June 16, 2025
By Alison Lorenz, WSG Communications Project Coordinator
Dr. Wesley Hull has been awarded the University of Washington (UW) Graduate School Medal for his dissertation research, supported in part by Washington Sea Grant (WSG).
The Graduate School Medal recognizes a doctoral candidate whose academic expertise and social awareness are integrated in a way that demonstrates an exemplary commitment to the University and its larger community. Hull, who recently completed his doctorate in biology at UW, worked with shellfish farmers, coastal managers, and regulatory agencies on Washington’s Pacific coast to investigate the impacts of eelgrass on burrowing shrimp and burrowing shrimp on oysters vital to the region’s communities.
Washington state’s shellfish industry leads the US yet faces challenges like the negative impacts of burrowing shrimp, a native species whose tunneling destabilizes tide flat sediment and harms oysters. When, in 2018, the use of chemical pesticides to control burrowing shrimp was banned after 60 years, agency resource managers and shellfish farmers found themselves at odds over questions of aquaculture practice and land management. Work like Hull’s recognizes that research in a context like this one needs to account for the variety of viewpoints, challenges, needs, and opportunities at play.
Hull searches for oyster cultch he anchored in a shrimp bed that was covered by ejected sediment.
Most of the time, that looks simply like listening. Often, Hull was in the position of needing access to private shellfish farms to study burrowing shrimp. Conversations he had with owners formed the basis for relationships that continue to this day. “I like to think that I’m not really a scientist first, I’m just a person and science is what I do,” Hull says. “When there are points when someone’s talking about something I don’t understand, I don’t say, I ask. If they say they have shrimp on their beds, I ask, where or why do you think they showed up?”
Another facet of the Graduate School Medal is the recognition that the student brings the different perspectives of their identity and lived experiences to their research question and work. Coming from a rural coastal region in California himself, Hull understood the frustration of communities that can lack representation in decision-making processes that impact them, and face difficulty getting the funding and resources to contribute. Workshops led by Washington Sea Grant gave him the opportunity to hear the frustrations of shellfish farmers and the greater community firsthand.
Hull’s research focused on three topics: evaluating eelgrass as a natural burrowing shrimp control; the densities of burrowing shrimp required to harm oysters; and the impacts of burrowing shrimp on eelgrass in its adult and juvenile life stages. These interrelated questions demonstrate the complexity of shellfish farming in Washington. Growers seek shrimp controls compliant with the state’s ban on chemical pesticides while trying to protect their crop and land value and meet other regulatory requirements. Agency resource managers work to support growers while protecting the environment, including through measures such as eelgrass protection and restoration. With a statewide reputation as a trusted broker of information about marine resource use and management, Washington Sea Grant helps connect researchers like Hull and Hull’s thesis advisor Dr. Jennifer Ruesink with local partners seeking solutions to these complicated issues.
A burrowing shrimp native to Washington’s Pacific coast
“Science has an opportunity to serve so much more if you just stop and ask the communities what they want in these places where you’re doing research,” explains Hull. “If science is being used as a tool in these areas to address these things, we want to make sure it’s not being used in a self-serving way.
The complete research project, Hull notes, is a way he can thank the community members for allowing him to do the work he did. His dissertation offers an understanding of how many burrowing shrimp it takes to damage a shellfish bed and the mechanism by which they do it that farmers didn’t have before–and hopefully helps to clear a path forward to new forms of pest management.
Using science as a tool for community problem-solving is something that Hull continues to prioritize in his role as a natural resource scientist at the Washington Department of Natural Resources. He started the role during his PhD and stresses that while the topics he researches now are different, the overarching approach to his work is the same.
“I wanted my research to be useful,” Hull says. “Being able to give back through science that is digestible and meaningful, that was the most rewarding thing.”
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Washington Sea Grant, based at the University of Washington, helps people and marine life thrive through research, technical expertise and education supporting the responsible use and conservation of coastal ecosystems. Washington Sea Grant is one of 34 Sea Grant programs supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in coastal and Great Lakes states that encourage the wise stewardship of our marine resources through research, education, outreach and technology transfer.
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JUN
2025