March 15, 2023
Indigenous peoples have been stewarding the ocean for thousands of years. This stewardship has appeared in many different forms around the world, all of which represent a reciprocal relationship between humans and the sea rooted in deep place-based knowledge. From ...
February 7, 2023
By Andrea Richter-Sanchez, WSG Science Communications Fellow
Kelp aquaculture has many potential benefits to society. For example, it can provide habitat for marine life, decrease erosion along shorelines, absorb excess carbon dioxide and nutrients from the water, and provide food for local communities. As of now there is only one open water commercial seaweed farm in Washington — but the state ...
Read MoreDecember 21, 2022
My name is Olivia Horwedel and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be the Communications Fellow for the Cross-Pacific Indigenous Aquaculture Collaborative Network. I grew up in Michigan and spent the majority of my childhood outdoors exploring the rivers, lakes and streams of my home state. Growing up with such an appreciation and admiration ...
September 22, 2022
NOAA Sea Grant is continuing support for 11 advanced aquaculture collaboratives initially funded as part of Sea Grant’s 2019 National Aquaculture Initiative. Two of these projects are led by Washington Sea Grant: the Indigenous Aquaculture Collaborative and the West Coast Aquaculture Collaborative. Washington Sea Grant is also a partner on the Seaweed Hub (led by Connecticut Sea ...
Read MoreBy Benjamin Haagen, WSG Science Communications Fellow
Aquaculture in the Salish Sea brings both benefits and challenges to coastal communities and ecosystems. The yellow aquaculture rope commonly used in shellfish farming is contributing to a key environmental issue facing the world today: plastics pollution. This issue is being addressed in a novel way by Nicole Baker, ...
Read MoreMarch 30, 2022
Washington Sea Grant is thrilled to welcome Michelle Lepori-Bui, marine water quality specialist, to the team.
Michelle partners with Native tribes, aquaculture businesses, natural resource managers, environmental education centers, and other community groups and volunteers to monitor and address marine water quality issues in Washington. She provides technical assistance and support to the SoundToxins program, which focuses ...
Read MoreFebruary 17, 2022
Indigenous People have been stewarding the ocean for thousands of years. This stewardship has appeared in many different forms around the world, all of which represent a reciprocal relationship between humans and the sea rooted in deep place-based knowledge. From octopus houses in Haida Gwaii to fish ponds in Hawaiʻi, an Indigenous mariculture renaissance is making waves as groups across the Pacific seek to ...
Read MoreJanuary 26, 2022
From tribal fishermen exercising their treaty fishing rights to oyster farmers in south Puget Sound, seafood harvesting and aquaculture are vital to Pacific Northwest culture and commerce. However, forces including climate change, ocean acidification and coastal development threaten these sources of sustenance and tradition. Restorative aquaculture — that is, sustainable ocean farming ...
Read MoreNovember 9, 2021
Federal grants will enable the Tribal Community to revitalize the ancient Indigenous mariculture practice
La Conner, Wash. – In the 1990s, members of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community began to notice that they weren’t finding as many native littleneck clams on their traditional harvest sites. With climate change and ocean acidification—issues that particularly affect shellfish—this trend was likely to worsen. The Tribe realized that these and other changes could continue to affect their access to traditional foods, cultural practices and, ...
Read MoreJuly 21, 2021
The record-breaking heat that hit the Pacific Northwest from June 23 to 28, 2021, caused harm to many intertidal shellfish and invertebrate species on Washington beaches.
On many beaches, species such as cockles, varnish clams, butter clams, and native littleneck clams—normally buried out of sight—popped to the surface of the substrate in large numbers. Manila clams were also impacted in some areas. Surfaced clams were observed to be gaping, a sign of stress, or had already died from the ...
Read MoreJune 17, 2021
Back in the summers of 2018 and 2019, the shellfish industry in Washington state was rocked by mass mortalities of its crops.
“It was oysters, clams, cockles — all bivalve species in some bays were impacted,” said Teri King, aquaculture and marine water quality specialist at Washington Sea Grant based at the University of Washington. “They were dying, and nobody knew why.”
Now, King and partners from NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Northwest ...
Read MoreMay 20, 2021
Did you know that Hawaiian fish ponds once produced 400-600 pounds of fish per acre each year? Sustainable indigenous aquaculture has endured for millennia, and these systems will continue to unite ecosystems and cultures, as well as expand our food connections throughout the Pacific.
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April 28, 2021
“Our coast Salish people had methods of cultivating the natural environment to support the ecosystems but also to feed the people,” says Alana Quintasket, senator for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. “And a clam garden is one example of that.” However, clam gardens have been dormant for hundreds of years in many of places that they used to exist. The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community is currently working toward reviving the ancient mariculture practice in modern-day Washington.
Not only does this ...
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