Have you ever wondered how our world works? Are you interested in how science connects to communities? At the University of Washington’s College of the Environment, you can explore the environment from the Earth’s core to outer space using high tech approaches to solve sustainability issues.

Researchers from the University of Washington are using high-tech tags to record the movements of swordfish — big, deep-water, migratory, open-ocean fish that are poorly studied — and get a window into the ocean depths they inhabit.

A population of humpback whales in the South Atlantic has rebounded from the brink of extinction.
Intense pressure from the whaling industry in the 20th century saw the western South Atlantic population of humpbacks diminish to only 450 whales. It is estimated that 25,000 whales were caught over approximately 12 years in the early 1900s.
Protections were put in place in the 1960s as scientists noticed worldwide that populations were declining. 

With the help of new technologies, a team led by the University of Washington has confirmed that piranhas — and their plant-eating cousins, pacus — do in fact lose and regrow all the teeth on one side of their face multiple times throughout their lives. How they do it may help explain why the fish go to such efforts to replace their teeth.

Jonathan Huie is a recent graduate of both the UW Marine Biology and Aquatic and Fishery Sciences degrees. He is currently working at Friday Harbor Labs in the San Juan Islands as a lab technician. Part of his duties includes CT scanning UW Burke specimens as part of the NSF funded effort to scan all vertebrates and upload them to an online and open-source database. He kindly answered a few of our questions about his undergraduate experience as well as offered some advice for students thinking about pursuing a career in marine biology.

A new study co-authored by University of Washington researchers examines the effects of molten lava that flowed into the ocean as the result of the eruption of Kilauea volcano in Hawai’i from April to August 2018.

One of the most established hands-on, outdoor citizen science projects is the University of Washington-based Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team, COASST, which trains beachgoers along the West Coast, from California to Alaska, to monitor their local beach for dead birds. With about 4,500 participants in its 21-year history and roughly 800 active participants today, COASST’s long-term success is now the subject of scientific study in its own right. What makes people join citizen science projects, and what motivates people to stick with them over years?

Just beyond where conventional scuba divers can go is an area of the ocean that still is largely unexplored. In waters this deep — about 100 to at least 500 feet below the surface — little to no light breaks through.

On May 4th, the University of Washington held its second annual Aquatic Science Open House, inviting Seattle-area families, students, and teachers to explore the institution’s marine and freshwater science programs. The event was organized by the Students Explore Aquatic Sciences (SEAS) outreach group based in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS) and the Academic and Recreational Graduate Oceanographers (ARGO) outreach group based in the School of Oceanography. 

José M. Guzmán, Acting Instructor within the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, is one of this year’s seven recipients of the University of Washington’s Distinguished Teaching Award.