Sep 30, 2015

Known fish species living in the Salish Sea increases in new report

Kelp greenling (Hexagrammos decagrammus)

Coho salmon, Pacific halibut and even the dogfish shark are familiar faces to many people in the Salish Sea region. But what about the Pacific viperfish, northern flashlightfish, dwarf wrymouth or the longsnout prickleback? A new report co-authored by Ted Pietsch at The School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences documents all fish that live in the Salish Sea, a roughly 6,500-square-mile region that encompasses Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Strait of Georgia, the San Juan Islands and the Canadian Gulf Islands.

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Sep 15, 2015

Young chum salmon may get biggest nutrition boost from Elliott Bay restored beaches

In the midst of ferry boats, container ships and tourists crowding Seattle’s Elliott Bay, young salmon are just trying to get a decent meal. The fish hatch in the rivers and streams that feed into Puget Sound and almost immediately rely on eating small organisms near the shore, including in the heart of Seattle’s commerce-filled waterfront. Though salmon share the busy Elliott Bay waters with boats and barges, scientists suspect built-up, “armored” shorelines and large piers may be the main culprits disrupting fish habitat.

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Sep 9, 2015

Finding Friday Harbor

At the College of the Environment, boundless field opportunities await our students and researchers. The Friday Harbor Laboratories are a research gateway to the Pacific, where you can foster your skills as a marine biologist, oceanographer, or in any number of ocean-related sciences. Sitting on the shores of Friday Harbor in the San Juan Archipelago, the labs are a renowned destination to immerse yourself in marine sciences as they relate to the Salish Sea.

Lab experiments question popular measure of ancient ocean temperatures

Thaumarchaeota archaea, used in the study, were collected from a tropical water tank at the Seattle Aquarium.

Understanding the planet’s history is crucial if we are to predict its future. While some records are preserved in ice cores or tree rings, other records of the climate’s ancient past are buried deep inside the seafloor. An increasingly popular method to deduce historic sea surface temperatures uses sediment-entombed bodies of marine archaea, one of Earth’s most ancient and resilient creatures, as a 150-million-year record of ocean temperatures.

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Aug 25, 2015

Rare nautilus sighted for the first time in three decades by the College's Peter Ward

Nautilus pompilius swimming above a rare Allonautilus scrobiculatus off the coast of Ndrova Island in Papua New Guinea.

In early August, biologist Peter Ward returned from the South Pacific with news that he had encountered an old friend, one he hadn’t seen in three decades. A professor with the College of the Environment’s Earth & Space Sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences‘ Department of Biology, Ward had seen what he considers one of the world’s rarest animals: Allonautilus scrobiculatus.

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