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. 

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. 

SMEA graduate Amy Olsen has just published her thesis research in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. Amy’s work describes the effect of the Pacific Marine Heatwave (2014-2015) on coral reef fish communities in West Hawai’i. Her findings reveal changes in fish abundance following with the heatwave, and suggest an association with site-specific management regimes. The research was performed in partnership with the Seattle Aquarium where Amy currently works as a Research Technician in the Conservation Programs and Partnerships Department. 

 
Five recent SMEA graduates Abigail Ames, Kathryn Loy, Jenna Rolf, Harshitha Sai Viswanathan and Olivia Zimmerman have been awarded the Washington Sea Grant Hershman Fellowship for 2022–2023. This fellowship places highly motivated, qualified individuals with marine and coastal host offices throughout Washington, providing fellows with a unique perspective on building marine policy and allowing them to share their academic expertise with the host offices. 

SMEA graduates Samantha Klein (’21), James Lee (’21), Sallie Lau (’20), and current SMEA student Bryce Lewis-Smith, along with SMEA Assistant Professor Cleo Wölfle-Hazard and accompanying authors recently published an article in The American Naturalist titled, “Transforming Restoration Science: Multiple Knowledges and Community Research Cogeneration in the Klamath and Duwamish Rivers [journals.uchicago.edu].”
Typical practices in restoration science can perpetuate exclusionary and oppressive paradigms in both ecosystem restoration and restoration policymaking. 

SMEA alums and faculty represented at the recent PCSGA Annual Shellfish Conference held this year in Wenatchee, Washington. In attendance were SMEA alums Jessi Florendo (’22), Kalloway Page (’21), Sam Klein (’21), and Emily Buckner (’20). SMEA Professor of Practice Yoshitaka Ota was a keynote speaker. “It was fun to be among good company in an unfamiliar place!” shared Florendo.
The PCSGA Annual Shellfish Conference is a convening of growers, natural resource managers, regulators, academics, and others involved in the regional shellfish industry to gather and discuss modern problems, scientific inquiry, and collaborative solutions to all nature of problems. 

Congratulations to recent SMEA graduates Clay McKean, Caroline Potter, Kelsey Rudes and Jacquelyn Shaff on being selected as Sea Grant Fellows!
Clay McKean was one of thirteen early-career scientists and professionals to have been selected for the 2022–2023 class of Alaska Sea Grant State Fellows. The group comprises the largest fellowship cohort in the program’s history. The year-long paid fellowship matches soon-to-graduate or recently finished graduate students with hosts in Alaska-based state or federal agencies and nonprofits where they acquire on-the-job experience in marine science and policy positions. 

SMEA Alum Bobbak Talebi is currently a senior coastal planner for the Washington State Department of Ecology. He and his wife Bridget Talebi are two of five UW alumni recently profiled for following their passion to make our planet’s environment healthier, more just and more resilient. As stated in Bobbak’s profile “With a love of the outdoors and a natural inclination toward public service, Talebi was drawn to environmental policy.”
Bobbak’s current role includes helping protect more than 3,000 miles of shoreline through the State Coastal Zone Management Program. 

US Coast Guard Vice Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan ’00  was nominated to head the US Coast Guard, as announced by the Biden Administration on Tuesday, April 5th, 2022. Adm. Fagan would become the first woman to lead a branch of the US military.
Fagan is a graduate of the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, completing a thesis entitled “Improving the quality of information in the marine transportation system: an exercise in risk reduction”.