Are you a student interested in studying salmon in Alaska? Join us for an info session on February 4th at 4:30 pm in FSH 213 and fill out an application to be a part of our 2020 summer cohort.

When nearly 1 million common murres died at sea and washed ashore from California to Alaska in 2015 and 2016, it was unprecedented — both for murres, and across all bird species worldwide. Scientists from the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, the U.S. Geological Survey and others blame an unexpected squeeze on the ecosystem’s food supply, brought on by a severe and long-lasting marine heat wave known as “the blob.”

Nearly half of the fish caught worldwide are from stocks that are scientifically monitored and, on average, are increasing in abundance. Effective management appears to be the main reason these stocks are at sustainable levels or successfully rebuilding, according to a new study led by the University of Washington.

The University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences recently hosted the SeaDoc Society and its Explore the Salish Sea Educator Workshop with the goal of working with King County-area teachers to meet Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) by incorporating local Salish Sea issues and topics into their classrooms.

Each year orcas consume more than 2.5 million adult Chinook salmon along the West Coast. Except for the endangered southern resident population in Washington, all other fish-eating orca populations that live along the coast, called “residents,” are growing in number. The rise of resident killer whales, and their appetite for large Chinook salmon, is driving a decline of the big fish.

With 2019 on pace as one of the warmest years on record, a new international study reveals how rapidly the Arctic is warming and examines global consequences of continued polar warming.

The annual Bevan Series on Sustainable Fisheries is right around the corner! This year’s series will focus on freshwater fisheries and ecosystem services. Be sure to view our events page and hit the + to subscribe and have information about each week’s presentation automatically added to your calendar.
Presentations will also be recorded and uploaded to our SAFS YouTube channel. If you missed any of our 2019 Bevan/SAFS Centennial or Autumn Seminar presentations they can be viewed there as well. 

A new experiment by the University of Washington has found that some corals are more likely to eat microplastics when they are consuming other food, yet microplastics alone are undesirable. Two coral species tested responded differently to the synthetic material, suggesting variations in how corals are adapting to life with microplastics. The study was published Dec. 3 in the journal Scientific Reports.

Researchers from the University of Washington are using high-tech tags to record the movements of swordfish — big, deep-water, migratory, open-ocean fish that are poorly studied — and get a window into the ocean depths they inhabit.

A team led by the University of Washington and Stanford University has discovered clues in the environment that help identify transmission hotspots for schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that is second only to malaria in its global health impact. The research, publishing the week of Oct. 28 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses rigorous field sampling and aerial images to precisely map communities that are at greatest risk for schistosomiasis.