fish

Providing technical support for community partners

Since early 2021, our community partners have been concerned about proposed changes to the plan for the cleanup of the Duwamish River that was finalized in 2014 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in their Record of Decision (ROD). As our partners work to understand the implications of the proposed changes, the UW SRP Community Engagement and Research Translation Cores have been providing technical support to help interpret the science underlying the proposed actions.

UW SRP researchers co-develop risk communication with agency partners

When UW SRP researchers found new evidence that environmental contamination from a former smelter may pose a threat to human health, they were careful to inform their agency partners in advance of publication. This advance notice allowed them a chance to coordinate the necessary risk communication before engaging with potentially affected populations.

Community Partners Use UW SRP Video Series to Engage Fishers

In the fall of 2020, our partner community group, Juntos Podemos Ciudar Nuestro Rio Duwamish (Juntos), held a series of three webinars for fishers in Spanish, Vietnamese, and Khmer using videos that we helped create to teach how to safely and legally catch and prepare salmon from the Duwamish River. Because salmon spend only a small portion of their life in the Duwamish River, they are the safest fish to eat from the polluted waterway.

Tom Burbacher's research aims to protect people from harmful chemical exposure

In December, most of Washington's outer coast was closed to Dungeness crab fishing due to high levels of domoic acid. Domoic acid is a neurotoxin produced by a type of marine algae known as Pseudonitzschia that can accumulate in shellfish and other marine organisms through their diet. In the past, people have died from eating seafood containing domoic acid. Now careful regulation prevents major domoic acid poisoning events in humans.

UW SRP Releases Video Series About how to Fish Safely and Legally on the Duwamish River

Fishing for fun, food, and cultural connection is a way of life in the Pacific Northwest.

With fishing and other outdoor activities now allowed as part of the state's phased approach to reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic, recreational fishing is ramping up on local waterways.

But for those fishing the heavily polluted Lower Duwamish Waterway in Seattle, the fish they catch come with unsafe levels of carcinogens that include heavy metals and PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls.