By Katy Bland

 
After canoeing over 600 miles this summer, I could tell you about the visceral feelings that accompany being outside for forty days and nights in a row, or the adrenaline rushes inherent in a dynamic long-distance canoe trip. I could tell you about the jaw-dropping beauty, the moments of extreme tranquility, and the intimate and kindred encounters with moose, snapping turtles, and eagles. 

By Edits and Introduction by Lindsey Popken

Tori Tsui (she/her/they) is a EurAsian intersectional climate activist who uses her social media platforms to advocate for climate change action, mental health stigmatization and care access, and racial justice. I first came across Tori on Instagram and was captivated by the breadth and honesty of her activism. With 24,000 Instagram followers, Tori’s activism is a great example of the power of new media as an advocacy platform. 

By Megan McKeown

 
As I step outside into the 36°F weather, I am awkwardly half-running to limit the amount of time I spend exposed to the frigid air. I reach the end of the dock where the water is gently lapping back and forth. I slowly lower my body down a ladder, trying to steady my breath as I adjust to the cold limb by limb. 

By Edits and Introduction by James Lee

Annabel Gong is a behavioral ecologist studying sharks at the University of San Diego (USD) for their master’s degree. They are advised by Dr. Andrew Nosal, and one of the members of their thesis committee is Dr. Camrin Braun, a professor with the UW’s School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences. Recently, they began co-hosting a podcast created by Felix Berrios called the LGBTQ+ STEM Cast, which highlights LGBTQ+ voices in the sciences. 

By Nikki Canning

 
In three days, student volunteers from the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs will present faculty with a formal proposal to create a Departmental Diversity Committee, or DDC. The proposal describes the proposed committee’s structure and mission and includes a detailed action plan for the 2020-21 academic year. It is the result of an intense and sustained effort by students in SMEA’s Diversity Forum and a volunteer committee who worked throughout the summer doing the research needed to formulate their proposal. 

By Corinne Noufi

 
Aquaculture has exploded as an industry over the last couple of decades and is now the world’s fastest growing food industry. Farmed seafood comprises over 50% of seafood consumed by Americans, and that number is only expected to increase.
Consumption of farmed fish has the potential to be one of the most sustainable and healthy ways to feed the world’s growing population. 

By George Thomas Jr.

 
I’m supposed to be writing about my summer adventure, but, this summer–this year–has been a bit of a disheartening adventure for many. While a novel coronavirus upended our everyday lives, scientists watched as their research was abruptly halted, postponed, or disrupted.
Fortunately, those of us involved in the Floating Wetlands capstone project at the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs remained healthy and, though predominantly isolated, we were able to gather some data in the field under strict COVID-19 protocols. 

The School of Marine and Environmental Affairs hosts students from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds who have a shared interest in applying their work to the marine and environmental fields. Lindsey Popken studied anthropology and Abby Keller studied biology before coming to SMEA, so they’re from different parts of that disciplinary spectrum, but they still find commonalities in their goals and ways of thinking. 

Editor’s note: As the academic year starts, the new Currents executive board would like to introduce ourselves to you! The four of us have all put in time this past summer to create a feature series focusing almost exclusively on the work of BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ people in marine and environmental affairs. For our first piece of the fall quarter, we took turns interviewing each other so you can get to know us and read about what we’re hoping to accomplish through Currents. 

By Edits and Introduction by Lindsey Popken

Jessica Hum (She/Her/Hers) is a self-identified Indigenous-Chinese-Canadian person, who has created and published a podcast called, “Story-telling / Story-listening.” I was drawn to interviewing Jessica because of her quest to decolonize media and her dedication to elevating Indigneous voices on her podcast. This podcast is dedicated to employing traditional oral storytelling to prepare for climate change, as well as exploring and utilizing Indigenous ways of knowing and thinking about the world. 

By Edits by Abby Keller

Jeremy (J.J.) Lomax is a graduate student and functional morphologist at Brown University. As a “fish dentist,” he studies how different forms of feeding apparatuses in fishes produce different behaviors, informing the fundamental biomechanical principles behind carnivory and herbivory. This summer, J.J. gave a talk at Friday Harbor Laboratories (FHL), where he detailed his research within the context of police murders of Black men and boys and his own interactions with the police. 

By Edits and Introduction By Lindsey Popken

For this interview, I had the pleasure of interviewing Roger Dunlop, a biologist at the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council’s fisheries department, called Uu-a-thłuk, which means “taking care of” in Nuu-chah-nulth. On Vancouver Island, there are fourteen individual Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations. The Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council (NTC) exists to support the Nuu-chah-nulth people and territories. Specifically, the Uu-a-thłuk Department provides support to “increase Nuu-chah-nulth access to, and management of, sea resources and build Nuu-chah-nulth capacity to find jobs and careers related to the ocean.”
 I first met Roger while co-developing my masters thesis with Uu-a-thłuk earlier this year. 

By Edits and photo captions by Abby Keller

Seattle’s Got Green has its finger on the pulse of the South Seattle community, evolving to fit the moment and people of South Seattle. With three focal areas of Food Access, Young Leaders, and Climate Justice, this grassroots organization exemplifies meaningful community engagement and works to ensure that folks of color and low-income communities benefit from the environmental movement. This month, I sat down (virtually) with two members of Got Green’s board: Climate Justice Organizer, Nancy Huizar, and Food Access Organizer, Tanika Thompson Bird. 

By Edits and photo captions by Abby Keller

Seattle’s Got Green has its finger on the pulse of the South Seattle community, evolving to fit the moment and people of South Seattle. With three focal areas of Food Access, Young Leaders, and Climate Justice, this grassroots organization exemplifies meaningful community engagement and works to ensure that folks of color and low-income communities benefit from the environmental movement. To highlight the work and people of Got Green in a two-part feature series, I sat down (virtually) with two members of Got Green’s board: Climate Justice Organizer, Nancy Huizar, and Food Access Organizer, Tanika Thompson Bird.
  

By Edits and Introduction by James Lee

William is from Arizona and is a junior at Arizona State University, where he’s studying sustainability, urban planning, and French. I connected with William through Washington Sea Grant, where both he and I have worked.
William is a Doris Duke Conservation Scholar, and his participation in the Doris Duke program is what led him to Sea Grant. It was after learning that he was studying the needs of urban populations and their use of the marine environment that I became interested in talking to him. 

By Edits and Introduction by Samantha Klein

My close friend from college, Kristy Drutman, started the blog and media platform, Brown Girl Green, to write about her experience working in the white-dominated U.S. environmental field and bring other BIPOC’s (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) voices to the forefront of the conversation. I connected with Ngozi Chukwueke, intern and content creator for Brown Girl Green, about her experience working on environmental issues and how crucial anti-racist work is to environmentalism. 

By James Lee

Editor’s Note: The Currents editorial board has been thinking a lot about the ways in which issues of race, gender, white supremacy, public health, and environmental justice are an integral part of marine and environmental affairs. We’ve been discussing ways to improve Currents’ content by incorporating equitable, anti-racist, and anti-colonial thinking in the way we choose topics and interview subjects, and in the way we write about them. 

By James Lee

 
Since time immemorial, the Duwamish Tribe has lived in what is now the Seattle and greater King County area, enjoying a close relationship with the Duwamish River. White settlers forced the Tribe out of the area, banned Native people from entering the city, and made massive alterations to the river’s lower reaches, literally paving the way for settlement, intensive agriculture, and heavy industry. 

By George Thomas Jr.

 
While rising temperatures and increasing concentrations of greenhouse gasses tend to steal the thunder of atmospheric-related news, air pollution is another nefarious anthropogenic factor negatively affecting the human condition. The World Health Organization estimates air pollution kills 7 million people each year. 
Long before “climate change” was a thing, images reflecting the world’s great “industrial revolution” are dominated by smoke billowing from factories and darkened daylight skies over industrial cities. 

By Samantha Klein

One day in late March, while walking along the Burke Gilman trail, I encountered a man advertising chicken coop building services in order to “keep your family fed”.  At the start of the Stay-at Home order I also began to notice advertisements on Craigslist exploiting the fear surrounding food shortages and enthusiasm for greater self-sufficiency. These advertisements were for raised-bed boxes for “summer survival gardens” and small greenhouses to “get ready for the apocalypse”.