Dungeness Crab in the Salish Sea: The Power of Collaborative Research

Emily Buckner’s Future of Oceans lecture explores how the collaborative larval monitoring network Pacific Northwest Crab Research Group is generating critical data to improve management of the Dungeness crab fishery in the Salish Sea

The Port Townsend Marine Science Center (PTMSC) is pleased to welcome Emily Buckner to its Future of Oceanslecture series at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 29, at the Wheeler Theater in Fort Worden Historical State Park.

Many natural resources are managed without essential, biologically relevant data. Fisheries are particularly susceptible to this reality and, thus, are vulnerable to environmental changes and disturbances, with both human livelihoods and the health of ecological systems at stake. Emily Buckner will explore how the Pacific Northwest Crab Research Group (PCRG) employs a collaborative, stakeholder-driven approach to generate the information needed to inform a data-poor, co-managed fishery, using the example of Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister) in the northeastern Pacific’s Salish Sea. Emily will focus on the PCRG larval crab monitoring network as a multifaceted case study, which unites tribal, state, and federal governments, nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions, and local communities working to produce the first standardized continuous data set on Dungeness crab larval dynamics in the region. Highlighting the types of biological data collected, including spatial and temporal patterns of larval flux and larval size, we explore the application of this novel data to fisheries management. Emily will also explain the network’s contribution to a diversity of educational opportunities and its ability to leverage new research projects and collaborations. The success of PCRG’s larval crab monitoring network ultimately highlights the effectiveness of a cooperative, network-based approach in addressing fisheries management challenges and offers a viable model for managing data-poor systems worldwide.

Emily Buckner facilitates research and partnerships in her role as the program manager for the Pacific Northwest Crab Research Group, a large collaborative research network advancing knowledge on local Dungeness crab populations to inform sustainable management. She also works on restorative mariculture projects, with a focus on seaweed, co-leading the Sea-Land program with Hannah Garfield. Emily is a graduate of Carleton College and the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington.

All events are free. Donations are welcomed and appreciated.

For more information about the lecture series, visit https://ptmsc.org/lectures/