Marrowstone Marine Field Station (MMFS)
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Within the Northwest Region of the USGS the Marrowstone Marine Field Station (MMFS) represents the exclusive marine/seawater-based research facility. The availability and delivery of exceptionally high quality seawater represents one of the finest operational attributes of the MMFS, a result of the facility’s ideal location along the northwestern shore of Puget Sound. Basic and applied research at the MMFS is directed towards understanding ecological processes that impact marine ecosystem health.
News
Western Fisheries Science News, March 2018 | Issue 6.3
Science Collaboration Brings Dr. Maya Groner to WFRC
Western Fisheries Science News, January 2018 | Issue 6.1
Researching Pacific Herring in Alaska’s Prince William Sound
Western Fisheries Science News, September 2016 | Issue 4.9
Understanding Disease Outbreaks in Populations of Wild Marine Fishes
Publications
Herring Disease Program II 19120111-E - 2019 Annual Report
We will investigate fish health factors that may be contributing to the failed recovery of Pacific herring populations in Prince William Sound. Field samples will provide infection and disease prevalence data from Prince William Sound and Sitka Sound that will inform the ASA model, serological data that will indicate the prior exposure history and...
Hershberger, Paul; Purcell, Maureen K. Climate change can drive marine diseases
As an ultimate driver of marine ecosystem processes, climate change is expected to influence proximate disease drivers in marine systems. The observable effects of climate change, including changes in temperature, hypoxia, CO2 accumulation, precipitation, and storm and cyclone frequencies and intensities, may directly act as proximate drivers...
Burge Colleen A; Hershberger, Paul Ichthyophonus sp. Infection in Opaleye (Girella nigricans)
Over a 3-year-period, 17 wild-caught opaleye (Girella nigricans) housed in a public display aquarium were found dead without premonitory signs. Grossly, 4 animals had pinpoint brown or black foci on coelomic adipose tissue. Histologically, liver, spleen, heart, and posterior kidney had mesomycetozoan granulomas in all cases; other organs were less...
LaDouceur, Elise E. B; St. Leger, Judy; Mena, Alexandria; Mackenzie, Ashley; Gregg, Jacob; Purcell, Maureen K.; Batts, William N.; Hershberger, Paul