Funded by the California Ocean Protection Council, SAFS Professor, Corey Garza, and colleagues at Stanford, UC Santa Cruz and the Middlebury Institute have embarked on a project to better understand shark and pinniped behavior off the California coast. They do this by tagging and tracking the animals, collecting background environmental data through buoys and mapping where pinnipeds gather. The goal is to understand how these variables interact and better predict when and where white sharks might be on the prowl — and, importantly, how to keep people out of the water when they are.

In a time of increasing calls for Washington judges to adjudicate water conflicts that reflect the State’s growth and development, two members of the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences attended the Judicial Education Workshop on Water Resource Science, held on March 28, 2025, at Washington State University (WSU). Angela Dillon, a PhD student at SAFS, gave the judges an overview of the importance of water for the environment and fish, with an emphasis on salmon and the Electron Dam on the Puyallup River, while SAFS Professor, Mark Scheuerell, gave a tour of Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River, held on March 29. 

The 2024 Northwest Emmy Nominees Environment/Science includes a video featuring SAFS Professor, Chelsea Wood, and her work on parasites. The video, produced by Grist, explores why nature can’t run without parasites, and what happens when they start to disappear.

New research led by UW Medicine, and involving Jacqueline Padilla-Gamiño from SAFS, has revealed that certain protein particles distinguish resilient corals from those that succumb to bleaching, offering new molecular tools for reef conservation and climate resilience.

While conducting early detection monitoring for invasive European green crab (Carcinus maenas), Washington Sea Grant Crab Team discovered a non-native shrimp Palaemon macrodactylus, hitherto unreported along Washington’s portion of the Salish Sea. By examining prior data, and tracking this species closely over subsequent years, the team which included researchers from SAFS, were able to consistently monitor the spread and increase of this species across the region.

A new video by ICES explores a solar-powered acoustic monitoring system that tracks fish migrations and provides near-real-time data to support sustainable fishing, featuring John Horne.

In a new paper co-authored with researchers from the Federal University of Paraná, Julian Olden explored changes in biogeographic patterns in global fish diversity caused by the spread of non-native species, teasing apart the geographic and taxonomic drivers of change.

Whether it is food or clothing, people care about where their products come from. Seafood is no different. Governments, retailers, and customers care about the source of the seafood on their plate as it is an important factor for evaluating the product’s sustainability and whether it aligns with their values. In a new perspective piece published in npj Ocean Sustainability, Jessica Gephart worked with a team of researchers to look into a specific case of seafood traceability in relation to US imports after sanctions on Russia.

Microplastics are everywhere. From the clothes you wear to the food you eat, to even your toothbrush, microplastics are difficult to avoid. And these tiny pieces of plastic have big consequences for both humans and the wider environment. UW Daily speaks to Jacqueline Padilla-Gamiño about her research into microplastics and marine organisms such as corals and anemones.

Only two blue whale births have ever been recorded in human history, an extraordinary mystery given they give birth every two to three years. Calves are also only rarely sighted—far less than would be expected from their pregnancy rates. Calves closely follow their moms and are sighted as mother-calf pairs, but why are so few detected? A new UW study by Trevor Branch proposes why. Its explanation hints at when and where the unseen births are happening and where blue whale calves spend their earliest months.