March 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 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 MoreJanuary 25, 2022
The Gig Harbor BoatShop and Washington Sea Grant are launching the Purse Seine Vessel Crew Member Training Program, or “Crew School,” designed to provide instruction on the fundamental skills needed to work on a commercial fishing vessel. Led by experienced captains and crew, the hands-on curriculum will be taught in the classroom, aboard commercial fishing vessels ...
Read MoreBy Hannah Jeffries, WSG Science Communications Fellow
Shellfish growers spend countless hours on the tideflats each year to produce sustainable seafood for everyone to enjoy. All of this time out on the tideflats gives growers an extensive understanding of the environment around their farms, including the other organisms that live there. But their eyes can only take in what goes on ...
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 MoreOctober 27, 2021
Over the last few decades, shellfish farms and natural shellfish populations in Washington State have suffered large losses due to blooms of harmful algae that are not traditionally monitored and whose toxic effects are poorly understood. Washington Sea Grant (WSG) researchers and collaborators recently documented the role ...
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October 25, 2021
By Lucia Davids, WSG Student Assistant
As we wrap up this last week of National Seafood Month, we are sharing a recipe for grilled Caribbean crab cakes, a delicious dish that doesn’t take too long to make. Blue crab is fairly sustainable depending on its origin and could be a good choice for this recipe or ask ...
Read MoreOctober 20, 2021
We are thrilled to welcome Jenna Keeton as the new fisheries specialist at Washington Sea Grant (WSG)!
Jenna works to address the needs of Washington’s fisheries-dependent communities through targeted outreach and collaborative research. At Washington Sea Grant, Jenna’s overarching motivation is to strengthen networks among sustainable commercial fisheries, the seafood industry and consumers. Specifically, she strives to ...
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October 18, 2021
By Lucia Davids, WSG Student Assistant
Our recipe for this week of National Seafood Month is grilled fish tacos. This dish is quick to make and easily customizable for you and your family. Firm white fish is optimal for this recipe, such as cod, halibut or rockfish (all of which are potentially good sustainable choices and typically ...
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October 11, 2021
By Lucia Davids, WSG Student Assistant
This week’s feature for National Seafood Month is grilled shrimp satay. If you’re looking to keep things as sustainable as possible in your kitchen, Oregon pink shrimp is highly recommended. As a preparation consideration, let it be noted that I used foil packets for the shrimp and slight alterations to cook time ...
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October 4, 2021
By Lucia Davids, WSG Student Assistant
This week for National Seafood Month, we’ll be indulging in grilled lemon parsley cod. Pacific cod in particular is a good sustainable seafood choice at the moment, especially cod certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. As a preparation consideration, let it be noted that I will be using foil packets ...
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September 29, 2021
By Lucia Davids, WSG Student Assistant
As the chilly Autumn weather rolls in, we set our sights towards comforting meals and recipes that can bring just a little bit of warmth to our days. Traditionally, we tend to move away from outdoor meals and settle into dishes like soups, stews and delicious baked goods. The weather, however, ...
Read MoreAugust 30, 2021
NOAA Sea Grant awarded California, Oregon and Washington Sea Grants $599,988 for a project to help address the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the West Coast seafood industry. The project seeks to enhance seafood availability along the U.S. West Coast by developing marketing resources and infrastructure and conducting associated trainings for West Coast seafood providers and handlers; improve seafood access by increasing public knowledge; increase utilization of (and support for) seafood through a public awareness campaign; ...
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 ...
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