Recent SAFS alumna Susan Harris spent 10 weeks at UW’s Friday Harbor Labs on San Juan island studying zoology and botany. UW Today featured a profile on Susan’s experience. 

A warm water mass in the Pacific Ocean is impacting forage species and stirring up more conversations about the need for ecosystem-based fisheries management. SAFS Professor Tim Essington weighs in. 

SAFS Professor Ted Pietsch and SAFS graduate student Rachel Arnold recently relocated an elusive tropical frogfish, last seen in Australia in 1980. After collecting specimens and testing the DNA, they discovered they’d found a new genus and species of fish, now named the red-fingered anglerfish. 

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. 

Prof. Julian Olden and SAFS research scientist Lauren Kuehne published an opinion article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, titled Lay Summaries needed to enhance science communication. This piece promotes the requirement and publication of lay summaries with peer-reviewed research articles.

Several in the SAFS community have been working on a management strategy evaluation for Bristol Bay sockeye salmon. Findings were presented to the Alaska Board of Fish resulting in changes to seasonal management targets, reported by The Bristol Bay Times.
Last week the Department of Fish and Game adopted a wider range with raised upper ends for sockeye escapement goals in most Bristol Bay rivers. 

Story picked up by outlets including BBC, CBC, Guardian, Telegraph, CBC radio.
Hybridization between genetically modified Atlantic salmon and wild brown trout reveals novel ecological interactions

Krista B. Oke
Peter A. H. Westley,
Darek T. R. Moreau
Ian A. Fleming

Abstract
Interspecific hybridization is a route for transgenes from genetically modified (GM) animals to invade wild populations, yet the ecological effects and potential risks that may emerge from such hybridization are unknown. 

SAFS Professor Ray Hilborn was co-author of “a new study [revealing] that small, unassessed fisheries are in even worse shape than we thought. But the research also provides hope that smarter management could stop the bleeding—and provide more sustainable seafood.”

Read more in Time Magazine.