Current Research Blogs
Tallis' Blog
Tallis Kent, undergraduate student
1 October 2026
Welcome back to school! September is an exciting, busy month, especially with everything happening in the lab. To get the ball rolling for fall log pond observations, I sent out a group email to research assistants to put in their availability for observations. This weekend I will be sorting through their responses, putting together the observation schedule, and sending it out to the research assistants so we can start observations this week and get data in. Stepping into the role of manager has been exciting, and I am looking forward to starting to plan for my personal project. I am eager for the days to come and excited for Log Pond observations. Cheers until next month!
Tallis
Rachel's Blog
Rachel Ager, undergraduate student
1 October 2026
Hi all,
A lot has happened in the last month, it has been busy but I am looking forward to going out on first observations soon! I completed my internship with CPW at the start of September. This was an experience that really improved my science communication skills and allowed me to participate and learn from a variety of environmental science/biology professionals.
At the start of the month, I got to help fish hatchery staff stock one of our local rivers. They raise Gunnison River rainbow trout (GRRs), because these fish do extremely well once released. The GRRs have built up a resistance to whirling disease, a parasite-caused condition that impacts salmonids. The most obvious signs of whirling disease are skeletal deformities, causing the tail to bend one direction, and a ‘whirling’ swimming behavior. GRRs have developed a resistance to the parasite, which would otherwise have high impacts on juvenile mortality. As a result, they have also become a choice hatchery fish. In the wild, they show higher growth rates than in hatchery settings and can reproduce. This was an encouraging example of human intervention helping to restore wild populations, and I am so glad I was able to learn about it and help release fish!
I made the trip back to Bellingham, it has been good to start seeing people in person again and work with Mallory on initiating fall observations and lab logistics. There are several aspects to the organization, but I am feeling positive about the upcoming quarter! I have not yet visited Whatcom Creek but am planning to go soon to check out the status of the seals and salmon before my first observations come up.
Best,
Rachel
Dawson's Blog
Dawson Little, graduate student
1 October 2026
Hi y'all,
September has thankfully brought some of the clarity I was hoping for at the end of last month. After the difficulties with the new metabarcoding methodology over the summer, we decided to return to a more traditional approach. Our collaborators tested this method on a subset of our samples, and the test was successful. After spending much of the summer unsure of what would happen with this part of the project, it was a huge relief to know that we have a way forward and can move ahead with the remaining samples.
In the meantime, I've continued working through the parts of the project that are already complete. Much of September has been spent going back through the morphological data from the past several years and making sure everything is organized and consistent before beginning the final analyses. Working through several years of records has uncovered some discrepancies that have taken time to sort out, but we're getting much closer to having everything in place.
I've also continued working with the molecular sex identification data from the 2025 samples and thinking more carefully about how all of these datasets will fit together in the final analyses. I met with my thesis committee this month to discuss where the project stands and our plans for the fall, and my focus is now beginning to shift more toward analysis and writing while we wait for the remaining metabarcoding results.
One particularly exciting update this month came from outside of the project itself. I was sent photographs taken by Roy Lowe in Alsea Bay, Oregon, showing river otters actively feeding on European green crab. I spent a considerable amount of time during my fieldwork hoping to document this behavior firsthand, but never managed to catch it in action, so it was pretty incredible to see it captured so clearly elsewhere. It was also exciting to hear about another observation of river otters consuming green crab outside of our study area and to see how this interaction may be occurring elsewhere along the coast.
It feels good to be in a different position than I was at the end of August. There is still a lot of work ahead, but one of the biggest uncertainties surrounding the project has now been resolved. After several years of collecting samples, processing them, and working through the different pieces of this research, I'm finally reaching the point where those pieces can start coming together.
Hopefully, October will bring the metabarcoding results we've been waiting for. In the meantime, I'll continue working through the existing data, finalizing the analyses I can complete now, and beginning to pull the thesis together. I'm looking forward to seeing what the complete dataset can tell us and continuing to move toward wrapping up the project this fall.
Best,
Dawson
Mallory's Blog
Mallory Stonier, undergraduate student
1 October 2026
Hi everyone,
I hope you all are enjoying the beginnings of fall as much as I am. While the summers in Bellingham are beautiful, I love the fall weather, and I am looking forward to going out on my first observations of the quarter this month now that the salmon runs are beginning. Last month, I finished my internship and took a brief break before I return to volunteering weekly in October. During my break, I visited my family in Vancouver and Kalama, WA and spent a weekend in Mazama, WA. I had a lot of fun hiking in the North Cascades and relaxing next to the river with a book before returning to prepare for the Fall quarter. Of course, the quarter has arrived quickly, and we are hitting the ground running. This fall I am finishing Organic Chemistry, beginning Biochemistry, and continuing to learn Spanish. I am also taking a seminar course with the Chemistry Department, which will be exciting as I get to learn about all kinds of research. So far, while I am incredibly busy with homework, I am really enjoying my classes this year and am super excited to continue into higher level courses for my major.
I am also returning to molecular work with Wild EcoHealth under Erin D’Agnese and Victoria Vinecke, which has moved to a new laboratory downtown instead of being on WWU campus. I am excited for a new setting and to get back to working with a pipet! Additionally, as data input is within its final additions, the next step is to add the 2026 dataset to old code and to see if any new patterns emerge or if old ones are supported. Using R to analyze data, while it comes with its unique sets of challenges and frustrations, is one of my favorite puzzles to solve. I look forward to expanding upon what I learned last year and becoming more comfortable with data analysis.
In October, I am excited to see what is happening at the creek with our harbor seals, hopefully see our resident sea lion Hank, and hear about what everyone in the MMEL has been up to this summer. In the meantime, I will be focusing on my classes and experimenting with the current Smolt Project data.
Until next tide,
Mallory