Knauss Brown Bag August 18th: Salmon!

Hey Knaussers! After a brief hiatus, we're bringing you the next installment of the Knauss Brown Bag seminar series. 

Coho salmon, credit: FWS

This Thursday, Bethany Craig will tell us all about her work investigating coho life history patterns.  Her research focuses on figuring out how baby salmon grow into adults and where they prefer to live within the vast riverine networks of the Pacific northwest.  In the Grays River Estuary in Washington, she has studied the local salmon in hopes of learning more about how quickly they grow, what they eat, where they choose to lay their eggs, and how they use different types of habitat. 

Recovery regions; NOAA

Salmon research and management remain highly contentious within the Pacific northwest.  In the conservation arena, successful recovery of the many threatened species and their "Evolutionarily Significant Units" along the West coast is the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest with a team of constituents dragged kicking and screaming behind you.  For many of the usual reasons (livlihoods, animals rights, food supply, hydropower, native subsistence practices, and economic development, to name a few) all things salmon are slow and cumbersome processes.  Additionally, the prevalence of this iconic fish within the culture and history of the region does nothing to soothe tensions.  However, this isn't to say that it can't be done.  Through work such as Bethany's, resource managers and researchers can make informed decisions about where to focus recovery planning and restoration activities when they know more about how salmon grow and where they live at each age.  Those who have dedicated their lives and work to such noble fish truly tackle their mountainous task one river and stream at a time. 

To learn more about migrant nomads, fish scale analysis, channels, streams, and the WET lab, come hear Bethany's talk this Thursday!  For more information, check out the Protected Resources coho page and the NOAA Salmon Recovery website.