Summer is Feiro’s busiest season – not only for the number of visitors we see in the aquarium, but also for our community science programs! The warm temperatures and long days of light mean that ocean life, both big and small, is often growing and reproducing at this time of year. Making it an ideal time to monitor those trends.
Green Crab Molt Surveys
Feiro’s molt search efforts became a team effort this summer, with three new volunteers training to conduct molt searches when they visit local beaches. This program, organized by Washington Sea Grant, has volunteers collect crab molts during a 20-minute search, looking in particular for any European Green Crab molts as an early warning sign of their presence or increase. Three Feiro volunteers learned the established protocols of the regional molt search program this summer, along with recording extra data we are interested in at Feiro, such as the variety of crab species found at different locations. Similarities between certain crabs can make this a challenge, but volunteers have embraced learning and practicing their crab ID skills. 2024 data revealed that the dominant types of crab species (based on molts found) varied by beach. Summer 2025 data for the same beaches will reveal whether this pattern is similar year-to-year.
Sound Toxins
Every Monday, another crew of community science volunteers meets in Feiro’s classroom and on the city pier: the Sound Toxins crew. Sound Toxins, managed by WA Sea Grant and WA Department of Health, is a regional network of teams sampling and monitoring the phytoplankton in their area weekly. This monitoring acts as an early warning system for harmful algal blooms: localized population spikes of plankton that produce toxins dangerous to humans.
Feiro’s Sound Toxins monitoring team has “bloomed” in both size and skills this summer. Three new volunteers have joined in, for a total of seven folks monitoring the plankton each week. Learning to identify phytoplankton takes time, and new volunteers learn from their fellow volunteers as well as an abundance of photos and guides. Even the team’s more established volunteers have learned a lot this year, as trainings from the Sound Toxins program help refine how each genus of phytoplankton is identified. Every week, we nearly always see something we’ve never seen before!
Marine Mammal Stranding Network
Feiro is also part of NOAA’s marine mammal stranding network, and responsible for responding to any potential strandings in our area. So far in 2025, the team responded to 19 calls, of which 11 were considered strandings – situations where the animal is ill, injured, unsafe, or deceased. Five volunteers have assisted with these strandings so far in 2025, two of them new to the team, with several other volunteers trained and ready to go when needed. Local vet Dr. Brittany Rose joined Feiro staff and volunteers on three occasions to assess stranded harbor seal pups. As this year’s young harbor seals finish weaning and learning to hunt on their own this month, we expect we’re moving into a blissfully quiet fall and winter for this program (fingers-crossed).
As these community science programs continue into the fall, we look forward to analyzing trends from the season so far and giving volunteers on all projects a chance to deepen their skills before next summer. Huge thank you to all our amazing community science volunteers!
