Tiny fishes fuel life on coral reefs

Posted on Thursday, May 23rd, 2019 at 7:21 pm.

UW News staff
This article originally appeared in UW News

Fish swim along the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. A new study shows that tiny fishes, which are rarely monitored or studied, provide critical fuel for coral reef ecosystems.

Coral reefs typically evoke clear, turquoise waters and a staggering number of colorful fishes. But what supports such an abundance of life?

In a paper published May 23 in Science, a team of international researchers from Simon Fraser University, University of Washington and other institutions reveals that the iconic abundance of fishes on reefs is fueled by an unlikely source: tiny, bottom-dwelling reef fishes.

The researchers show that these small vertebrates — no more than 2 to 3 centimeters in length — perform a critical function on coral reefs that permit large reef fishes to flourish.

“These fish are like candy,” said lead author Simon Brandl, a Banting postdoctoral research fellow at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. “They are tiny, colorful bundles of energy that get eaten almost immediately by any coral reef organism that can bite, grab or slurp them up.”

Most bottom-dwelling fish try to avoid predation through hiding or camouflage. This colorful bluebelly blenny fish scans its surroundings with its head sticking out of its hole.

In fact, the vast majority of tiny fishes on reefs will be eaten within the first few weeks of their existence.

“We were all truly excited to see how entire reef communities were being fueled by some of the smallest vertebrates on earth — including some species that live for an average of just 65 days,” said co-author Luke Tornabene, an assistant professor at the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and curator of fishes at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.

So how come these fishes aren’t disappearing from reefs? The researchers solved this mystery by examining the larvae of reef fishes, which normally undertake epic journeys across the open ocean to find a home. Few of them survive.

The tiny, bottom-dwelling fish, however, avoid this migration altogether. Most of the larvae appear to simply stay close to their parents’ reefs.

A small black and red fish against coral — Gobies and blennies, like this redstreaked blenny, underpin coral reef productivity at a great cost: most of these tiny fishes get eaten within several weeks or months, but they are almost immediately replenished by the next generation.

“Tiny fish larvae absolutely dominate the larval communities near reefs,” Brandl said. “Our data shows that these fish get a lot more bang for their buck with every egg they spawn, probably because they avoid the death trap of the open ocean.”

This, in turn, supplies adult tiny fish populations with a steady stream of babies that rapidly replace each adult that is eaten on the reef. In total, these fish represent almost 60 percent of all fish tissue consumed on reefs.

Two redeye gobies hover above coral — Redeye gobies hover in small groups above coral heads, on which they rely for shelter.

The researchers expect this pattern is occurring on coral reefs around the world. Additionally, because these small fish likely spend the entirety of their short lives on a specific reef, they are good indicators of how healthy a reef environment is, Tornabene explained. If the habitat starts to degrade, the fish populations will also take an almost immediate hit.

“In many ways, these miniature fishes are more than just a conveyer belt of nutrients,” Tornabene said. “If we keep a watchful eye on these tiny communities, they may serve as sentinels of the reef, warning us of big impending changes in the entire ecosystem.”

A Great Barrier Reef blenny pokes its head out of a coral hole — A Great Barrier Reef blenny looks out warily. It is these little fishes that supply over half the fish flesh eaten on coral reefs.

This study was funded by the BNP Paribas Foundation, the National Agency for Research (France), the Smithsonian Institution, the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Australian Research Council.

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For more information, contact Tornabene at luke.tornabene@gmail.com or 206-685-4254 and Brandl at simonjbrandl@gmail.com or 604-348-6423.

This was adapted from a Simon Fraser University news release.

Hot spots in rivers that nurture young salmon ‘flicker on and off’ in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region

Posted on Thursday, May 23rd, 2019 at 6:56 pm.

Written by dinicola

Michelle Ma
This article originally appeared in UW News

A spawning sockeye salmon looking at the camera underwater — A spawning sockeye salmon.

Chemical signatures imprinted on tiny stones that form inside the ears of fish show that two of Alaska’s most productive salmon populations, and the fisheries they support, depend on the entire watershed.

Sockeye and Chinook salmon born in the Nushagak River and its network of streams and lakes in southwest Alaska use the whole basin as youngsters when searching for the best places to find prey, shelter and safety from predators. From birth until the fish migrate to the ocean a year later is a critical period for young salmon to eat and grow.

An zoomed in photo of a fish otolith — The otolith of an adult Chinook salmon harvested in Nushagak Bay. The otolith is still within its endolymphatic sac where it is surrounded by a fluid. Minerals from the water are deposited on the otolith in discrete layers throughout each fish’s life.

By analyzing each fish’s ear stone — called an otolith — scientists have found that different parts of the watershed are hot spots for salmon production and growth, and these favorable locations change year to year depending on how climate conditions interact with local landscape features like topography to affect the value of habitats.

The new study, led by the University of Washington, appears online May 23 in Science.

“We found that the areas where fish are born and grow flicker on and off each year in terms of productivity,” said lead author Sean Brennan, a postdoctoral researcher at the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. “Habitat conditions aren’t static, and optimal places shift around. If you want to stabilize fish production over the years, the only strategy is to keep all of the options on the table.”

The Nushagak River watershed is the largest river basin in the Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, which supports the biggest sockeye salmon fishery in the world and provides about 50 percent of wild sockeye globally. It is also known for its large run of Chinook salmon.

Nine images of different river terrain in Alaska — The Nushagak River is a complex mosaic of different habitats ranging from lakes, spring-fed ponds and fast-flowing streams to small and large meandering rivers. The pictures are organized west to east (left to right) to reflect the major regions of the vast Nushagak basin: The Tikchik lakes region in the west, the upper Nushagak River in the center and the Mulchatna River to the east.

The new study coincides with renewed efforts to gain permits for the Pebble Mine, a proposed copper and gold excavation near the headwaters of the Nushagak River. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ draft environmental analysis considered only two or three years of fish counts in specific locations in proximity to the proposed mine. It states that fish habitat lost to the mine could be recreated elsewhere.

But the new Science study shows that key salmon habitat shifts year to year, and how productive one area is for a short period might not represent its overall value to the fish population or larger ecosystem.

“The overall system is more than just the sum of its parts, and small pieces of habitat can be disproportionately important,” said senior author Daniel Schindler, a professor at the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. “The arrows point to the need to protect or restore at the entire basin scale if we want rivers to continue to function as they should in nature.”

The research team reconstructed the likely geographic locations of nearly 1,400 adult salmon, from their birth in a Nushagak stream until they migrated to the ocean. By looking at each fish’s otolith — which accumulates layers as the animal grows — researchers could tell where the fish lived by matching the chemical signatures imprinted on each “growth ring” of the otolith with the chemical signatures of the water in which they swam.

Animation of the first year of life in freshwater for an adult Chinook salmon overlaid on a map of SW Alaska — Animation of the first year of life in freshwater for an adult Chinook salmon. Where this fish likely lived from the time it was born up to the point when it migrated to the ocean were determined by matching the chemical signatures across the watershed with how these were recorded in the fish’s otolith. The animation shows that during this fish’s first year of life it used a large range of habitats, including the lower Nushagak River, to achieve the total amount of growth it needed prior to migrating to the ocean.

These chemical signatures come from isotopes of the trace element strontium, found in bedrock. Strontium’s isotopic makeup varies geographically from one tributary to another, particularly in the Nushagak basin, making it easy to tell where and when a fish spent time.

Image of a salmon otolith through a microscope. Growth rings are clearly visible. — The otolith of a juvenile Chinook salmon captured in the upper Nushagak River. This otolith has been sectioned in order to expose its concentric daily growth rings.

“The otolith is this natural archive that basically provides a transcript of how a fish moved downstream through the river network,” Schindler said. “Essentially, we’re sampling the entire watershed and letting the fish tell us where the habitat conditions were most productive in that year.”

The researchers noticed significant patterns when comparing where fish lived year to year. For example, in 2011 the northwest portion of the watershed in the Upper Nushagak was highly productive for Chinook, meaning more fish were born and gained body mass in that region. But by 2014 and 2015, the population had shifted eastward to utilize resources in the Mulchatna River and its tributaries — several that are downstream of the Pebble deposit.

Three maps of the Nushagak River — The spatial pattern in the production of Chinook salmon from the Nushagak River basin shifted among different parts of the watershed year to year. Regions of high production in 2011 were located in the upper Nushagak River. In 2014, the most productive habitats shifted to the east to the Mulchatna River basin.

Similar types of shifts have been documented in a number of land- and water-based animal populations, but this is the first study to show the phenomenon at a watershed-wide scale, the authors said.

“The big thing we show is these types of dynamics are critical for stabilizing biological production through time. When you have a range of habitat available, the total production from the system tends to be more stable, reliable and resilient to environmental change,” Brennan said.

The public comment period for the Pebble Mine draft environmental impact statement recently was extended to June 29 to provide more time for groups to weigh in on the 1,400-page document.

The authors of the new study said they hope it can be used to inform the scientific analysis of the proposed mine’s impact on fish.

“Results like those we’re presenting in this paper hopefully will get people to think about what they stand to lose by starting to develop and eliminate habitat in places like the Nushagak River,” Schindler said. “The Pebble Mine environmental impact statement, which is supposed to be a mature, state-of-the-science assessment of risks, really does a poor job of assessing risks of this specific project.”

Drone image of Spawning sockeye salmon in a small stream. — Spawning sockeye salmon in a small stream.

Other co-authors are Diego Fernandez at the University of Utah; Timothy Cline and Timothy Walsworth, both former UW graduate students who are now postdoctoral researchers at the University of Michigan and Utah State University, respectively; and Greg Buck at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The study was funded by Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, the Bristol Bay Science Research Institute and the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim Sustainable Salmon Initiative.

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For more information, contact Brennan at 801-633-7906 or srbrenn@uw.edu and Schindler at 206-794-1743 or deschind@uw.edu.

Exploring Our Watery World at UW’s Aquatic Science Open House

Posted on Tuesday, May 21st, 2019 at 6:20 pm.

Written by dinicola

On May 4th, the University of Washington held its second annual Aquatic Science Open House, inviting Seattle-area families, students, and teachers to explore the institution’s marine and freshwater science programs. The event was organized by the Students Explore Aquatic Sciences (SEAS) outreach group based in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS) and the Academic and Recreational Graduate Oceanographers (ARGO) outreach group based in the School of Oceanography.

Now in its second year, the open house has grown to include both the School of Oceanography and the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, as well as other scientists across the UW and from organizations outside of the university, explains Alex Lincoln, a UW graduate student at SAFS and one of the event’s organizers. “The scope and diversity of science represented continues to grow, which has been exciting for all involved,” she said.

Additional local science and outreach organizations invited to participate in this year’s event included NOAA Alaska Fishery Science Center, NOAA Northwest Fishery Science Center, Mathematics Engineering and Science Achievement program Seattle, and Northwest Hydraulics Consultants.

“What we really want to show to families and to the broader public is that while SAFS and Oceanography are working on many projects at the local level, we are also focused on understanding ocean and freshwater ecosystems on a global scale,” said Brendan Phillip, a UW graduate student at the School of Oceanography. It’s a great chance for people to see how their local knowledge connects to larger environmental forces.”

Over 530 guests attended throughout the afternoon; they participated in exhibits and games across both the Ocean Sciences and Fisheries Science buildings. Visitors were also able to sign up for guided tours of the docked research vessel Rachel Carson and the expansive UW Fish Collection (part of the Burke Museum), the largest of its kind in North America.

Walking between the two buildings along NE Boat Street, guests also caught a glimpse of Seattle’s Opening Day boat parade in Portage Bay, which marks the official first day of the boating season.

Inside, creative displays built and designed by students, post-docs, staff, and faculty volunteers helped translate some of the schools’ complex research into approachable lessons and activities for people of all ages. Visitors learned from and spoke with scientists at 31 different stations and labs, where topics ranged from narwhal feeding and migration behaviors (where children could attach their own narwhal “horn” atop their heads), to coral bleaching demonstrations, underwater robotics and glider fabrication, and the use of colored dyes to reveal how ocean currents form. The imaginativeness of stations and the enthusiasm from all of the volunteers cultivated a festival-like atmosphere where there was something new for guests to see around every corner.

“The energy was absolutely contagious! By being surrounded by a group of willing learners, parents and children alike, and exceptional scientists you couldn’t help but to feel excited,” said one volunteer. “My absolute favorite moment was when a kid came to play our ‘how many fish in the sea’ game, and as he started to fish, he said, ‘I can’t catch them all though, I learned that upstairs!’”

University faculty were also eager for the opportunity to open their labs and present their research to new kinds of audiences.

“Opening our doors to the public is one of many ways that SAFS faculty and students share our research with the world,” said Julian Olden. a faculty member at SAFS.

He is hopeful that visitors walked away, having learned something new, and, in turn, can apply that knowledge in their lives. Olden’s lab’s booth focused on the challenges associated with invasive species and the damage they can cause to native ecosystems. “We talked to the public about the hazards of intentionally releasing aquarium plants and animals and how to better dispose of these critters,” he said. Onlookers were even encouraged to (carefully) hold a live red swamp crayfish, one of Washington state’s most aggressive invaders.

A child holds a crayfish while adults look on, at an Open House event. — Julian Olden discussing the invasive red swamp crayfish with guests.

The SEAS and ARGO outreach groups want to continue to foster curiosity in STEM with K-12 students in the greater Seattle area and use opportunities like the open house to develop ongoing relationships with local schools.

“Exposing children to science allows them to meet different scientists working on a broad range of areas. It expands their vision to include environmental science and connects them to local issues that they might hear on the news,” said Isadora Jimenez, a SAFS research scientist and the coordinator and founder of SEAS.

The outreach groups also want to impress upon children the importance of diversity in these different fields and that anyone can become a scientist.

“For older students, the interactions with scientists makes them learn more about science as a career option and see scientists as real people–see themselves as scientists,” she said. “They might discover that science is for anyone and everyone, and that they just need to find the right track to fulfill their curiosity.”

A group of people stand around a tank of water which has colored dye in it. — Oceanography graduate student Jake Steinberg illustrating how currents and eddies form in the ocean.

In future years, the organizers would like to see the open house expand further by incorporating students and researchers from other UW campuses as well as extending invitations to additional agencies and local Tribes. The aim is to continue to inspire guests to explore their curiosity in the STEM fields and for UW student, staff, and faculty volunteers to embrace science communication and public engagement.

“It made me feel very proud to be part of this research community, and also that what we do is connected to our broader community. Out of all the outreach opportunities I’ve had, this was my favorite,” said one volunteer researcher. “In academia, my work is usually limited to my own lab, but at the open house, it felt like all the labs were working together towards a common goal. I figured the open house would be great, but it vastly exceeded my expectations.”

One-third of the world’s longest rivers remain free-flowing, new analysis finds

Posted on Thursday, May 9th, 2019 at 8:36 pm.

Written by dinicola

Michelle Ma
This article originally appeared in UW News

The Grand Coulee Dam from the air — Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in Washington.

Just over one-third of the world’s 246 longest rivers remain free-flowing, according to a new study published May 8 in Nature. Dams and reservoirs are drastically reducing the diverse benefits that healthy rivers provide to people and nature across the globe.

A team of 34 international researchers from McGill University, World Wildlife Fund, the University of Washington and other institutions assessed the connectivity status of 12 million kilometers of rivers worldwide, providing the first-ever global assessment of the location and extent of the planet’s remaining free-flowing rivers.

Photo of the Laird River in Canada from the bank — The Laird River in Canada is among the 10 longest free-flowing rivers in the country.

Among other findings, the researchers determined that only 21 of the world’s 91 rivers longer than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) that originally flowed to the ocean still retain a direct connection from source to sea. The planet’s remaining free-flowing rivers are largely restricted to remote regions of the Arctic, the Amazon Basin and the Congo Basin.

“The world’s rivers form an intricate network with vital links to land, groundwater, and the atmosphere,’’ said lead author Günther Grill of McGill’s Department of Geography. “Free-flowing rivers are important for humans and the environment alike, yet economic development around the world is making them increasingly rare. Using satellite imagery and other data, our study examines the extent of these rivers in more detail than ever before.”

Dams and reservoirs are the leading contributors to connectivity loss in global rivers. The study estimates there are around 60,000 large dams worldwide, and more than 3,700 hydropower dams are currently planned or under construction. They are often planned and built at the individual project level, making it difficult to assess their real impacts across an entire basin or region.

Rushing water out of a tunnel — The town of Sembé in the Republic of the Congo will receive power from this newly constructed hydropower dam.

“Our findings are quite sobering — ongoing dam construction will continue to dwindle the number of remaining free-flowing rivers,” said co-author Julian Olden, a professor at the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. “But, optimistically, the removal of aging and obsolete dams can help reverse this course.”

Healthy rivers support freshwater fish stocks that improve food security for hundreds of millions of people, deliver sediment that keeps deltas above rising seas, mitigate the impact of extreme floods and droughts, prevent loss of infrastructure and fields to erosion and support a wealth of biodiversity. Disrupting rivers’ connectivity often diminishes or even eliminates these critical ecosystem services.

“Science clearly points to the importance of habitat connectivity to support healthy populations of Pacific salmon,” Olden said. “The findings of our study put the challenges facing the Columbia River Basin and many Puget Sound rivers into a global context.”

Protecting remaining free-flowing rivers is also crucial to saving biodiversity in freshwater systems. Recent analysis of 16,704 populations of wildlife globally showed that populations of freshwater species experienced the most pronounced decline of all vertebrates over the past half century, falling on average 83 percent since 1970.

The study also notes that climate change will further threaten the health of rivers worldwide. Rising temperatures are already impacting flow patterns, water quality and biodiversity. Meanwhile, as countries around the world shift to low-carbon economies, hydropower planning and development is accelerating, adding urgency to the need to develop energy systems that minimize overall environmental and social impact.

A man standing on a canoe on the Mekong river in Laos — Life along the banks of the Mekong River in Laos.

“While hydropower inevitably has a role to play in the renewable energy landscape, countries should also consider other renewable options,” said Michele Thieme, lead freshwater scientist at World Wildlife Fund. “Well-planned wind and solar energy can have less detrimental impacts on rivers and the communities, cities, and biodiversity that rely on them.”

The international community is committed to protect and restore rivers under Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, which requires countries to track the extent and condition of water-related ecosystems. This study delivers methods and data necessary for countries to maintain and restore free-flowing rivers around the world.

See the paper for a full list of co-authors and institutions.

This study was funded by World Wildlife Fund, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and McGill University.

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For more information, contact Olden at olden@uw.edu. To reach authors at McGill University or World Wildlife Fund, contact Brooke Hirsheimer at brooke.hirsheimer@wwfus.org or 202-495-4759.

This has been adapted from a World Wildlife Fund news release.

Dr. Jacqueline Padilla-Gamiño Honored at Latinx Faculty Recognition Event

Posted on Wednesday, April 24th, 2019 at 8:01 pm.

Written by dinicola

We are proud and thrilled to share the news that School of Aquatic and Fishery Science faculty member Dr. Jacqueline Padilla-Gamiño has been honored by the Latino Center for Health at UW at the Latinx Faculty Recognition Event. This annual event honors the scholarly achievements of Latina and Latino faculty across the three campuses of the University of Washington.

Jacqueline (Jackie) Padilla-Gamiño is an Assistant Professor here in SAFS who studies the ecophysiology and reproductive biology of algae and marine invertebrates in a changing environment. By combining field and laboratory techniques, she examines the importance of transgenerational effects in acclimatization and local adaptation and investigates the synergistic effects of multiple stressors on coastal ecosystems. Jackie graduated from Universidad Autónoma de Baja California and completed a PhD in Oceanography at the University of Hawaii. She is interested in science communication and community engagement and is the author of the bilingual children’s book, Kupe and the Corals, which has been translated into five languages.

Please join us in congratulating Jackie and celebrating the achievements of the other honorees!

About the 3rd Annual Latinx Faculty Recognition Event:

University of Washington, Seattle Campus: May 2, 2019

The 3rd Annual Latinx Faculty Recognition Event, hosted by The Latino Center for Health will on May 2nd, honored the scholarly achievements of 33 Latinx faculty across the tri-campuses of the University of Washington for 2018-2019. Twenty-four of the honorees are from the UW Seattle campus, five honorees from UW Bothell, and four honorees from UW Tacoma. Faculty are recognized for meeting at least one of the following criteria: promotion to associate professor or professor, publication of an article in a high impact journal, publication of a book, fine arts production, securing a major grant, or retiring during or near the end of the academic year. In addition, Latinx faculty who have been promoted to significant leadership positions were also recognized this year.

Faculty members were honored in the presence of elected officials, community leaders, UW Regent Rogelio Riojas, deans, chairs, colleagues, family, friends, and students. The ceremony highlighted the incredible diverse body of work and impactful contributions of the 33 honorees.

“This celebration makes visible the outstanding achievements, promotion, mentorship and contributions of our Latinx faculty,” said Gino Aisenberg, Associate Dean of the Graduate School and Co-Director of the Latino Center for Health. “Their impact resounds across the UW community, from classrooms and laboratories, to diverse communities and fields of practice, and throughout the world. We are particularly overjoyed that six honorees have been promoted during this academic year!”

The Latino Center for Health, an interdisciplinary, community engaged research center is housed administratively in the Department of Health Services in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington. The Center organizes this event with support from the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity (OMA&D), the Office of Faculty Advancement, and Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP).

Click here to see this year’s full list of honorees.

Mark Scheuerell named new Assistant Unit Leader, USGS Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit

Posted on Monday, April 22nd, 2019 at 10:42 pm.

Written by dinicola

SAFS is excited to announce that Mark Scheuerell will be joining us as the USGS Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit’s new Assistant Unit Leader and as an Associate professor.

Mark has worked for a number of years for NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center as an applied ecologist and as an Affiliate Associate professor at here at SAFS.

He will be cooperating with a variety of state and federal organizations, tribes, and academic partners to study the freshwater and estuarine ecosystems that support Pacific salmon. He is exited about this opportunity because it will allow him to work integrally with the students, post-docs, and faculty in SAFS, as well as other scientists throughout the region.

When not working, Mark enjoys cycling, skiing, and spending time with his wife and two daughters.

Welcome to the team Mark!

Centennial Story 92: Tom Nishida (BS, 1979; MS, 1983)

Posted on Wednesday, April 10th, 2019 at 4:18 pm.

Written by dinicola

First of all, a heart-felt congratulations on the Centennial. To serve different flavors in one of the last Centennial stories before the 2019 Bevan Series symposium, here is my bitter, sour, sweet, and happy story.

I was born in Japan, but I dreamed of settling in the USA as my father’s family was from Hilo, Hawaii. To make this dream possible, I entered Newton Junior College (Massachusetts) when I was 20 years old to establish my first USA footprint. I chose Massachusetts because a US family friend was there. Later, I transferred to the UW College of Fisheries. I was a student of Douglas Chapman, Don Rogers, and Vincent Gallucci (all legendary professors). I studied the origins of Chinook salmon, using scale patterns as part of the High Seas Salmon Program, which included Nancy Davis, Kate Myers (BS, 1976), Colin Harris, and Ken Bruya (also legendary experts) and received my MS in 1983.

I have good memories of my time at the College of Fisheries; I made many friends and had excellent sensei (teachers) (Doug Gregory, Joan Hardy, David Fluharty, Marcus Duke, Loh-Lee Low [BS, 1970; MS 1972; PhD, 1974), Dan Ito [BS, 1979; MS, 1982; PhD, 1999], Loveday Conquest, Marianna Alexandersdottir, Steve Millard, Al Shimada [BS, 1978] and many others). I also had good experiences as a student helper for Don Bevan (I was assigned to the ADF&G, Kodiak Island office in summer) and for Ric Fleming (College of Oceanography). I also gained experience as both a TA and an RA. I enjoyed my private life, which included an American girlfriend from Renton, being a member and a trumpeter in the Seattle Japanese Baptist Church on Capital Hill (AFSC’s Don Kimura-san’s family was there), acting as a weekend math and science teacher at the Seattle Japanese School on Beacon Hill, and shopping for Japanese foods (sake is my fuel) at Uwajimaya. To make my dream to stay in the USA possible, I applied for a biometrician post at ADF&G, but was not offered the position, although I was one of the finalists. After 10 years in the USA and no job because of the competitive market, it was time to look internationally.

Tom (red arrow) leading IOTC tagging experiments (Maldives) (2009)

I got a job with the UN/FAO’s Indian Ocean project, the Indo-Pacific Tuna Programme (IPTP), in Sri Lanka. The IPTP was the predecessor of the IOTC (Indian Ocean Tuna Commission), one of five tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs). I stayed in Sri Lanka for six years and got married to Sanami from Tokyo (introduced to me by an American friend in Boston) and had two kids (Yoko and Ken) there. I still wanted to return to the US, but with a happy Japanese family and all my relatives in Japan, I decided to accept a post at the National Research Institute of Far Seas Fisheries (NRIFSF) in Japan, and I have continued to work with the IOTC for nearly 30 years.

I obtained my PhD from Tokyo University on the population dynamics of yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean. Because of my long-term dedication to IOTC, I was elected as the 4th Chairman of the IOTC Scientific Committee for four years (2012–2015). It was very hard, tough, head-ached and highly responsible work. I felt those four years were like a jail sentence without bail. However, it was a very good experience. I have many good stories about the tropical (tuna) life with the IOTC, but those stories will be written for the bicentennial?

In addition to working with the IOTC, I was asked by the NRIFSF to cover three international demersal fishery RFMOs, i.e., NAFO (NW Atlantic), SEAFO (SE Atlantic) and SIOFA (southern Indian Ocean). I now spend half of my time at their meetings and enjoy seeing various and unique species (people), including UW graduates. Just two days ago (March 30, 2019), I finished two weeks of SIOFA meetings in Yokohama as the Chair of the Stock Assessment Working Group and Vice-chair of the Scientific Committee.

SIOFA stock assessment working group meeting (Yokohama) (March, 2019) Australia, Cook Islands, EU, Korea, Japan, France (overseas territories), Mauritius, Thailand, Seychelles, Secretariat and observers (FAO, Industries and Environmental group) (Tom: center with the SIOFA flag)

Beside my normal work, I have been interested in Fisheries GIS and have organized the tri-annual International Fishery GIS Symposium seven times over 20 years (http://www.esl.co.jp/Sympo). Many outstanding papers were published in its proceedings. I also has been contributing for many years to stock assessment training at the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC).

My Sri Lankan-born daughter (Yoko) got married in 2016 and delivered a baby girl (Sakura) in 2018. Now Sanami and I are sharing blissful time with our first grand-daughter. Although my dream to settle in the USA did not come true, I am enjoying a happy and fulfilling life in Japan. This is the end of the Tom Nishida san’s mix taste story for the Centennial.

Wedding of Yoko with Sanami next to me (2016)

Finally, warm congratulations again on the Centennial and do enjoy the celebration during April 16–18.

Tom.nishida.9691@gmail.com
(for past UW Fisheries friends, let me know your story by e-mail) from cherry tree (Sakura) fully bloomed Shimizu (tuna landing port), Shizuoka prefecture, Japan (April 1, 2019).

View of Mt. Fuji near Tom’s Research Institute

Close up of a cherry blossom — Cherry blossom near Tom’s residence

Centennial Story 91: Alan J. Mearns (PhD, 1971)

Posted on Tuesday, April 9th, 2019 at 11:45 pm.

Written by dinicola

As I was graduating with a MA in Biology at Long Beach State College, in early 1967, my growing interest about effects of water pollution on fish and fisheries led me to the UW and to Lynwood Smith. He agreed to take me on as a PhD student, and George Brown Jr. provided a federal graduate student fellowship. During two hot September days I drove up I-5 to Seattle, the start of a new adventure, including meeting my future wife.

My work on the swimming physiology of adult salmon largely took place in the field, aboard a brand new floating laboratory, the R/V Kumtuks. “Kumtuks” means “to know or to understand” in native Chinook jargon. So later that year when Lynwood launched the new floating laboratory, Dean Richard Van Cleve christened it the R/V Kumtuks.

Lynwood’s idea for the Kumtuks was simple: “take the lab to the fish.” It was not a self-powered research vessel, and hence not subject to the strict Coast Guard regulations for powered vessels. The vessel would be towed to field sites, anchored, and serve as laboratory, home, and social center for 4–6 students and visiting scientists. Students spent months as a team, capturing and studying the effects of stress on migrating salmon. During 1968 thru 1970, the Kumtuks was located at various sites including Neah Bay, Hood Canal (near Seabeck), Elliot Bay, and at the intersection of the heavily polluted east and west waterways of the Duwamish River.

Lynwood designed the 100 x 35 ft floating lab with a deckhouse that included a complete galley, several staterooms, and several laboratories for chemical and analytical equipment. The rear of the deckhouse was a large open wet lab containing large circular tanks, wet tables, a large fish anesthesia operating table, and a unique, eight-foot long plexiglass recirculating swimming respirometer that he built. The roof of the deckhouse included space for five floating docks, an 18-foot inboard/outboard fiberglass boat, two large net pens and a crane to raise and lower the topside equipment.

The lower deck, at sea level, was the engine room, fitted with duplicate diesel generators, all kinds of plumbing and electrical wiring, and other equipment required to keep the Kumtuks alive and well: below, diesel fuel and fresh water tanks.

The Kumtuks was towed to research sites by contracted tugboats or fishing vessels, including the R/V Commando. The half-dozen graduate students under Lynwood’s guidance conducted experiments to document the effects of stress on salmon. Once safely anchored on site, the team coordinated with other College of Fisheries salmon research teams in live capture of migrating salmon, holding them in the net pens secured to the stern of the Kumtuks. Fish were brought into the upper deck lab, anesthetized, and fitted with blood and/or urine catheters. Once recovered, individual fish were placed in the swimming respirometer and allowed to swim at various speeds and oxygen levels, with students sampling blood and urine for chemistry, blood physiology, nitrogen excretion, and other variables. During one set of experiments that started in freshwater, we watched as adult salmon reduced their urine flow as they encountered salt water.

Lynwood Smith looks on at a catheterized adult salmon cruising in the swimming respirometer.

On some occasions, Lynwood, a pilot, flew us to Kumtuks sites at Seabeck and Neah Bay. When not at field sites, the Kumtuks was tied up alongside the old gray Oceanography Barge, itself tied up alongside the College of Fisheries building, and during my last two years, it served as my “dorm.”

For day-to-day operations, maintenance, and safety, Lynwood hired marine engineer Peter Swierkowski, a 30-something lithe, sandy-haired man with a strong Polish accent. Pete could fix and repair anything mechanical or electrical, including my 1960 Nash Rambler. Pete brought his own history to the team…an immigrant escapee from fighting in Southeast Asia. He was also a philosopher: “How you fix your bed is how you sleep.” Ashore, I shared office space with colleague Gary Sakagawa (PhD, 1972), with whom, at La Jolla, I maintained contact for several decades.

My most extraordinary experience, one that remains with me today, was at the Duwamish station. I lived for months, onboard, at the intersection of the east and west waterways, busy with vessel activity, combined sewer overflows, low DO, stink, and what one colleague called “trutta prophylactica”. We coordinated with Ernie Salo (PhD, 1955; and SoF faculty member) and his students who intercepted and counted the huge incoming fall Chinook. Today the Duwamish is a lot cleaner, but the percent returns have dropped an order of magnitude! Go figure.

Ernie Salo helped me land my first post-PhD job in 1971: Environmental Specialist with the newly formed Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) back in Los Angeles. In short, I graduated from Duwamish sewer overflows to move to the largest sewer outfalls on the Pacific Coast. Many College of Fisheries and FRI colleagues helped me with our studies on the effects of sewage on marine fish, and I am forever especially grateful to Bruce Miller (PhD, 1969; and SoF and SAFS faculty member).

In 2018, I retired after a 10-year career as a senior environmental specialist at SCCWRP, plus a 38-year career as ecologist with NOAA’s Puget Sound MESA Project and then the NOAA National HazMat Emergency Response Division in Seattle, supporting NOAA’s national scientific support coordinators during major oil spills, including the Exxon Valdez and the Deepwater Horizon. My most enduring friendship has been with Kumtuks colleague Rick Cardwell (MS, 1968; PhD, 1973), who became my “go-to” national expert in ecotoxicology and risk assessment.

I learned much more than science from my four years with Lynwood Smith, the Kumtuks, and fellow students, and SoF faculty—lessons that successfully carried through the rest of my career: think big; design your own approach to problems, challenge conventional wisdom, make lasting friends, and summarize what you learn in a single graphic.

For more information see Research in Fisheries Annual reports 1968, 1969 and 1970.

Centennial Story 90: James R. Karr, Professor, 1991–2006 (Emeritus, 2006–present)

Posted on Tuesday, April 9th, 2019 at 11:36 pm.

Written by dinicola

Some of us cannot help doing in retirement what we’ve loved doing throughout our working lives—indeed, since childhood. When I was a boy, I treasured exploring and learning about Ohio’s forests, fields, and streams; I kept exploring regional ecological systems in the Pacific Northwest on arriving at UW in 1991; and after becoming emeritus in 2006, I am still happiest exploring, learning, and teaching.

I have been very lucky in my research and teaching career. After earning my BS at Iowa State and an MS and PhD from the University of Illinois with work on fish and birds, I worked from 1970 to 1972 as a post-doc at Princeton with Robert MacArthur and at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) with Neal Smith. I spent those years studying bird communities in tropical forests around the world. I then held academic appointments at Purdue, Illinois, and Virginia Tech, where my research was split between tropical birds and temperate stream fish, and an appointment as deputy director of STRI in Panama for four years in the 1980s. Throughout those pre-UW years, I was privileged to work in forests and watersheds in Central and North America.

Jim Karr with a snake in 1978 — Jim Karr and bushmaster in Panama forest study plot, about 1978.

In 1991, I came to UW as Professor of Zoology and Director of the Institute for Environmental Studies. While here, several UW departments, including Fisheries, Environmental Health, and Civil Engineering, as well as the Graduate School of Public Affairs (now the Evans School), gave me adjunct appointments, which opened doors to collaborate with faculty and students in those units. When Environmental Studies was eliminated during budget cuts in 1993–94, I transferred half of my appointment to the School of Fisheries while the other half remained in Biology.

The best part of my time at UW has been working in and with new places, systems, and people for both research and teaching. While in the Midwest, I had developed an index of biotic integrity (IBI), which incorporated characteristics of fish communities to measure the health of streams and rivers. Little did I realize then that the 1981 paper I wrote introducing this index would become the most-cited paper published in the 44-year history to date of the journal Fisheries. As I gained experience in the Pacific Northwest, my students, post-docs, and I created a complementary index based on benthic invertebrates instead of fish. This work took place in Puget Sound lowland streams, Yosemite National Park, two major watersheds in Japan, and also in Puget Sound and coral reef marine environments.

One early spin-off from this research, a collaboration among SAFS Research Professor Jim Anderson, me, and filmmaker Alan Honick, was the nonprofit organization Salmon Web, which produced two videos for citizen scientists and government agencies on how to use the benthic IBI. Ultimately, the Puget Sound Partnership adopted this index as a primary freshwater vital sign, and a group of cities, counties, agencies, and tribes developed a coordinated benthic invertebrate database that is applied to monitor and assess stream health across Washington State.

Meanwhile, battles over natural resources—particularly spotted owls and salmon—were roiling the Pacific Northwest, and they only got worse during the 1990s. A climate of controversy animated the public and underscored the need for collaboration across disciplines in academia. Working with colleagues in the sciences, humanities, policy, and the law, I took part in projects examining better roles for fish stocking in aquatic resource management, effects of salvage logging on stream ecology, effects of ungulate grazing on western public lands, the need to protect late-successional and old-growth forest, adapting land and water management to climate change, and using risk assessment and invertebrate and plant IBIs to evaluate cleanup of the shrub-steppe lands of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in south-central Washington and at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Thanks in part to the near impossibility of taking anything but an interdisciplinary approach to such problems, I also participated in the Global Ecological Integrity Project, a consortium of global scholars, for more than 15 years.

Throughout my years at UW, I also enjoyed teaching an evolving array of courses—introductory (biology, environmental science), intermediate (Scientific Foundations of Environmental Policy, Ecology and Conservation: Humans in the Environment), and advanced (Biological Monitoring and Assessment, Advanced Fisheries Ecology). My most popular course—Attaining a Sustainable Society—was for me also the most rewarding to teach. It routinely drew 100 to 150 undergraduate and graduate students from as many as 45 majors each year, even for three years after I officially retired in 2006.

Jim Karr and students at the Northwest Youth Conservation and Fly Fishing Academy, 2008, examining bugs from MacLean Creek in Capitol State Forest.

When I first retired, I intended to spend more time fly-fishing, which I have managed to do—in North, Central, and South America and several Pacific Ocean islands, as well as closer to home on the Olympic Peninsula. But even in retirement, I can’t seem to stop teaching. UW Alumni Travel had previously asked me to be a lecturer on trips to Central and South America, and I continued to do so after retirement. I’ve also been able to serve in similar roles with the University of Illinois Alumni Travel office and the Smithsonian Institution’s Smithsonian Journeys. Since retiring, I have averaged three to four trips a year, visiting 35 countries in Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia and New Zealand. Eight trips on the Amazon River in Peru alone have afforded many opportunities to meet local fishes in the field and in fish markets.

And then there’s the “miscellaneous” lecturing: I spent a decade teaching 13-to-16-year-olds stream ecology and conservation at the Northwest Youth Conservation and Fly Fishing Academy in Lacey, Washington, every June; gave a keynote talk at the start of restoration for the then soon-to-be-undammed Elwha River; speak and work with my local Audubon and salmon conservation groups; and even volunteer as a counselor in an AARP-IRS program to help folks complete their federal tax returns.

I just can’t seem to help it.

Jim Karr with group of graduate students during special symposium at 2007 San Francisco AFS annual meeting celebrating Jim’s career (L to R: Kurt Fausch (post-doc), Tom Martin (PhD), and Paul Angermeier (PhD, all Illinois); Jim Karr; Owen Gorman (MSc, Purdue); Leska Fore (MSc, QERM 1992) and Casey Rice (MS SAFS, 1997; PhD SAFS, 2007)

Centennial Story 89: Lorenzo Cianelli (PhD, 2002)

Posted on Tuesday, April 9th, 2019 at 11:31 pm.

Written by dinicola

I was born and raised on the island of Ischia, in the Bay of Naples (Italy). Living on a small island, there is no escape from the sea, the fish, and the people who depend on both of these to make a living. Inevitably, I grew up fishing, swimming, talking to fishermen and tourists, and eventually studying the sea. Fast-forward 25 years, to 1995. I applied and eventually got admitted to a course on fish biology, taught by Bruce Miller, at the Friday Harbor Labs. And so in June 1995, I landed in Seattle, took a bus to Anacortes and a ferry to the scenic San Juan Islands. That was my first encounter with the USA, UW, and SAFS. What a captivating introduction!

The plan was to go back to Ischia after the end of the fish biology course. Well, it did not quite work out that way. Another 25 years have gone by, and I am still in the Pacific Northwest. How did that happen? Excellent mentors, and long-lasting friendships, are two things that come to mind. Bruce Miller introduced me to Art Kendall, who was the Director of the FOCI (Fisheries Oceanography Coordinated Investigations) group at the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center. And so I spent a few more months in the USA, working as a research intern in the FOCI group. Eventually I applied to graduate school at SAFS and started an MS in 1996.

I graduated from SAFS with a PhD in 2002. Bob Francis was my major professor. Bob had many students: Vera Agostini (PhD, 2005), Diego Holmgren (PhD, 2001), John Field (PhD, 2004), Kerim Aydin (PhD, 2000), Sarah Gaichas (PhD, 2006), and Laurie Weitkamp (MS, 1991; PhD, 2004), to name a few—all very engaging peers! I was co-advised by Gordon (Gordie) Swartzman, Ric Brodeur (another Bob Francis student, PhD, 1990) and Daniel Schindler. My committee spanned the perfect Stommel diagram of fisheries and oceanography, with Gordie responsible for the smallest spatio-temporal scales, Bob at the opposite extreme, and Ric and Daniel in the middle. Gordie taught me how to code in S-plus, and eventually R. Ric exposed me the nuts and bolts of fisheries ecology. Daniel challenged me to think eco-evo, and Bob made me think about the climate and the “bigger picture” behind correlative studies. Through those years, I conducted most of my research with the FOCI group—an experience that has had a huge impact on my career choices. I learned about the nexus of oceanography and fisheries, and the fact that there are multiple axes to stock-recruitment relationships. While at FOCI, I continued working with Ric Brodeur, and eventually with Kevin Bailey (MS, 1977; PhD, 1981). Ric and Kevin are now very close friends in addition to being great mentors, and inspiring peers.

So what has SAFS meant to me? Many things. I learned about population and community ecology, ecosystem theories, statistics, mathematical modeling, programming—the list goes on. I learned the beauty of teaching, by TAing FISH 456 several times with Bob Francis. I participated to 6–7 oceanographic cruises in the North Pacific. Most importantly, I forged friendships and collaborations that last to this day. This, I think, is what SAFS has meant to me—an incredibly stimulating and engaging place for a graduate student.

After graduating from SAFS, my wife and I left the USA and went to Norway, to the University of Oslo, where we both did post-docs. Norway was another idyllic place. We made more friends and established new collaborations. Our first son, Luca, was born in Oslo—so we have a permanent bond to this Scandinavian land. I am now a professor in fisheries oceanography at the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences of the Oregon State University, in Corvallis. I am the “fish” guy in an otherwise oceanographically focused group. More than 15 years after graduating, I am constantly reminded of my time at SAFS. I often drive to Seattle for work, and I intentionally time my drive so that I can avoid traffic, which inevitably means driving through the night. Approaching Seattle at night from the south is fascinating. The city skyline evokes memories. The sight of the SAFS building from the I-5 Bridge gives me the odd sensation of being at home, but far from it. I like and cherish this feeling. I am reminded of homing fish, coming back to familiar grounds. Happy anniversary SAFS!