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 - Annual Project Report 2012011-E, February 1, 2010-January 31, 2021
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 to inform the age structured assessment (ASA) model, serological data will indicate the prior...
Hershberger, Paul; Purcell, Maureen K. Long-term shedding from fully convalesced individuals indicates that Pacific herring are a reservoir for viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus
Processes that allow viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) virus to persist in the marine environment remain enigmatic, owing largely to the presence of covert and cryptic infections in marine fishes during typical sub-epizootic periods. As such, marine host reservoirs for VHS virus have not been fully demonstrated, nor have the mechanism(s) by which...
Hershberger, Paul; Mackenzie, Ashley; Gregg, Jacob L.; Wilmot, M. D.; Powers, Rachel L.; Purcell, Maureen K. Differential susceptibility of Yukon River and Salish Sea stocks of Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha to ichthyophoniasis
Preliminary evidence suggests that Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha from the Yukon River may be more susceptible to Ichthyophonus sp. infections than Chinook from stocks further south. To investigate this hypothesis in a controlled environment, we experimentally challenged juvenile Chinook from the Yukon River and from...
Elliott, Diane G.; Conway, Carla M.; McKibben, Constance L.; Mackenzie, Ashley; Hart, Lucas M.; Groner, Maya; Purcell, Maureen K.; Gregg, Jacob L.; Hershberger, Paul