The historic Norwegian tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl set sail for San Francisco from the Port of Seattle on Monday, marking the end of and another stop on the to support a sustainable future at sea.

The ship, built in 1914, boasts three towering masts and hails from Bergen, Norway. During the inaugural One Ocean Week Seattle, organized by , it docked at Pier 66 to welcome attendees and members of the public aboard to explore and learn.

The drew hundreds of people to Seattle to discuss marine ecosystems, the seafood industry, shipping and renewable energy, and more. 91探花 scientists joined policymakers, educators and industry leaders to define and address priorities in stewardship and ocean science.

, a 91探花affiliate professor and research scientist at the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels, served as a panelist on the 鈥淐oast to Coast Collaboration in Research鈥� aboard Statsraad Lehmkuhl on Friday morning.

Moore contributed her expertise as a marine mammal ecologist to help launch the in the Pacific Arctic in 2010, leading to an international effort to establish a network of observatories in the Arctic to track ecosystem health amidst physical changes to the region.

The panel, part of a series hosted by , offered a chance to discuss shared goals as melting ice opens the Arctic up to more traffic.

鈥淚t was an important opportunity for international collaboration and public engagement regarding rapid ecosystem changes in Arctic, and local, waters,鈥� Moore said.

, a 91探花professor of mechanical engineering, helped lead a 鈥渂ehind the scenes鈥� lab tour hosted by the , which joins researchers at UW, Oregon State University and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

During the tour, researchers showcased marine energy monitoring projects at the , including videos and sonar documenting interactions between marine life and tidal energy turbines, sensors to detect underwater collisions, and systems to monitor how much noise is produced by the devices that help harness energy from waves and currents.

鈥淭hese tools help us identify and minimize environmental effects associated with harnessing energy from waves, tides and rivers,鈥� Polagye said.

, a 91探花principal research scientist of aquatic and fishery sciences participated in a panel discussion, where he shared his work on habitat in , which borders downtown Seattle. Toft鈥檚 lab studies how shoreline development impacts habitat value for young salmon.

鈥淎lthough the shorelines of Elliott Bay have been heavily modified, restoration efforts have had positive results,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he panel gave us a chance to discuss the importance of maintaining a healthy shoreline along a major urban working waterfront.鈥�

Despite the density of human activity along the shores of Elliott Bay, these waters are home to key species, including kelp, orcas and salmon. Maintaining functionality without losing habitat is a challenge, requiring input from various stakeholders, and creativity.

, a coastal hazards specialist at , provided an update on observed and projected sea level rise during a Friday workshop bringing together coastal managers and tribes around the Puget Sound region.

鈥淭he opportunity to meet in person with that many people who all came for the workshop was invaluable,鈥� he said.

To connect with a 91探花expert in ocean or environmental science, contact Gillian Dohrn in 91探花News at gdohrn@uw.edu.

As tourists and residents visit Seattle’s downtown waterfront, it may not be immediately apparent they are walking on arguably the largest, most ambitious urban seawall project in the world that prioritizes habitat for young fish and the invertebrates they feed on.

The first segment of the along Seattle’s Elliott Bay is nearly complete, stretching north from the Colman Dock to the Seattle Aquarium. The new seawall includes habitat features that protect and encourage young salmon to migrate along the shore, while still allowing for normal waterfront commerce and activity.

91探花 researchers have published an initial analysis of the effectiveness of the new habitat features as part of an ongoing partnership with the Seattle Department of Transportation. The study found that adding steps 鈥� which are shelf-like structures protruding from the vertical underwater wall 鈥� helped recruit a greater diversity of organisms such as algae and small invertebrates that juvenile salmon feed upon as they migrate along the shore through Puget Sound and out to the ocean.

“The big question with urban shorelines is how to protect infrastructure while maintaining stability with sea-level rise and storms 鈥� and still try to restore natural processes,” said , a research scientist at the UW’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and a co-author of the new study appearing in the book “.”

“We are trying to address what other cities can learn from Seattle’s approach, and what we can add to the global discussion of how to both protect and restore our shorelines.”

The city took inspiration from these findings and installed “” along the seawall, which are mesh bags filled with rocks that create a shelf-like surface and make the nearshore shallower for fish. Engineers also constructed uneven, cobbled surfaces along the vertical wall to encourage more organisms to congregate by the shoreline. They designed clear glass squares in the seawall’s pedestrian sidewalk to let more natural light penetrate to the water below.

All of these modifications are designed to help young Chinook, pink and chum salmon navigate, grow and avoid predators along the engineered shoreline. Juvenile fish prefer shallow water, and the mesh shelves help raise the seafloor and offer protection from predators. The young fish also avoid intense shade, so the glass squares help funnel natural light through the cantilevered sidewalk to the water below and also facilitate more natural migration movement among fish.

As shown in this preliminary study, the underwater structures featured in the new seawall attract more sea life and invertebrates, which are important sources of food for salmon. The researchers placed large concrete panels on the existing seawall in Elliott Bay with several types of texture and relief. Over a three-year period, they found that adding shelves along the vertical panels was most important in recruiting a diversity of algae and invertebrates to the concrete, and this led to incorporating shelves into the new wall.

Beginning next year, the 91探花scientists will begin a formal, 10-year monitoring study along the entire seawall. That study will rigorously assess whether the light squares are effective and track how fish respond to the various new features.

“This is a big experiment,” said , lead author and a 91探花research scientist in aquatic and fishery sciences. “Monitoring once it’s all done is very important. It will be difficult to measure in terms of increases in salmon returns, but we can gauge success by other means such as increases in salmon feeding behavior and amount of food available around the new habitat enhancements.”

The 91探花research team also published a this spring in the Journal of Applied Ecology. This study looked at how building along waterfronts affects fish habitats around the world, and how waterfronts can be designed to improve the area for fish despite their heavy industrial use. Coastal cities like Sydney, Australia, and New York City, along with Seattle, are increasingly interested in incorporating ecologically friendly features into urban thoroughfares, and researchers are currently developing and evaluating these features.

“Seattle’s downtown waterfront is an unprecedented attempt to improve fish habitat along an urban shoreline, so it’s a great opportunity to learn from and apply around the world,” said lead author , a fishery biologist at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center and a recent 91探花doctoral graduate in aquatic and fishery sciences.

“There are a lot of situations where you aren’t truly going to restore a shoreline. But even working within the constraint of heavy human use along shorelines, you can still do a better job than putting concrete or boulders in the intertidal zone.”

The study also stresses the importance of looking at the bigger picture of how fish behave and use habitat 鈥� instead of just counting total fish 鈥� when evaluating whether new engineered habitat features work. In Seattle, for example, researchers will be watching to see if fish swim under the piers to feed, or if smaller, more vulnerable fish are attracted to the shallower, protective waters that an engineered beach provides.

“If you really want to understand habitat value, you have to go beyond catching and counting fish,” Munsch said. “You have to look at their behavior and take a dynamic perspective on how they use habitat.”

The studies were funded by the National Science Foundation, the Seattle Department of Transportation, King Conservation District, Washington Sea Grant and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, partly through its the Estuary and Salmon Restoration Program.

###

For more information, contact Cordell at jcordell@uw.edu or 206-543-7532; Toft at tofty@uw.edu or 206-221-5460; and Munsch at stuart.munsch@noaa.gov or 206-302-1748.