Up to 30% of the time, the true species being sold or served in restaurants is labeled as something else entirely. A new study gathers data on 43 separate papers that DNA tested fish samples to find the actual species being sold, and compared the truth to the species on the labels. The true species identified by DNA was on average 3% less expensive, but slightly more sustainable than the species listed on the labels. 

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. 

Through the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, Sarah Schooler, ’15, spent six weeks in the Alaskan bush, collecting the same data in the field she’d been studying in the classroom: salmon and the hungry habits of grizzly bears.
Sarah Schooler and UW staff and students placing a fishing net on lake Aleknagik. 

Students from around the country worked together as part of a class on the ecology of infectious marine diseases, taught by SAFS professors S. Roberts and C. Friedman, to examine how genes express themselves in sick and healthy sea stars. 

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. 

Could recent declines in Puget Sound herring be linked to decreases in native eelgrass? Biologist Tessa Francis reports on a new study that may provide insight into the health of one of the region’s most iconic forage fish.
  

This quarter students in FISH310: Biology of Shellfishes all made short videos on  a marine invertebrate. They did an excellent job making short fun videos packed full of fun facts. Below are just a few, but you can peruse them all either by viewing this playlist on Youtube or pick and choose from this webpage.