Starting back up on Thursday 29 September at 4pm, join us in-person for the first of the 2022 Autumn Seminar Series, where we take a deep dive with experts into topics of interest in aquatic and fishery sciences.
The first seminar will be delivered by Professor Thomas Quinn on ‘Changing themes in salmon conservation: A 45-year personal perspective’.
With speakers joining us from academia and governmental and non-governmental agencies and organizations, the weekly seminars will be followed by a catered reception from 5-6pm.
A full list of the seminars, topics and speakers can be found here, including the option to join remotely via Zoom.
And don’t miss out on the SAFS Fall Kickoff, taking place at 3.30pm before the seminar.
All in-person attendees should consult the UW website for full information on UW’s COVID-19 policy.
From the Pacific Northwest and Alaska to further afield, rivers are one of the aquatic environments where UW School of Aquatic and Fisheries Science (SAFS) researchers are actively working to ensure a healthy, sustainable ecosystem for the future.
On World Rivers Day – an international celebration and awareness day for the world’s waterways – we are highlighting some of the extensive research underway at SAFS and through partnerships with different institutions.
So what research is taking place?
Future Rivers
It’s all in the name. Preparing UW students to tackle the challenges that the future will bring, the National Science Foundation Research Traineeship called Future Rivers is bringing modern data science, communications training, and innovative technical training to the study of moving waters.
Bringing together expertise from different disciplines, the innovative program is focused on transforming freshwater science and preparing students for future careers in freshwater ecology and conservation.
Freshwater Initiative
Launched by UW Engineering, UW College of the Environment and UW Tacoma in 2014, the Freshwater Initiative is reinventing water research by understanding the issues in these aquatic ecosystems and the effect on many different populations, both human and wild.
The Freshwater Initiative
The Freshwater Initiative
Aiming to give students deeper knowledge in their own specialization whilst effectively collaborating with other disciplines, some of the specific research areas include water generation using renewables, conservation education, predicting extreme events and tackling food, water and energy dynamics around river systems.
Everybody loves salmon
We can’t ignore one of the most recognizable fish: the salmon. Because salmon straddle the freshwater and marine environments in a unique way through their life cycle, research focused on salmon helps us understand the impact of climate change on aquatic environments to sustainable fisheries management.
At SAFS, our researchers are delivering exciting new insights into salmon and other aquatic wildlife, partnering on projects such as the Alaska Salmon Program.
The Alaska Salmon Program
Alaska Salmon Program
Just a snapshot
This is only a glimpse of the scientific work undertaken by SAFS and our research partners focused on the freshwater environment.
As we celebrate World Rivers Day, explore our website to see all the ways we are pursuing research to ensure they keep flowing.
Along the seawall, which was designed with the help of UW scientists and engineers and serves as the foundation for the city’s new waterfront, the researchers count herring, shiner perch, sand lance, a growing host of invertebrates and, most importantly, salmon. All kinds of salmon.
This is just one place where the UW’s expertise touches on Seattle’s new central waterfront project, an $835 million public-private effort to reconnect the city’s downtown with Puget Sound.
Few people would consider launching a boat into Seattle’s Elliott Bay on a winter morning. It’s cold, dark, and more often than not, wet. But the steadfast members of Seattle’s Tengu Club, a Japanese American fishing club that held its first annual salmon derby in 1946, can reliably be found doing just that.
When he first read about the Tengu Derby in the Seattle Times over a decade ago, UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS) Professor Thomas Quinn’s interest was piqued. With over 70 years of meticulously kept records, the derby presented an unexpected and exciting opportunity to gain insight into Puget Sound’s resident salmon population.
Coral reefs can adapt to climate change if given the chance to evolve, according to a study led by Coral Reef Alliance, Rutgers University, the University of Washington and other institutions.
The recent study, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, finds that coral reefs can evolve and adapt to the effects of climate change—but only if we protect a sufficient diversity of coral reefs, particularly when it comes to temperatures.
In mid-July, sockeye poured into this stream, skittering through the shallows balanced on their bellies as their backs thrust out of the water.
These fish were part of a record surge of more than 78.3 million salmon that returned this summer to Bristol Bay, providing a mainstay harvest for thousands of fishermen from Alaska, Washington and other states. This spectacular display of abundance in the northern realm of sockeye came during a warming century when some wild salmon runs often have struggled.
Most people wouldn’t be excited by a call offering a basement full of canned salmon dating back to the 1970s. But for researchers trying to establish baselines for what’s normal and what’s not when it comes to aquatic parasite populations, the archive of fishy tins, maintained by the Seattle-area Seafood Products Association, was a valuable resource. Natalie Mastick, a PhD candidate in the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, joins guest host Roxanne Khamsi to explain the study.
Citizen scientists recorded trash on Pacific Northwest beaches, from southern Oregon to Anacortes, Washington, to contribute to the growing study of marine trash. A study by the University of Washington analyzed 843 beach surveys and found that certain beaches, and certain areas of a single beach, are “sticky zones” that accumulate litter.
