Jul 17, 2018

Russell Callender named director of Washington Sea Grant

Russell Callender, director of Washington Sea Grant effective September 2018.

UW’s College of the Environment is pleased to announce that Dr. W. Russell Callender has been named the director of Washington Sea Grant and will join UW Environment’s ranks in September 2018. As a result of the Advisory Search Committee’s deeply consultative process led by Amy Snover, Russell emerged as the best person to lead Washington Sea Grant. Russell is a committed champion for coastal science and conservation and brings more than 25 years of experience in science, policy and management to the director position — including several years as the assistant director of the Virginia Sea Grant Program.

Key ocean fish can prevail with changes to farmed fish, livestock diets

As seafood consumption outpaces the growth of other food sectors and continues to grow worldwide, farmed seafood — also called aquaculture — has increased rapidly to meet consumer demand. That means aquatic farming now puts the most pressure on the smaller forage fish harvested to feed their larger farmed counterparts such as salmon, carp and tilapia. A new study appearing online June 14 in Nature Sustainability shows that if current aquaculture and agriculture practices remain unchanged into the future, wild forage fish populations likely will be overextended by the year 2050, and possibly sooner — even if all stocks were fished sustainably.

Choice matters: The environmental costs of producing meat, seafood

Fishing boat on open waters near Dingle Peninsula coast.

Believed to be the most comprehensive assessment of its kind, scientists were able to determine which kinds of food are the most environmentally costly to produce based on a decade of analysis.

Ocean warming, ‘junk-food’ prey cause of massive seabird die-off, study finds

Cassin’s auklets found on Moolack Beach, Oregon, in 2014. The birds are arranged for photo documentation, and the chalkboard lists the location and time these birds were found.

In the fall of 2014, West Coast residents witnessed a strange, unprecedented ecological event. Tens of thousands of small seabird carcasses washed ashore on beaches from California to British Columbia, in what would become one of the largest bird die-offs ever recorded. A network of more than 800 citizen scientists responded as the birds, called Cassin’s auklets, turned up dead in droves along the coast.

Expanding field-based learning opportunities

A group of about 30 students in hiking gear pose with their professor in the snow at the top of a Cascade mountain peak

The generous support of donors like Tom Hinckley, Environmental and Forest Sciences professor emeritus, makes immersive learning in the field accessible for more UW undergraduates.