Each summer, aquatic and fishery sciences professor Daniel Schindler and his students travel to Bristol Bay, Alaska to observe one of the most valuable fisheries in the world. 

Ray Hilborn, UW professor of aquatic and fishery sciences, will receive the 2016 International Fisheries Science Prize this week at the World Fisheries Congress in Busan, South Korea. 

“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. 

SAFS professor Adam Summers, based at Friday Harbor Labs, collaborated with two English majors, Ian Stevens and Zack Bivins, to create an award-winning video about the clingfish – as chosen by 6th through 8th graders around the world, through the Ocean 180 Video Challenge.
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UW Today featured SAFS professor Ted Pietsch, who co-authored a new report documenting all the fishes in the Salish Sea, from the familiar coho salmon to the intriguing dwarf wrymouth. 

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. 

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. 

Jose Maria (Lobo) Orensanz: 1945-2015
 
It is with profound sadness that we write to tell that our dear friend and colleague, Lobo Orensanz, died at his home in Puerto Madryn, Argentina on January 5, 2015. If any solace can be found in this tragic news it is to know that Lobo was packing a van for a field trip with his wonderful wife Ana Parma and other family to savor the natural history of their Patagonian coast….that was what Lobo loved so much, and he died anticipating another expedition of science and joy that marked his character and his life. 

Seattle’s Expanding Your Horizons mission is to inspire girls to pursue opportunities in STEM fields through exposure to role models and hands on activities. Last Saturday, SAFS students and alumni ran a conference workshop called ‘Flex Your Mussels‘. Below is an account from SAFS graduate student Mackenzie Gavery who developed and lead the workshop.

Last Saturday, with amazing help of Roberts Lab undergrads Jessica Blanchette and Katie Jackson as well as Anne Baxter from NOAA’s NWFSC, I led a workshop called ‘Flex Your Mussels’ for Seattle’s Expanding Your Horizons (SEYH) conference at Seattle University.