A new paper in Ecological Indicators by Hannah Linder and SAFS professor John Horne examines a wide range of statistical methods for detecting and forecasting change from monitoring studies. They found that different classes of models are needed to detect change, and to forecast the future effects of interventions such as building marine tidal turbines. 

A front page investigative CNN article outlines how the Environmental Protection Agency reversed a decision to protect the most valuable salmon fishery in the world, giving the go-ahead for the Pebble Mine, one hour after the head met with the CEO of the Pebble Mine partnership. SAFS professor Thomas Quinn comments in the report: “This is the jewel in the crown of America’s fisheries resources – these salmon. 

Fishing can substantially alter when fish migrate and when they breed, says a new review in Fish and Fisheries by SAFS student Michael Tillotson and faculty member Thomas Quinn. For example, fishing closures may increase fishing on late breeders, resulting in a greater proportion of early breeders in the population. Such changes can exacerbate the effects of climate-driven changes in the timing of migration and breeding. 

Faculty member Julian Olden and others in ChronicleVitae urge scientists to see their careers as “an adventure on a long and winding path” that involves interacting with nature and making their science relevant. Instead of focusing on publishing small units of science, we should be embracing the spirit of discovery and striving for societal impact. 

Citizen scientists in a program run by Julia Parrish provided data about two mass die-offs of seabirds on the outer coast of Washington state, which is the largest mass death ever to be definitively ascribed to harmful algal blooms. The new report was authored by SAFS postdoc Timothy Jones, with other SAFS contributions from Julia Parrish, André Punt, and Jennifer Lang, as part of the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST; a citizen science program at the University of Washington). 

“If reforms were implemented today, three-quarters of exploited fisheries worldwide could reach population goals within 10 years, and 98 percent by mid-century,” according to a report in PNAS co-authored by SAFS Professors Ray Hilborn, Trevor Branch, and Research Scientist Mike Melnychuk. 

The Seattle Times Reports “Puget Sound salmon are on drugs — Prozac, Advil, Benadryl, Lipitor, even cocaine. Those drugs and dozens of others are showing up in the tissues of juvenile chinook, researchers have found, thanks to tainted wastewater discharge.”
A research team of NOAA and UW scientists, including SAFS’ professor Dr. Graham Young, have documented levels of over 80 “chemicals of emerging concern”, pharmaceuticals and personal care products in estuarine waters and in juvenile chinook salmon and Pacific staghorn sculpin at sites in south Puget Sound impacted by discharge from wastewater treatment plants. 

A new article, titled “Conservation challenges of predator recovery”, has been accepted for publication into Conservation Letters: A journal for the Society for Conservation Biology.  This article is a result of the collaboration of SAFS post-doc Kristin Marshall, SMEA Professor Ryan Kelly, NOAA scientist and SAFS affiliate faculty Eric Ward, and NOAA scientists Jameal Samhouri and Adrian Stier.
Abstract
Predators are critical components of ecosystems. 

A new study, lead by SAFS Prof. Tim Essington and published on April 6 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “implicates fishing in the collapse of forage fish stocks and recommends risk-based management tools that would track a fishery’s numbers and suspend fishing when necessary.” Read the full story on UW Today >>