Core Research
Toward Molecular Management of ESA-Listed Rockfish
Within Puget Sound and the wider Salish Sea, yelloweye rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus) is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Outside of the Sound, on the outer Pacific coast, this species is not listed, but it is overfished under the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act, and so commercial harvest for the species is closed; it is managed as part of the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan. Consequently, distinguishing between ESA-listed and non-listed individuals is of critical management importance; there many parties have political incentives to develop and use faster, more accurate, and cheaper ways of distinguishing and tracking yelloweye populations in the wild. Doing so in a non-invasive, scalable way will both avoid take to imperiled species and provide a path to routine molecular-based management for ESA-listed species within NOAA Fisheries.
This work is funded by Oceankind
MMARINeDNA: Marine Mammal Remote detection via INnovative environmental DNA sampling
MMARINeDNA is a project funded by the US Navy to investigate and advance eDNA science. We aim to understand the transport, persistence, and distribution of eDNA in marine environments from marine mammal targets on multiple spatial, vertical, and temporal scales. With our partners at NOAA, UCSD, St. Andrews and CalCOFI, the project will theoretically and experimentally characterize eDNA in the marine environment and parametrize models supporting the ability to hindcast source locations using eDNA detections throughout the water column.
NextGen NEPA: Using eDNA Analysis for Environmental Impact Assessment
NextGen NEPA is a project assessing the use of eDNA as a tool for environmental impact assessment in the context of NEPA and Washington state-law equivalents.
At present, it is difficult to measure the environmental impacts of discrete human activities, despite such assessment often being required by law. Sampling eDNA before, during, and after a development project would be a new and powerful way of assessing that project’s impacts on the local biological communities, and conceivable could become the standard way to do such impact assessment.
We will conduct water sampling over the course of a discrete development project in the Seattle/Tacoma area. This will include investigation of ecological dynamics surrounding the development project using time-series of eDNA samples using both quantitative PCR and metabarcoding approaches.
WSDOT: Extended Molecular Monitoring for Padden Creek
State highways cross streams and rivers in thousands of places in Washington State, which can impede fish migration. Padden Creek in Bellingham, WA supports the runs of coho and chum salmon and migrating Chinook salmon and steelhead trout.
We aim to evaluate the ecological impacts of the Padden Creek culvert replacement by generating a time-series analysis of culvert-replacement impacts and short-term recovery, focused on fish and mammals.