September 15, 2025
Westport — The first-ever Washington Fishermen’s Convention is coming to Westport this winter, aimed at unifying and celebrating the state’s diverse fishing industry while bringing new and prospective fishermen into the fold. The Convention will take place December 4-8, 2025. Current and aspiring fishermen ...
By Brian McGreal, WSG Science Communications Fellow
In 2018, in a case brought forth by 21 Northwest Tribes, the Supreme Court ruled that Washington State has a duty to protect tribal treaty rights by preserving fish runs. The main focus of this case was replacing culverts — infrastructure that allows streams to pass underneath a road or path, and ...
Read MoreBy Jess Davis, WSG Science Communications Fellow
Big actions often start with simple dreams. Nearly 40 years ago, many Washington state salmon fishermen began noticing declining stocks in salmon populations. Livelihoods impacted, a group of these fishermen felt a sense of urgency to initiate an effort to reinvigorate Washington salmon fishery ...
May 20, 2025
By Alison Lorenz, WSG Communications Project Coordinator
“Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” The student called a distress signal, indicating their boat had an emergency. Fortunately, there was no real danger at Washington Sea Grant (WSG)’s South Bend office. Students were practicing mayday calls as part of WSG’s Skills and Drills training, a new course designed to equip aspiring commercial fishermen with the skills they need to succeed.
Washington state supports a vibrant ...
Read MoreApril 4, 2025
By Alison Lorenz, WSG Communications Project Coordinator
One of the first questions to ask in a fisherman profile is what all the fisherman catches. Many fishermen specialize in one or two species, but some target several. With Jesse Holden, the answer was: everything.
“Crabbing, shrimping, gilnetting, diving, pretty much anything,” Holden lists, explaining what he can do off the boat he recently purchased, his largest yet. He crabs for Dungeness, catches prawns, gillnets for salmon, and dives for geoduck, sea ...
Read MoreMarch 10, 2025
By Maddie Gard, WSG Science Communications Fellow
Washington Sea Grant prioritizes three core functions: research, outreach, and education. By some quirk of fate, I’ve matched with opportunities in each of these focus areas as a student in Washington state universities. When I was an undergraduate, a formative research experience in marine mammal ecology strengthened my passion for science-informed conservation efforts and catalyzed my career direction.
At Western ...
Read MoreBy Alison Lorenz, WSG Communications Project Coordinator
Starting a business is no easy feat — especially when you throw in the unpredictable nature of boat maintenance, weather, catches and wholesale prices. For many fishermen, selling their product directly to seafood consumers can be a way to regain some control in a notoriously volatile industry. But where does a fisherman who is interested ...
Read MoreFebruary 13, 2025
Washington Sea Grant is launching a new two-day program — the Skills and Drills Course — for people who want to gain hands-on experience performing tasks that may be required onboard a West Coast commercial fishing vessel. 
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November 26, 2024
By Alison Lorenz, WSG Communications Project Coordinator
For Julia Richfield, 2022 was a year of new things. She moved to a new place–Chehalis, Washington–and got a new job in a new field. With some front-of-house experience in restaurants and zero professional cooking experience, Richfield became the food service director at Boistford School. She went from having never cooked professionally to doing all of the ingredient ordering, menu writing, cooking and serving for the school’s 90 students, preparing breakfast and ...
Read MoreOctober 28, 2024
By Jess Davis, WSG Science Communication Fellow
Prior to his life as a commercial albacore tuna fisher, Joe Malley was a graduate student and mathematics scholar teaching at the University of Oregon. The academic job market at the time left something to be desired. After the Vietnam War, student enrollment rates nationwide were dwindling. As Malley explains it, he realized that his prospects upon getting his PhD amounted to “getting a non-tenure track job at a no-name ...
Read MoreJune 27, 2024
By Alison Lorenz, WSG Science Writer
To friends and family, Nick Mendoza has always been “the fish guy.” From what he describes as an “uncanny obsession” with fish in his youth to his work as a marine scientist, a love of the ocean is as inherent to Mendoza as his entrepreneurial spirit. Perhaps these traits explain why, amid constant texts from loved ones asking how to eat more, and more sustainable, seafood, Mendoza saw not a challenge, ...
Read MoreJune 3, 2024
By Alison Lorenz, WSG Science Writer
Riley Starks had never fished a day in his life and had rarely been on the water when he graduated college in 1972. But he had a whole year ahead of him before he started law school, he needed money, and a friend of his had just bought a boat. When his friend asked Riley to come crew with him that winter, Riley did. “And it was just one of those moments when ...
Read MoreJanuary 24, 2024
By Alison Lorenz, WSG Science Writer
Before Thomas Foster-Kibbler got into commercial fishing, he wanted to be an EMT on a firefighting crew. He was living in sunny Los Angeles County, training to help others. The problem? He was spending all his spare time and cash sport fishing on charter boats and spending, as he says, “too much money to go fishing all the time.”
That’s when something clicked. Foster-Kibbler decided to try a career in fishing commercially, and found ...
Read MoreBy Olivia Horwedel, WSG Science Communications Fellow
Deep blue ocean waters push against rocky shorelines and coastal forests. Eagles soar overhead. In the distance, whales surface, taking a moment to breathe as they navigate through the ocean’s waters. This incredibly unique landscape, situated at the Northwest tip of Washington state, is the ...
Read MoreMarch 29, 2023
It started in another century when towboats ran over crab pots, tangling their propellers in buoys and lines.
Both towboat operators and crabbers knew an agreement was needed to keep their gear intact. For 50 years they maintained an orderly understanding in occupying their separate businesses in the greater, shared ocean space. Then Washington Sea ...
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