We're excited to announce that SeaDoc Society will fund five new scientific research projects aimed at improving the longterm health of the Salish Sea. Each project was carefully reviewed and selected by our Scientific Advisory Committee and funded through donations from people like you.

We look forward to sharing more about each of these as fieldwork ramps up, but here is a brief look at the newly funded projects:

Support Salish Sea Science

Modeling sea duck trends in the transboundary waters of the Salish Sea: a multiscale approach to meet management planning needs

Led by David Bradley, Birds Canada

Recognizing that transboundary monitoring of marine birds has been challenging and not always seamless, researchers propose to applying spatially explicit hierarchical analytical techniques in a Bayesian framework to assess transboundary trends of all waterbird species–including priority sea ducks–regularly monitored by two parallel citizen science programs in Canada (British Columbia Coastal Waterbird Survey: BCCWS) and the U.S. (Puget Sound Seabird Survey: PSSS). This will make the survey data freely available for agencies and other scientists to analyze and also will produce abundant information for the general public that will be visually displayed on Birds Canada’s NatureCounts web platform.

A novel genetics panel to inform management and restoration of native Olympia oyster (Ostrea lurida)

Led by Ryan Crim, Puget Sound Restoration Fund

Olympia oyster restoration has faced challenges due to gaps in genetic data related to wild population structure and captive breeding protocols. Understanding the relationship between broodstock size and genetic diversity in offspring would enable us to ground hatchery practices in scientific data and improve efficiency. The researchers plan to use an archive of Olympia oyster samples to develop 500 species-specific SNP genetic markers. These markers will be used to genotype 2,100 oysters from Puget Sound, identifying sub-populations and determining the optimal broodstock numbers needed for spawning to manage genetic risks associated with hatchery production. This will help assess if current broodstock collection practices maintain genetic diversity while preserving the genetic structure and improve WDFW regulations for oyster restoration.

Killer Whale, Salmon, And Herring Responses to Vessel Noise: Mapping and Management Priorities

Led by Isabelle Côté, Simon Fraser University

This project tackles the threat of underwater noise pollution in the Salish Sea by addressing data limitations on the prevalence of noise pollution, impacts on marine species, and a coherent risk management strategy. Specifically, the researchers propose to integrate underwater noise pollution maps with vessel noise dose-response curves for three culturally, economically, and ecologically important taxa: resident killer whales, Pacific salmon, and Pacific herring. Merging vessel noise maps and dose-response thresholds will identify locations where noise pollution exceeds species thresholds, the potential ecological impacts, and the primary polluters.

They will develop a strategy-to-regulation action plan by examining the political implications of results given the current state of the Canadian and American Ocean Noise Strategies, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the American Endangered Species Act, and the Canadian Species at Risk Act.

Stock and sustainability assessment of the commercial Dungeness Crab (Metacarcinus magister) fishery within the traditional Tsawout First Nation Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area

Led by Lais Chaves, Tsawout First Nation

The Tsawout First Nation is concerned about the large spatial scale at which the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada currently manages this Dungeness crab. With the lead of a UBC MSc student, the Tsawout First Nation, the University of British Columbia Centre for Indigenous Fisheries, and the Hakai Institute will use modified commercial crab traps to assess the abundance, size range, and spatial distribution of adult Dungenesss crab within the QEN’T Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area.

They also will try to determine if megalopae abundance is a good predictor of commercial landings. The graduate student and Tsawout youth interns will conduct a comprehensive systematic literature review, including searches of Western academic journals and Tsawout’s archive of community interviews and records to critically assess how narratives about Dungeness crab impact human interactions with them.

Finally, they plan to conduct a series of semi-structured interviews that culminate in a comprehensive traditional knowledge study. The knowledge shared through these interviews will create essential understandings of Dungeness crab through the lens of Tsawout’s laws, worldviews, and culture and will, in turn, foundationally inform culturally guided stewardship protocols and recommendations for the QEN’T Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area.

Testing susceptibility of cockles to transmissible cancer after transplantation into an exposed region

Led by Michael Metzger, Pacific Northwest Research Institute

This study proposes to investigate a potential cause for declines in Basket cockles (Clinocardium nuttallii), which are an important part of the diet and culture of the Suquamish Tribe and many other coastal tribes from Washington to Alaska. They will specifically test for a transmissible cancer called disseminated neoplasia or bivalve transmissible neoplasia, which has affected transplanted cockles at several sites in Puget Sound, complicating recovery.

Researchers propose to transplant cockles from a site where the cancer is believed to NOT exist to a site on the Suquamish Reservation where it does exist. They will look at survival and transplanted cockles will be measured after two months of exposure at the new site. They will non-lethally extract hemolymph from a subset and will use histological and qPCR methods to determine the prevalence of disease. This will determine whether the prevalence of disease and disease progression suggest that the cockles are more susceptible to disease than endogenous cockles or cockles from other locations in Puget Sound. The results will greatly benefit future cockle restoration work.