Crab Team News

Crab Team Highlights from the 2018 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference – Part 2

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 ...

27
APR

Green Crab Monitoring

Crab Team Highlights from the 2018 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference – Part 1

April 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 ...

26
APR

Green Crab Monitoring

Where are the European Green Crab in the Salish Sea Coming From?

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 ...

25
APR

Green Crab Monitoring

Documenting the European Green Crab Range Expansion

(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 ...

6
FEB

Green Crab Monitoring

Crab Team Welcomes Program Assistant

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. ...

17
JAN

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

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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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SEP

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Green Crab Monitoring

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