Adaptability is top of mind here at PSRF. The year 2020 has been full of changes, for all of us. If you’re lucky, your morning routine might have a little less commute time and a whole lot more time in sweats. For others, the changes have been far less subtle. We've all had to find a new “normal” in our everyday lives amid a global pandemic, social justice reckoning, economic upheaval, and climate change.
On the PSRF project front, we’ve become pretty creative in continuing our work during stay-at home orders and social distancing. Our staff is strongly committed to the work we do and now more than ever understands the importance of restoring Puget Sound’s marine habitats, species, and waters. Even if that does mean endless video chats to get the work done.
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Staff video chats? All about it.
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Virtual betting games on average oysters set per shell? You betcha!
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When we aren't on video chats we have been getting our hands-on work done. Here’s a look at some COVID-19-friendly work we’ve accomplished.
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Little Oysters, Big Progress
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In 2010, PSRF set a goal of restoring 100 acres of Olympia oyster habitat by 2020 at priority locations in Puget Sound. This time last year we still had 16 acres to go. And in less than one month we will cross the 100-acre finish line! Look for us out in Liberty Bay in early October, sluicing shell from a barge to provide habitat for larval Olympia oysters. It will look similar to last year's restoration extravaganza in Sinclair Inlet, shown in the video below:
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But that's not all. Our team has also been out in the field (see photos below), collecting data on restoration sites past, present and future; gathering Olympia oysters for health assessments; and deploying recruitment monitoring stations. You can read more about all of our Olympia oyster activities on our webpage - have a look!
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Feeling Aba(lonely)? Not in our hatchery.
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Despite early delays due to the shutdown, our pinto abalone restoration team wrapped up a successful outplant and spawning season this spring and summer. In late May we outplanted ~3,500 juvenile abalone to six restoration sites in the San Juan Archipelago.
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Our trips to outplant young hatchery-reared abalone allowed us to collect adult abalone to use as broodstock for spawning. Spawning the new wild-caught abalone, and broodstock from previous years, we ran a COVID-approved spawning season and produced 1.6 million larvae! More than enough to fill all 70 setting tanks available at the Kenneth K. Chew Center for Shellfish Research & Restoration - the conservation hatchery we operate at NOAA's Manchester Research Station. These baby abalone will be reared at the hatchery until it is their turn to be outplanted into the wild a year from now.
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Abalone eggs are negatively buoyant. In this video, all the eggs this female produced settled on the bottom of the bucket.
Any guesses on how many eggs this female abalone produced?
Yup, you guessed it. 80,000 eggs are in this bucket!
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A common limitation to spawning is the space to house all the abalone we produce. When one female produces thousands, (or millions) of eggs, it becomes hard to find space to keep them all. However, as pinto abalone are an endangered species in Washington State, we want to produce as many as we possibly can. To help, we collaborate with local organizations to act as satellite nursery facilities. Currently, Port Townsend Marine Science Center (PTMSC) houses 1,000 juvenile abalone that will be outplanted in 2021. The picture below shows PSRF’s Abalone Biologist, Morgan Adkisson (pictured right), becoming #instafamous when dropping off the new batch to PTMSC this year. In addition to PTMSC, we are thrilled to be expanding our satellite nursery capacity through a brand new collaboration with the Seattle Aquarium. Look for more in coming months on this exciting partnership! Enormous thanks to the Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Family Fund at Seattle Foundation, an anonymous fund at Seattle Foundation, and the Washington State Legislature for funding these new satellite nurseries.
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Bull Kelp on the Up and Up
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There is never a dull moment in our Bull Kelp Restoration program. From celebrating our bull kelp outplants reaching the surface at Doe-Kag-Wats/Jefferson Head for the first time since the 1990s (photo below), to conducting our inaugural index site monitoring in Edmonds, to overhauling our Bull Kelp Restoration website, we have been busy. We wouldn't have it any other way.
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PSRFer Brian Allen examining reproductive bull kelp blade at Doe-Kag-Wats/Jefferson Head enhancement site.
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We are also thrilled to have officially begun planning a wild, rich adventure for summer 2021. PSRF and The Pew Charitable Trusts have joined hands to re-trace and re-imagine our region's kelp highway on a 7-day Kelp Expedition. We'll shine a spotlight on the importance of kelp as a marine foundation species during a science-based expedition to visit underwater kelp forests throughout Puget Sound. The expedition will highlight healthy kelp forests; engage new partners in restoring and monitoring kelp forests; collect propagules for our bull kelp seed bank; survey biodiversity; and map kelp extent over, under, and on the water. Stay tuned - it's going to be epic!
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We are so fortunate to have added the following two new (ish) faces to the PSRF team.
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Charlotte Dohrn works with PSRF on the Olympia oyster restoration program as our Habitat Restoration Specialist. Charlotte graduated with a master’s degree in Marine Affairs from the University of Washington in 2020. She previously worked as a consultant based in California on a range of coastal conservation and management projects, and before that as an oyster shucker in Seattle and San Francisco. When she’s not thinking about oysters, Charlotte loves exploring new corners of Seattle and the greater PNW by bike and foot, particularly if she can stop for coffee along the way.
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Jackelyn Garcia recently finished her tenure as PSRF's 2020 summer intern. She researched biotoxins in native clams, assisted with Olympia oyster fieldwork, and helped out at the Port Madison Community Shellfish Farm. Jackelyn is now transitioning into her role as our full-time Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) Hatchery Technician. She has spent much of her time learning from Washington’s diverse communities about the local ecology, and their myriad personal and cultural connections, which has continued to shape her interest in environmental justice and conservation.
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We also recently said goodbye to Claire Everett, our 2019-2020 WCC Hatchery Technician. Prior to Claire's work with WCC, Claire helped out at the hatchery as an intern with the Suquamish Tribe. We look forward to seeing where Claire's path leads, and will greatly miss their humor, empathy, and hard work, not to mention their incredible art.
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