SMEA graduate and former Canadian Studies FLAS fellow, Samantha Farquahar (’19), received the Fulbright-Hayes award to continue her fisheries research in Arctic Québec (Nunavik). Below is the article posted in the Department of Education’s IFLE newsletter. Congratulations, Samantha!

Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad fellow studies fisheries, food systems, and indigenous food security in Canada

Samantha Farquhar, a doctoral student in the Integrated Coastal Sciences program at East Carolina University (ECU), will travel to northern Quebec next year to study and document how fisheries relate to food systems in nearby coastal Canadian communities. 

This issue of the Alumni Focus shines on Jenny Waddell, the Research Coordinator for Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS). Jenny’s career is representative of the many SMEA graduates who have been selected for the prestigious Knauss Fellowship (a national award administered locally by Washington Sea Grant – and the application process just opened).
Jenny graduated from SMEA in 2001 with a thesis on sustainable tourism development for Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras. 

In 1972, the Board of Regents of the University of Washington authorized the formation of the Institute for Marine Studies. In the last 50 years SMEA has graduated nearly 800 alumni who are putting their skills to work around the world — a formidable force for improving human and environmental well-being. Here we report on a representative few alumni to inspire current students and to link alumni to friends. 

SMEA faculty continue to contribute to the scholarship of marine and environmental affairs. In 2022, we published two books and over 30 articles in prestigious environmental, marine, and interdisciplinary journals. Many of these were co-authored with our students and our postdoctoral scholars. Below is a collection of these works. Faculty names are in bold; names of students and postdoctoral scholars trained by our faculty are underlined. 

Dear SMEA friends!
It is the season when we review what we have accomplished, thank those who helped us, and plan for the next year. Year 2022 has been very productive with 33 students graduating and a wonderful cohort of 35 first-year students joining us. Upon their arrival, the first-year students were offered an exciting set of applied team projects (capstones) that we developed with our partners, including Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association, Seattle Public Utilities, Washington Maritime Blue, and University of Montana Flathead Lake Biological Station. 

 
SMEA Professor Terrie Klinger and SMEA Affiliate Professor Jan Newton, were recently featured in a UW Today article titled Fighting ocean acidification, one oyster at a time. The article discusses the impacts of ocean acidification on the shellfish industry and how the industry has adapted after scientists, shellfish growers and other partners collaborated and came up with tools to manage corrosive water. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs? 
I decided to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs because I was really looking to pursue an interdisciplinary graduate career. After I graduated from the University of Michigan, I worked seasonal positions across the United States. Many of these experiences allowed me to explore various disciplines within marine ecology, from research to education and outreach. 

In Washington state, thousands of barrier culverts block salmon from accessing critical upstream habitat, violating tribal treaty rights and hindering efforts to rebuild populations of this iconic species. These barrier culverts are owned by a large number of entities including federal agencies, the state, counties, cities, and private landowners.
Each of these entities is independently ramping up efforts to correct barrier culverts and, in the next decade, billions of dollars will be devoted to fish passage restoration projects in the state. 

Molly Daly, SMEA second-year student, Dr. Eduardo Gallo-Cajiao, a Smith Fellows Postdoctoral Scholar at SMEA, and Nives Dolšak, SMEA faculty, presented their research at the 2022 Annual meeting of the Pacific Northwest Political Science Association in Walla Walla. Molly presented preliminary findings of the project entitled “Evaluation of Multi-level Governance of Shorebird Management and Conservation in Puget Sound,” a capstone project with Elley Donnelly, SMEA second-year student, Drs. 

The North Pacific snow and red king crab seasons are canceled this year, affecting entire communities that support the industry. Factors such as dropping populations from overfishing and climate change contributed to crab harvests being suspended this year.
SMA alumna Jamie Goen is the Executive Director for the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers. In a KIRO 7 news article Jamie said in 2018 there were a lot of small snow crabs in the ocean and things were looking really good.