We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2024 SAFS DEIJ and Community Service Recognition Award: Julia Indivero and Claire Vaage.
Julia Indivero (PhD)
Julia was nominated for contribution to this year’s DEIJ activities and her attention to fellow graduate student’s concerns and needs. As a member of the SAFS DEI Committee, she led the third annual Undergraduate Community Building Event, which created a space for undergraduate students in aquatic sciences to meet with graduate students and postdocs in SAFS. As one of the FINS treasurers, she ensures funds for research communication and conference attendance are distributed to students in an equitable manner. Additionally, she frequently takes initiative in participating in department events, encouraging other students along the way and fostering a sense of community. Beyond SAFS, Julia is also an active committee member for UW’s Sustainability Fund, whose mission is to create an environmentally and socially engaged campus by funding student led projects.
Claire Vaage (MS)
Claire was also nominated for her leadership and demonstrated commitment to equity and inclusion for students at every level. As the FINS Social Chair, she has created many quarterly events that are accessible and reproducible for years to come. She has also been instrumental in reigniting the Student Chapter of the American Fisheries Society here at UW, and through this renewed student chapter, she has facilitated educational workshops for professional development. Her support of undergraduate students also includes empowering them to participate in regional AFS meetings and volunteering for events like the Hollings Scholar Workshops. Beyond SAFS, Claire’s position on the SEAS board has allowed her to work with fellow students on improving, creating, and sharing lesson plans for students in the Seattle area who have been historically excluded from STEM fields.
The work that these awardees have done increases access, equity, and inclusion in aquatic sciences by giving opportunities, resources, and mentorship to students who may not have it. We are delighted to honor Julia and Claire for their hard work and dedication to making SAFS a more equitable and inclusive institution. The DEI Committee would also like to thank everyone who has contributed excellent and important work to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice at SAFS.
I see the sea…or at least the science relating to it! The number of people diving into aquatic sciences during our Open House more than doubled this year, with 1,200 visitors of all ages joining us for a day of hands-on activities.
Hosted by UW student-led outreach program SEAS – Students Explore Aquatic Sciences – guests were treated to displays from the entire breadth of science relating to water. From peering at tiny organisms under a microscope and watching demos of remotely operated underwater vehicles, to dressing up as a narwhal and exploring Arctic waters, 30 booths were present from across the University of Washington and partner research organizations.
“Open Houses like this are really important, one for the University to highlight what we’re doing in the area, but also for engaging the next generation of scientists,” said Corey Garza, SAFS Professor and Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the UW College of the Environment. “It’s been really great seeing how many young kids are here taking an active interest in science, along with their families.”
All new this year and a big crowd pleaser were a face painting booth and raffle, sponsored by the education research organization foundry10. At the face painting booth, kids could choose from a variety of marine species designs such as whales, dolphins and octopuses. Raffle prizes included microscopes, waterproof cameras, tidepooling guides, and a children’s book written by SAFS professor, Jackie Padilla-Gamiño. Opening up their vessel at midday, the R/V Rachel Carson hosted tours of their deck, galley and research stations, to demonstrate what life is like on board as a UW scientist.
“Young folks are often not aware of the wide array of jobs within specific industries,” said Handa, Yoh, Career Connected Learning and Life Skills Team Lead at foundry10. “The Open House is an energizing and engaging environment that paints a broader picture of career pathways and specializations through first-hand demos and displays run by industry professionals, which helps demystify large industries like aquatic sciences.”
Peeking at the world’s oldest fish at the UW Fish Collection table, seeing in real-time how water temperature affects the color of coral, and witnessing the movement of ocean currents with the use of dye, were just some of the fantastic displays of science this year. One visitor commented that “the variety of topics was expansive yet not redundant, and the activities were fun and engaging. The students and staff were great with the children and knew how to speak at their level.”
Discovering parasites
As always, one of the main drivers of the Open House is to make aquatic science accessible to local communities and show how important research is in tackling environmental issues both here in Washington and further afield. Opening up science and making it engaging, fun, and inspiring, goes a long way to demonstrate to the youngsters of Seattle and surrounding areas that there are fulfilling, impactful, and successful careers to be had in aquatic science.
From the deepest depths of the ocean to soaring seabirds, each year the Open House event brings to life how diverse and far-reaching the science relating to water really is.
What brings a biology student into the Roberts Lab at SAFS? Eric Essington, a senior in the UW Biology program, has been working on his independent research project in the Roberts Lab for the past year, looking into a familiar hard-shelled mollusk: the oyster. Why? To simulate temperature changes associated with climate change and explore the impact on oysters.
A group of Pacific oysters used for Eric’s experiment.
Looking specifically at the Pacific oyster, a commercially important species in Washington where the majority are farmed, one of the big issues facing the aquaculture sector are large summer die-offs due to warmer temperatures and other environmental stressors. Reaching up to 10 inches in length, Pacific oysters are also key filter feeders, meaning they clean the water as they eat.
Conducting his research at the Jamestown Point Whitney Shellfish Hatchery, which lies on the shores of Dabob Bay and Hood Canal on the eastern side of the Olympic Peninsula, Eric’s experiment started off with the arrival of more than 200 adult oysters, along 120 each of juvenile (one year old oysters), seed (young oysters large enough to be transplanted) and spat (at the life stage when the oyster has permanently attached to a surface).
The group of researchers preparing to simulate the acute thermal stress event, where the oysters were immersed in 32ºC water.
With the oysters divided into two groups, the experiment consisted of one group living in a tank mirroring their natural aquatic environment at 17ºC, and the other in a tank designed to simulate erratic and harsh heat stress associated with climate change. With an increase in temperature of 2ºC every hour until the water hits a stress-inducing 26ºC, this was maintained for six hours each day for seven weeks. A secondary, mechanical stress event was also implemented for adults and juveniles, designed to mimic the physical disturbance of tumbling in currents and encounters with predators and debris that oysters may face in their natural habitats.
The final stage of Eric’s experiment simulated an acute thermal stress event, where the oysters were immersed in 32ºC water for 30 minutes, following by the mechanical stress simulation, followed by tissue sampling for RNA and DNA analysis. The aim? To gauge the physiological response of oysters to compounded stressors.
Conducting this experiment with oysters at different life stages, Eric found that heat stress at the spat stage resulted in tolerance to a secondary stress that corresponds to increased growth. The energy trade-off from developing a resistance to temperature changes during stress events means they have more energy available for growth later on. This result could have real-world application for hatcheries, who could harden young oysters in a similar way before releasing them to grow, so that they provide improved yields during the summer months.
Recently presenting his research at the Mary Gates Research Symposium, Eric shares that next steps in this experiment would be to explore why increased growth and decreased transcription was only significant in the youngest life stage of an oyster.
How is our food system shaped by the choices of consumers, retailers, farmers, and fish harvesters?
If you’re interested in food and food policy, NUTR 490/FISH 497B Special Topics: Economics of Food Systems is a new undergraduate course offered in autumn 2024 by UW SAFS, in conjunction with the Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health Program in the School of Public Health, which explores the economic forces that shape individual decisions and overall outcomes in our food system.
Register for:
NUTR 490A or FISH 497B Special Topics: Economics of Food Systems
This course builds on familiarity with microeconomics, introducing models that are important for the food system. ECON200, FISH/ECON230, ESRM235 or equivalent are highly recommended.
Instructor
This new 5-credit course is taught by SAFS Professor Chris Anderson. Chris is an economist who works in the U.S. and globally, studying how fishery policies affect the behavior of fishers, their relationships with processors, and consumer perceptions.
What you’ll learn:
Broadly, this course aims to develop your skills in using economic models to precisely explain how food system outcomes are an emergent property of individual decisions, and critically evaluate the tradeoffs associated with alternative policies for achieving improved economic, social, environmental or health objectives.
Course work will include:
Studying the factors that shape behavior for consumers, retailers, wholesalers and traders, producers (farmers and fish harvesters), and their suppliers.
Considering the incentives that govern the decisions they make, including social, market, and policy and regulatory forces.
Critically evaluating tradeoffs within the food system for the food people eat, whose livelihoods are supported in the food system, and effects on resources and the environment.
Using economic models to predict how policy options can alter individual decisions to shift social and economic outcomes.
Applying a political economy framework to identify incentives within the political and regulatory system and predict political feasibility.
Plus much more!
The course will travel through the food system studying the factors that shape behavior for actors at each stage, including consumers, retailers, wholesalers and traders, producers (farmers and fish harvesters), and their suppliers.
————————–
About the Instructor
Chris Anderson is a professor in the School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington. His work focuses on understanding how the incentives presented by natural resource management affect outcomes for resource users. As an economist, he draws on tools in game theory, econometrics and experimental economics to understand how management operates in different resource and market contexts. In data rich fisheries, he models the choices of individual food system actors to understand how management alters individual behavior and aggregate outcomes. Recent projects include understanding why consumers feel differently about farming fish than farming beef, chicken and pork; and an economically sophisticated management strategy evaluation showing processors do not create value from the larger sockeye runs that would be associated with increased escapement goals in Bristol Bay. He also leverages insights from data rich studies and the Fishery Performance Indicators (FPIs) framework in low income countries, to co-create guidance for leveraging fishery resources into sustainable food and livelihoods for harvesters, processors and traders, and communities. He is a frequent collaborator in numerous fisheries around the world which gives him a cross-sectional perspective that includes designing and facilitating workshops to develop theories of change for fishery improvement projects, supported by systematic data from around the world. He earned his PhD in Social Science from the California Institute of Technology, and an ScB in Applied Math and Economics from Brown University.
Markus Min is Ph.D. student at SAFS, in the Applied Ecology Lab.
Congratulations to Markus Min, the recipient of the 2023-2024 Award for Outstanding Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility (DEIJA) given by the College of the Environment. Markus, a Ph.D. Candidate in SAFS, has been a trusted leader since joining the school in fall of 2020, and a strong advocate for equity and inclusion at both the unit level and across the College.
Markus’ award nominators describe him as “a student who identifies systemic problems and finds partners to craft creative solutions to solve them.” One of the embodiments of this quality is his “Navigating the Hidden Curriculum: Professional Development Modules for Undergraduates in the Marine Sciences” program, which aims to overcome the barriers of hidden curriculum issues for students from historically excluded groups. Receiving support from the Diversity Seed Grant from the UW Diversity Council, and in partnership with advisors and instructors from three units in the College of the Environment (Marine Biology, Oceanography, and SAFS), Markus has so far developed and delivered a series of six workshops for undergraduates, which have been well-attended and enthusiastically received. He plans to continue this program for future undergraduate cohorts.
In addition to developing workshops open to all undergraduates in the aquatic sciences, Markus has also engaged in equity-minded mentorship of undergraduates. Part of the first-ever cohort of mentors trained through the Identity, Belonging, and Inquiry in Science (IBIS) Program, Markus engaged in two quarters of research mentoring with Marine Biology undergrad, Sarah Hensley, and continues to work with her, now in their fifth quarter working together. Receiving skill-based training in evidence-based mentoring practices, Markus helped develop Sarah’s skills as a research scientist and reiterated his commitment to providing opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds to pursue marine science. As further evidence of this commitment, Markus secured a grant from Conservation, Research and Education Opportunities International (CREOi) to provide a paid research experience for another undergraduate under his mentorship.
“SAFS has always benefited from the exceptional leadership of its graduate students. Markus has continued this rich tradition through his many contributions to the School. I’m thrilled that Markus is receiving this award that he so richly deserves,” said Tim Essington, Director of SAFS.
Building on this commitment to engaging undergraduates and enhancing equity, inclusion, and diversity in aquatic and marine sciences, Markus has also led workshops to share tips and advice for applying to scholarships or fellowships such as the NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship or the NSF GRFP, while helping students build important skills along the way.
We congratulate Markus again and look forward to supporting his efforts to make SAFS, the College of the Environment, and marine and aquatic science as a whole, more inclusive and equitable for our student population.
Mikelle Nuwer
Markus delivering one of the workshops from his “Navigating the Hidden Curriculum: Professional Development Modules for Undergraduates in the Marine Sciences” program.
In a lot of ways, deep reefs are understudied. Too deep for divers to reach and only accessible by submarines, this zone of ocean habitat is often overlooked. Combining deep reef research with scuba diving around shallower reef areas, SAFS master’s student, Sarah Yerrace, is working in the waters of the Caribbean Island of Curaçao looking at one thing in particular: lionfish.
Sarah holds two lionfish caught while conducting research in Curacao.
Red Lionfish (Pterois volitans) were previously thought to only inhabit the top 100 meters of the ocean, which is their usual range in their native Indo-Pacific Ocean. However, when studying deeper depths and coral reefs found between 100m and 300m in the Caribbean, lionfish were present and active. UW coral reef research in Curaçao has been underway for more than a decade in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, conducted by the Fish Systemics and Biodiversity Lab of which Sarah is a member, led by SAFS Professor Luke Tornabene.
Why would the presence of lionfish on a deep reef be considered a problem? Named as a super predator, the species wreak havoc on marine biodiversity by preying on all fish inhabiting reefs and fringe areas, multiplying quickly in population. But when looking at understudied deep reefs, lionfish have also been found to be preying on marine species not even yet discovered, presenting a bigger problem.
Sarah Yerrace
Beautiful but deadly: two lionfish caught by the Curasub.
One of the big questions Sarah is tackling in her work is if lionfish are swimming one way, from shallow to deep waters, or back and forth? Lionfish are unidirectional as they age, migrating from the shallows to the depths as they grow older. Usually, younger lionfish are shallow-dwelling creatures with a high tolerance for freshwater and estuarine environments. But is this downwards movement to deeper depths an extension of their natural migration in their lifespan, or because they have pressures in their invasive range, such as spearfishing?
Sarah Yerrace
A view of a lionfish from the inside of the Curasub.
Spearfishing with a single pole is the only legal way of capturing and managing lionfish populations in Curaçao, with the fish used in a variety of ways, from eating in local cuisine, to using their fins to make jewelry.
“Different species live in different depth ranges. If I collect a lionfish at 100m, with another fish that is only known to live in the top 30m of the ocean in its stomach, that is evidence that the lionfish moved from 30m to 100m within the last few hours. How do I know this? Because that is within the timeframe it takes for a lionfish to digest their prey,” Sarah shared. “The vice versa scenario is the same: if I collect a shallow lionfish with a deep-water prey species in its gut, the lionfish has moved deeper and then back up.” A diet study using lionfish collected below 100m hasn’t been done before, so seeing what they are eating at all below this depth will be new information for researchers.
Sarah Yerrace
Revealing the contents of a lionfish stomach during dissection. This lionfish ate a French Butterflyfish that only lives on deep reefs.
Another facet of Sarah’s work is exploring the use of otoliths – the ear stones of fish – to see if lionfish are moving from shallow to deeper waters and back, but over longer time scales, i.e., longer than the time of digestion and therefore not detectable by looking at prey species. “Otoliths have rings like a tree, and as the fish grows, the otolith grows in rings. Each ring is made using minerals from the water the fish is living in and so we can sample the rings of the otolith for stable isotopes,” Sarah said. “Different stable isotopes tell us information about the water the fish was living in when that ring of the otolith was formed. From stable isotopes, we can tell how warm or cold the water was. So, as we sample from the center of the otolith, which is when the fish was young, to the edge of the otolith (most recently), we might see a steady progression of cooling temperatures, meaning the fish moved deeper over time, or a random, non-linear pattern if the fish is moving up and down,” she added. Sarah is working on this part of the project with UW Marine Biology undergraduate, Alyson Liu, who is doing a test run with a few pairs of otoliths in the lab, in the hope of providing some evidence for this theory.
First visiting Curaçao in 2019, Sarah is returning for the third time this summer in 2024 to collect more data. Carrying out her research both in a submarine and when scuba diving, Sarah conducts three dives a day with a partner while in Curaçao. “Lionfish are most active during dusk and dawn for hunting, so when we are trying to collect them while scuba diving, we dive at sunrise or sunset,” Sarah said. The submarine, called Curasub, spends 4-6 hours in the water during the middle of the day. During her dives, Sarah also works with another SAFS grad student, Juliette Jacquemont, conducting transects to characterize the bottom habitat, plus collecting fish data. “I’ll use some of the data Juliette is focusing on for her work to compare what is present on the reef versus what I find in the guts of fish,” Sarah shared. “During our last trip, in five days of diving, we counted more than 5,000 individuals of over 50 different species.”
Sarah Yerrace
A thousand feet below, a view from inside the Curasub.
When on the submarine, which reaches depths of 300m off the coast of Curaçao, the research process is a little different. “The submarine is equipped with hydraulic arms, and the submarine pilots attach a speargun to the front. Once the pilot has carefully maneuvered the 6-ton sub to line up the shot, using the arm, we can trigger the spear gun from inside the sub and then use an anesthetic to put the lionfish to sleep,” Sarah said. “Using a second arm, we remove the lionfish from the spear and scoop it into a holding basket below the sub. But it’s a delicate dance, as sometimes the fish wakes up and tries to escape in the process of putting it in the basket.” When back at the surface, the fish are placed on ice and immediately processed, with depth of capture, length, and weight recorded. “The next step is to dissect the fish and record if it’s a male or female, then remove the stomach. The stomach is put in 90% ethanol and kept frozen until I can do DNA extractions back at UW,” she added. “One of the benefits of conducting submarine research off Curaçao is because the ocean gets deep really quickly. We can essentially move down a wall versus needing to travel across a greater horizontal distance.”
Outside of her research, Sarah is an active diver – both recreationally and professionally. “There is so much to love about diving. The dive community is wonderful, and I’ve met lifelong friends through diving. I also think the physics, physiology, and science of diving is fascinating,” Sarah shared. “No matter what ocean I’m in, or the objectives of the dive, there’s always an incredible sense of adventure. Floating weightless and doing science underwater is the next closest thing to being an astronaut on another planet. It doesn’t get better than that.” Sarah is currently a TA for a scientific diving course offered at UW. Hoping to defend her master’s thesis by the end of 2024, Sarah’s currently writing her thesis and perfecting figures that will go into her paper.
