Fisheries

Who brings your seafood to you? An interview with Jesse Holden, fisherman, shellfish farmer and geoduck diver

April 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 ...

4
APR

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Steller sea lion scat and science communications

March 10, 2025

Reflecting on my Washington Sea Grant-supported research opportunity

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 ...

10
MAR

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From boat to plate

The newly revised Seafood Direct Marketing Manual helps seafood harvesters dive into direct-to-consumer sales

From the Winter 2024-2025 Sea Star

By 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 in ...

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FEB

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New course teaches Skills and Drills that can help land a commercial fishing job

February 13, 2025

The Skills and Drills Course will be held March 27-28 in South Bend, Washington

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. Read More

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FEB

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Who brings your seafood to you? An interview with Julia Richfield, food service director at Boistford School

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 ...

26
NOV

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Who brings your seafood to you? An interview with Joe Malley, fisherman and owner of St Jude Tuna

October 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 ...

28
OCT

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Who brings your seafood to you? An interview with Nick Mendoza, founder of a seafood snack company

June 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, ...

27
JUN

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Who brings your seafood to you? An interview with Riley Starks, fisherman and co-founder of the Salish Center

June 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 ...

3
JUN

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Who brings your seafood to you? An interview with Thomas Foster-Kibbler and Heather Auld of Foster Fisheries

January 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 ...

24
JAN

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Blue Futures: WSG funds collaborative research projects with the Makah Tribe

From the Summer 2023 Sea Star

By incorporating people, culture and Indigenous knowledge systems, these three projects model the use of interdisciplinary approaches to inform marine resource management

By 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 ...

27
JUN

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WSG helps partners handshake on ocean shipping lanes solution

March 29, 2023

The Columbia River Crab Fishermen’s Association presented an award to Jenna Keeton, Washington Sea Grant Fisheries Specialist, for her skillful approach to supporting stakeholder engagement

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 ...

29
MAR

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From ecosystem to economy: Biologist turns deckhand in Bristol Bay

October 28, 2022

It was time to stop fishing for the day in Naknek, Bristol Bay. Just like every day of their summer season, the 32’ drift boat pulled into line to deliver their day’s catch of sockeye salmon to a tender – a bigger vessel that then brings the harvested fish to the processors on land.

In bright orange ...

28
OCT

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Who Brings Your Seafood to You? An Interview with Steve Seymour of Drayton Harbor Oyster Company

September 27, 2022

Looking ahead to National Seafood Month in October, we are sharing this profile of a local seafood entrepreneur

By Olivia Horwedel, WSG Science Communications Fellow

Steve Seymour — a fisheries biologist-turned-oyster farmer — has always been passionate about the marine world. Prior to opening Drayton Harbor Oyster Company, Steve spent most of his career running salmon hatcheries for the Lummi Nation, working on fish enhancement projects throughout Washington State.

Throughout his career ...

27
SEP

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Working Together to Monitor Dungeness Crab

From the Autumn 2022 Sea Star

The Pacific Northwest Crab Research Group connects fisheries management scientists and resource managers, facilitating collaboration and information sharing

By Samantha Larson, WSG Science Writer

“Male Dungeness, 173, 1-2!” After calling out the specs, Emily Buckner — the program coordinator for the Pacific Northwest Crab Research Group (PCRG) — swiftly tosses the wriggling crab overboard and then reaches back into the pot to pull out another. Today, Buckner’s job entails going out with a small team on ...

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SEP

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Who Brings Your Seafood to You? An Interview with Mike Cornman of Westport Seafood

August 30, 2022

By Olivia Horwedel, WSG Science Communications Fellow

Mike Cornman, owner of Westport Seafood and Merino’s Seafood Market, was destined to work a career connected to the ocean. Cornman grew up in Westport, Washington — which at one point was known as the salmon capital of the world — and spent his summers working in his family’s fishing business that opened in 1985. While he left for several years to start his career ...

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AUG

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