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392 posts in Publications

Looking to the past to inform the future

Historical ecology and data-limited fisheries stock assessment methods shed light on threatened Puget Sound Yelloweye Rockfish
By applying elements of historical ecology, fisheries science, and conservation biology in a highly collaborative research effort, researchers from the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS), NOAA Fisheries, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) are delivering new insights into the status of Yelloweye Rockfish. 

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Why are some protected species failing to recover?

New study uses integrated population models to predict extinction risk for Cook Inlet beluga whales and lend insight into factors limiting the recovery of protected populations.
Sparse monitoring data and persistent knowledge gaps can hamper conservation efforts aimed at recovering depleted wildlife populations. In a new study, researchers from the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS) set out to tackle this issue for federally endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales by developing an integrated population model that capitalizes on all available information to understand factors that may be affecting survival, reproduction, and population viability. 

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Shoreline restoration: community science to monitor effectiveness

Jason Toft from the UW Wetland Ecosystem Team has been monitoring shoreline armor restoration in Puget Sound for over a decade at sites where artificial armor on beaches has been removed to facilitate the restoration of intertidal areas.
Shoreline armor, also known as seawalls and bulkheads, occurs on over 25% of Puget Sound’s shorelines and was historically installed along homes and infrastructure to address erosion risk. 

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Two decades of change in sea star abundance in Puget Sound

Since 1991, students and faculty at UW’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences have conducted bottom trawl surveys in Port Madison through the School’s Fisheries Ecology course, creating an experiential learning opportunity for students and collecting valuable long-term data on physical and ecological change at a subtidal site in Puget Sound. Fortuitously, this long-term sampling gave students the data needed to investigate an unprecedented mass mortality event.  

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On the ice and from the air: combining Indigenous Knowledge and multidisciplinary science to investigate Alaska’s ringed seals

In the Arctic, where temperatures are rising at nearly four times the global average, a collaborative effort, combining Indigenous Knowledge with multidisciplinary science has been used to investigate the denning habitat selection of Alaska’s ringed seals.
During the Ikaaġvik Sikukun (Iñupiaq for “Ice Bridges”) project, researchers from the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS), Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Native Village of Kotzebue, NOAA, and Farthest North Films collaborated with an Elder Advisory Council of Iñupiaq Qikiqtaġruŋmiut Elders with extensive personal history of subsistence hunting and experience on sea ice. 

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Seattle’s waterfront is getting a major makeover — with a little help from the UW

Along the seawall, which was designed with the help of UW scientists and engineers and serves as the foundation for the city’s new waterfront, the researchers count herring, shiner perch, sand lance, a growing host of invertebrates and, most importantly, salmon. All kinds of salmon.
This is just one place where the UW’s expertise touches on Seattle’s new central waterfront project, an $835 million public-private effort to reconnect the city’s downtown with Puget Sound. 

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An 85-year-old fishing club’s records reveal the secrets of Puget Sound salmon

Few people would consider launching a boat into Seattle’s Elliott Bay on a winter morning. It’s cold, dark, and more often than not, wet. But the steadfast members of Seattle’s Tengu Club, a Japanese American fishing club that held its first annual salmon derby in 1946, can reliably be found doing just that.
When he first read about the Tengu Derby in the Seattle Times over a decade ago, UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS) Professor Thomas Quinn’s interest was piqued. 

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Scientists Believe Evolution Could Save Coral Reefs, If We Let It

Diver and coral reef

Coral reefs can adapt to climate change if given the chance to evolve, according to a study led by Coral Reef Alliance, Rutgers University, the University of Washington and other institutions.
The recent study, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, finds that coral reefs can evolve and adapt to the effects of climate change—but only if we protect a sufficient diversity of coral reefs, particularly when it comes to temperatures. 

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