, a non-profit organization who uses participatory science to gather behavioral data on sea otters in central California. I got to see the data I gathered make real change through contributions to ongoing research about sea otter behavior, and met a great team of people. After I graduated from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, I worked on the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) on their Marine Invertebrate Team. I worked in many different fisheries including brown box crab, Dungeness crab, red abalone, red and purple urchin, Pismo clam, sea cucumber, and ridgeback prawn. Most of my work was concentrated in the experimental brown box crab fishery, which is where I discovered my passion for crab. I went out on trips with commercial fishermen and tagged all the box crab that were too small or too soft to be sold. We could then track the crab across time and space to try to answer questions about their abundance and movement. These crab live about 600 feet down and it was fascinating to get to interact with them, something most people wouldn’t have the opportunity to do. After my time at CDFW, I pivoted a bit into freshwater work with the AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Program (WSP). I learned just how interconnected freshwater and marine systems are and the management differences between the two systems. While I enjoyed my time at WSP, I ultimately realized that the marine world was where I wanted to end up in my career.

The photo is taken from above looking down into a pool of water with a small waterfall to the left side of the pool. The pool is surrounded by rocks and vegetation. Hannah is swimming in the middle of the pool in a black and purple wetsuit and a pink snorkel.

Surveying Arroyo Grande Creek for steelhead as a part of my term of service in the AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Program. Photo: Hannah Brown

In 2022, I moved up to Washington and began working on the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Puget Sound Shellfish Team as a scientific technician. I worked with recreational fishers in the Dungeness crab, red rock crab, pink shrimp, and market squid fisheries in Puget Sound. I would interview these fishers at the end of their fishing day to gather data on their catch and effort. I got to travel across the Sound and meet many different people. I learned how passionate Washingtonians are about Dungeness crab and how management differs between recreational and commercial fisheries as well as between different states. 

Hannah is kneeling on a floating dock surrounded by different colored buckets and is holding a red rock crab in her left hand while measuring it with calipers using her right hand. She is wearing an orange life vest and a green ball cap.

Measuring a red rock crab in Cornet Bay as a part of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Puget Sound Shellfish Team. Photo: Hannah Brown

What Brings Me to Crab Team

I have actually been working with Crab Team HQ staff since September 2024, just in a different capacity. I met Dr. Sean McDonald through volunteer work the past few summers with the Pacific Northwest Crab Research Group to gather larval Dungeness crab data. He introduced me to the Crab Team and the Molt Search database and I knew immediately that this was something I wanted to work on. Molt Search combines my interests in marine invertebrate fisheries management, crab, and participatory science. When the Crab Team graduate student position was posted earlier this year I knew I needed to apply. Now I get to be involved in all of Crab Team’s work, not just Molt Search. I feel so lucky to get to work with such a passionate and supportive team of people, and I can’t wait to get started on some fieldwork this summer and meet more of the community!

— Hannah Brown 

Header Photo: Washington Park in Anacortes, one of the WDFW port sites for data collection in the pink shrimp fishery. I interviewed pink shrimp fishers and weighed and counted their catch when they were done for the day. Photo: Hannah Brown

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