Saving Seafood

UW study shows PNW waters acidifying faster than rest of world’s oceans

April 23, 2026 — The waters off the Pacific Northwest are becoming more acidic at a faster rate than the rest of the world’s oceans, a global problem exacerbated by the region’s unique geography, according to a University of Washington study.

Researchers found the California Current System, which runs along the West Coast from British Columbia to Baja California, and the Salish Sea, which includes Puget Sound, have experienced amplified acidification over the past 130 years, outpacing the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

“We are already naturally acidic and then we see this bump and then we’re saying that extra bit is increasing faster than we expected,” said Alex Gagnon, an associate professor of oceanography at UW and principal investigator on the study.

The Pacific Northwest is naturally prone to acidic ocean conditions because of a process called upwelling, in which cold, nutrient-rich water is pulled up from the deep ocean to the surface.

Read the full article at King 5

SFP and Hilborn Lab launch 8th edition of the Fishery Improvement Projects Database

April 20, 2026 — The following was released by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership:

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and the Hilborn Lab at the University of Washington have released the 8th version of the Fishery Improvement Projects Database (FIP-DB), marking another major step forward in providing structured data to help track the evolution, scale, and performance of fishery improvement projects (FIPs) worldwide.

The FIP-DB is a comprehensive, publicly available resource that compiles and standardizes data from leading platforms, including SFP’s Improvement Projects Tracker and FisheryProgress.org. With records spanning more than two decades, the database provides a unique historical and real-time view of how FIPs have grown and evolved across the globe.

This latest update highlights the continued expansion of the FIP landscape. Over time, FIPs have increased not only in number, but also in geographic reach, diversity of species covered, and range of fisheries engaged. This growth reflects the rising importance of collaborative management and market-driven approaches to improving fisheries sustainability worldwide.

“FIPs have emerged as one of the leading market-based approaches for delivering improvements in fisheries supplying global seafood markets, with more than 350 projects initiated to date,” said Indrani Lutchman, Program Director of FIP Evaluation and External Relations at SFP. “With each new version of the database, we are better able to capture the scale, diversity, and progress of these efforts, and provide the structured data needed for scientific and robust analyses of their impact.”

A key highlight of this year’s release is the continued evolution of the database itself. The FIP-DB has expanded significantly in both depth and amount of information over successive versions, and the 2026 update introduces two major additions:

  • FIP stage indicators, enabling more detailed analysis of how projects are progressing in implementing workplans and delivering measurable improvements
  • FAO Global Record of Stocks and Fisheries (GRSF) Universal Identifiers, allowing stronger alignment with global fisheries datasets and improving the ability to map FIPs to specific fisheries and stocks.

Together, these improvements will open new opportunities for researchers and analysts to better understand FIP performance and link it to effective changes in policy and governance and, ultimately, improvements in fisheries and ecosystems.

The FIP-DB has helped advance scientific research, providing a key reference for peer-reviewed studies, global assessments, and FIP landscape reports. Beyond the research community, the database serves a wide range of stakeholders, including:

  • Nonprofit organizations, supporting conservation strategies and evaluation of FIP effectiveness
  • Seafood industry actors, informing responsible sourcing decisions and supply chain risk assessments
  • Government agencies, providing consistent, data-driven insights to guide fisheries management and policy.

“Research investigating the emergence and effect of sustainability-related actions requires knowledge of what has been done, where, how, by whom, and with what results,” said Dianty Ningrum, researcher in sustainability science at the Anthropocene Laboratory of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. “Such knowledge can facilitate learning across regions and between sectors, and allow for transfer of knowledge, expertise, and mimicking of strategies. Datasets like the FIP-DB are an important for building such knowledge. The experts developing this platform have been helpful in our work to conduct a cross-sectoral global assessment of actions for sustainability.”

Similar to previous editions, the new version includes an updated interactive Tableau dashboard, with selected visualizations of trends in FIP growth, geographic expansion, species coverage, and performance indicators. The dashboard enables users to explore how the FIP landscape has developed over time and to identify key patterns and trends.

For more information and access to the database and dashboard, visit:
https://sustainablefisheries-uw.org/databases/fishery-improvement-projects-database/

Researchers: parasites help measure in salmon populations

January 22, 2026 — Opening a can of worms may prove the answer to a salmon fishery researcher’s question, especially dead anisakid, roundworms found in old cans of wild Alaska salmon.

Results of the initial study on what four decades of canned salmon reveal about marine food webs were released in the spring of 2024.  Now using new grant funds, Natalie Mastick of Arizona State University is again collaborating with Chelsea Wood at the University of Washington to further explore the history of marine parasites to determine the impact on the health of a marine ecosystem.

The current research award from the North Pacific Research Board in Anchorage began in the summer of 2025 and runs through December 2027, Wood said.

According to the Seafood Products Association in Seattle, parasites can reduce the growth, survivorship, and marketability of commercially important marine fish species, particularly in Alaska.

While finding worms in salmon fillets, even dead ones, may cause concern, their presence is not a threat to human health and often signals that the fish originated from a healthy marine ecosystem.  High-pressure canning, including the timing and temperatures involved, kills the parasites.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Scientists Deliberate Impacts of Monument Pelagic Fishing Prohibitions

December 9, 2025 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

On the first day of its 158th meeting, the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council reviewed the best available science on the potential benefits and costs of restoring commercial fishing in U.S. Pacific marine national monuments.

A presentation by SSC member Ray Hilborn, University of Washington professor, examined the limited data available from within existing monument closures, new information from recent re-openings and economic performance of U.S. longline vessels before and after closures. The analysis compared widely promoted claims that large marine protected areas (MPAs) increase biodiversity, create healthier ecosystems and support sustainable fisheries with empirical evidence from the Pacific.

The presentation highlighted that:

  • There is very little direct fishery or ecosystem data from inside the closed areas, with most insights coming from catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) near monument boundaries, acoustic data from drifting fish aggregating devices and economic studies.
  • For the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, modeled increases in tuna abundance through spillover were modest (on the order of a few percent), and may not translate into large fishery gains.
  • In U.S. monument waters, where historical fishing pressure was relatively low, large ecological responses to closure are not expected, and recent studies have found no measurable increase in tuna biomass density inside open-ocean MPAs and, in some cases, substantial reductions in bigeye CPUE linked to the loss of historically productive grounds.
  • Closures of marine national monuments create an illusion of “protection” while leaving non-fishing threats ignored.

Hilborn’s talk also outlined potential SSC platforms for discussion, including that well-regulated U.S. fisheries under the Magnuson–Stevens Act (MSA) are unlikely to pose an abatable threat to pelagic stocks that can be solved through large open-ocean MPAs alone, and that management frameworks such as the MSA and the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission already provide tools to achieve conservation goals while considering human and community impacts.

Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawaii Longline Association, provided public comment following the SSC discussion. He noted that existing monument area closures “exclude U.S. vessels from U.S. waters and leave us very constrained in where we can fish.” Citing declining bigeye catch rates, Kingma emphasized that “we need to be able to find and follow the fish – that’s the most important part.”

“We’re not looking for more fish, but to have the opportunity to fish more efficiently away from competitors,” Kingma said.

Counting salmon is a breeze with airborne eDNA

December 1, 2025 — During the annual salmon run last fall, University of Washington researchers pulled salmon DNA out of thin air and used it to estimate the number of fish that passed through the adjacent river. Aden Yincheong Ip, a UW research scientist of marine and environmental affairs, began formulating the driving hypothesis for the study while hiking on the Olympic Peninsula.

“I saw the fish jumping and the water splashing and I started thinking — could we recover their genetic material from the air?,” he said.

The researchers placed air filters at several sites on Issaquah Creek, near the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery in Washington. To their amazement, the filters captured Coho salmon DNA, even 10 to 12 feet from the river. Scientists collect environmental DNA, or eDNA, to identify species living in or passing through an area, but few have attempted to track aquatic species by sampling air.

This study, published Nov. 26 in Scientific Reports, shows that eDNA can move between air and water — a possibility scientists hadn’t accounted for even though aquatic animal DNA sometimes appears in airborne study data.

The researchers then merged air and water eDNA with the hatchery’s visual counts in a model to track how salmon numbers rose and fell during the fall migration. Although the amount of salmon DNA in the air was 25,000 times less than what was observed in the water, its concentration still varied with observed migratory trends.

“This work is at the edge of what is possible with eDNA,” said senior author Ryan Kelly, a UW professor of marine and environmental affairs and director of the eDNA Collaborative. “It pushes the boundaries way further than I thought we could.”

Read the full article at UW News

Underexploitation of Fish Stocks: A Greater Threat to Food Security than Overfishing

January 15, 2025 —  A groundbreaking study published by researchers at the University of Washington has unveiled fresh insights into the effectiveness of global fisheries management, challenging conventional assessments that focus solely on overfishing. The research, led by Dr. Ray Hilborn, suggests that underexploitation of fish stocks is a far more significant contributor to lost food potential than overfishing. This discovery is central to the study’s introduction of a novel metric—the Commercial Fisheries Food Production Index (CFFPI)—designed to assess the ability of fisheries to maximize sustainable food production.

Key Findings: Underutilization of Fish Stocks

The study evaluates fisheries across 19 data-rich nations and five regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs). These nations include Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Morocco, Peru, Russia, Japan, and Turkey. The European Union is analyzed separately for its Atlantic and Mediterranean regions, while sub-Saharan Africa is also included. Among the RFMOs studied are the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), and the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT).

The study reveals that current management practices capture only 77% of the combined maximum sustainable yield (MSY) from fish stocks. Notably, the research attributes 86% of the unrealized food production to insufficient fishing pressure, while overfishing accounts for a mere 14%.

Among international fisheries, the pattern is consistent: the majority of lost potential stems from underexploitation, not overfishing. These findings challenge traditional methods of evaluating fisheries performance, which prioritize preventing overfishing without adequately addressing opportunities to sustainably increase food production.

Introducing the CFFPI

To provide a more holistic assessment, the researchers developed the CFFPI. This index evaluates the long-term food production achievable from fisheries under current management compared to their maximum potential. Unlike conventional metrics focused on stock abundance, the CFFPI emphasizes fishing pressure as the critical variable for maximizing sustainable food production.

By using the CFFPI, the researchers identified that many countries could significantly increase their food production by targeting underexploited stocks, although this may require balancing other objectives such as environmental conservation and employment.

Broader Implications for Fisheries Policy

The study underscores the need to expand fisheries assessments beyond the commonly reported metrics of overfished stocks. While avoiding overfishing remains essential, the researchers argue that increasing fishing pressure on underexploited stocks offers a path to achieving higher sustainable yields. However, implementing such changes will require careful alignment with national and international goals, including ecological sustainability and economic priorities.

The analysis also highlights stark differences in management effectiveness among countries. Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Norway scored highly on the CFFPI, reflecting their focus on optimizing yields. In contrast, nations like the United States and Australia, often praised for their strong environmental laws, showed lower CFFPI scores due to precautionary policies that maintain low fishing pressure to avoid ecological risks.

A Call for Holistic Evaluation

The researchers conclude by advocating for the adoption of the CFFPI as a standard measure in fisheries management evaluations. Dr. Hilborn emphasizes that the index provides a more nuanced understanding of fisheries performance, accounting for the trade-offs inherent in managing marine resources for food production, environmental health, and socio-economic benefits.

“Simply reporting the proportion of stocks overfished or subject to overfishing, as is commonly done, does not, by itself, provide an adequate basis for decision-making when fisheries management has multiple objectives,” the authors state.

As global food security challenges intensify, this study provides a critical framework for optimizing fisheries management. By adopting tools like the CFFPI, policymakers can ensure that fisheries fulfill their potential as vital contributors to sustainable food systems while balancing ecological and social priorities.

Read the full article here

Scientists unearth key clues to cuisine of resident killer whale populations

September 21, 2024 — A team led by researchers at the University of Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has uncovered key information about what resident killer whale populations are eating. Researchers had long known that resident killer whales—also known as resident orcas—prefer to hunt fish, particularly salmon. But some populations thrive, while others have struggled. Scientists have long sought to understand the role that diet plays in these divergent fates.

“Killer whales are incredibly intelligent, and learn foraging strategies from their matriarchs, who know where to find the richest prey resources in their regions,” said Amy Van Cise, UW assistant professor of aquatic and fishery sciences, who began this study as a postdoctoral researcher with NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center. “So we wanted to know: Does all of that social learning affect  preferences in different populations of resident killer whales, or in pods within populations?”

In a paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, Van Cise and her colleagues report the cuisine preferences of two resident killer whale populations: the Alaska residents and the southern residents, which reside primarily in the Salish Sea and off the coast of Washington, Oregon and northern California.

Read the full article at PHYS.org

Thanks to humans, Salish Sea waters are too noisy for resident orcas to hunt successfully

September 11, 2024 — The Salish Sea—the inland coastal waters of Washington and British Columbia—is home to two unique populations of fish-eating orcas, the northern resident and the southern resident orcas. Human activity over much of the 20th century, including reducing salmon runs and capturing orcas for entertainment purposes, decimated their numbers. This century, the northern resident population has steadily grown to more than 300 individuals, but the southern resident population has plateaued at around 75. They remain critically endangered.

New research led by the University of Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has revealed how underwater noise produced by humans may help explain the southern residents’ plight. In a paper published Sept. 10 in Global Change Biology, the team reports that  pollution—from both large and small vessels—forces northern and southern  orcas to expend more time and energy hunting for fis

Read the full article at PHYS.org

Hilborn lab finds counterevidence to study claiming MPAs have “spillover” effect

April 2, 2o23 — A new analysis by the University of Washington’s Sustainable Fisheries Lab is countering a study that claims the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, the largest marine protected area (MPA) in the U.S., caused a “spillover effect” in yellowfin tuna.

The study, “Spillover benefits from the world’s largest fully protected MPA,” claimed it found “clear evidence” of spillover effects for both bigeye and yellowfin tuna. A spillover effect refers to when the population of a particular species in an MPA becomes so abundant that it “spills over” into surrounding areas that can be targeted by fishermen.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

University of Washington research aiding salmon run forecasting in Alaska

May 25, 2022 — The Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association (BBRSDA) and the University of Washington Alaska Salmon Program hosted a webinar on Thursday, 5 May, to present their 2022 salmon forecast for Bristol Bay, as well as ongoing research into run timing, environmental impacts, and fish and climate trends in the bay.

Founded in 2005, the BBRSDA is an organization established by Bristol Bay fishermen to support all aspects of the sockeye salmon fishery, from marketing and infrastructure to research and education. The University of Washington’s Alaska Salmon Program has partnered with BBRSDA to research the Pacific salmon fisheries of Alaska in an effort to gain understanding of the changing ecosystems and provide knowledge necessary to management and conservation.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource