Filter Results

223 posts in In the News

SAFS researcher joins The Fisheries Podcast

Growing up on the shores of Lake Michigan, Ben Makhlouf, now a researcher at SAFS, started off as an Ecology undergrad at UW. Taking a limnology course during his studies, he was inspired to get involved in research in Alaska when seeing someone with an Alaska Salmon Program t-shirt on. It amazed him that people were able to visit and work there. 

Read more

In relation to everything

SAFS alum Nancy Huizar exemplifies collaboration and collective action within the Seattle community, proving the environmental sciences are interconnected and in relationship to everything — population health, the strength of local democracy and education equity. 

Read more

Warming oceans have decimated marine parasites — but that’s not a good thing

More than a century of preserved fish specimens offer a rare glimpse into long-term trends in parasite populations. New research from the University of Washington with lead author Chelesea Wood from SAFS, shows that fish parasites plummeted from 1880 to 2019, a 140-year stretch when Puget Sound — their habitat and the second largest estuary in the mainland U.S. — warmed significantly. 

Read more

Population declines in Alaska beluga whales may be linked to low birth and survival rates

The beluga whale population in Alaska’s Cook Inlet, which connects Anchorage to the North Pacific Ocean, is listed as endangered and has declined by over 75% from about 1,300 whales in the late 1970’s to fewer than 300 today.
Understanding whether the decline is due to low birth or low survival rates, or a combination of the two, can give scientists clues about the external threats that are impacting the population. 

Read more

2022 Eastern Bering Sea Pollock Stock Assessment

The School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and the College of the Environment hosted the annual live preview of the most recent assessment of Eastern Bering Sea (EBS) pollock—the target of one of the world’s largest fisheries.
Providing fishery stakeholders and the public the opportunity to learn about the status of the EBS pollock stock and discuss the science underlying the assessment, you can watch the recording of the event below. 

Read more

World Fisheries Day 2022

3 billion people rely on fisheries for nutrition and their livelihoods around the world. As the most traded food in the world, fish and the environments they live in are essential. 
On World Fisheries Day, we take a look at the different research underway at SAFS involving both oceanic and freshwater fisheries, and explore what sustainability means for the ecosystems that support these fisheries. 

Read more

Fish, Forests and Fungi

River flowing with trees in foreground

SAFS graduate student Anne Polyakov spent a summer with the UW Alaska Salmon Program studying ecosystems along three salmon streams, hoping to use the data collected to track how nutrients flow into all parts of the system — into the soil, plants and the role that fungi play in this intricate process. 

Read more

Study Reveals How Ancient Fish Colonized the Deep Sea

The deep sea contains more than 90% of the water in our oceans, but only about a third of all fish species. Scientists have long thought the explanation for this was intuitive — shallow ocean waters are warm and full of resources, making them a prime location for new species to evolve and thrive. But a new University of Washington study led by Elizabeth Miller reports that throughout Earth’s ancient history, there were several periods of time when many fish actually favored the cold, dark, barren waters of the deep sea. 

Read more
Back to Top