This project helped expand community monitoring of marine invasives to promote early detection and response across Alaska’s diverse coastal regions.

The Project

The invasive European green crab was found in Southeast Alaska in 2022, following years of rapid expansion and population growth in the Northeast Pacific, with wide economic and ecological impacts. The European green crab is an ecosystem engineer that can alter coastal erosion rates; destroy nearshore nursery habitat; impact mussels, clam beds, and commercial mariculture operations; compete with native crab, fish, and birds for food resources; and is known to eat juvenile salmon and other fishes. The discovery of invasive European green crab in Southeast Alaska elevated concerns about its inevitable spread and highlighted the need to proactively coordinate detection efforts throughout the state.

This project helped Alaska partners prepare for a coordinated effort to expand community monitoring of the European green crab. Kachemak Bay NERR and partnering organizations collaborated with Washington’s Padilla Bay NERR and Washington Sea Grant Crab Team to learn from their well established community monitoring programs. Together, the team developed adaptable training protocols and monitoring kits. The team also hosted two workshops–a knowledge exchange workshop and a “train the trainer” workshop–that brought together numerous state, federal, nonprofit, and Tribal partners. The workshops provided attendees with opportunities to practice consistent monitoring methods and techniques, standardize data collection and sharing, build skills for engagement techniques, and maintain and build new partnerships. All attendees left the training with toolkits to engage, educate, and train new monitors in their communities. In addition to generating a wealth of education and training materials, the project has built a cohort of European green crab monitors that are able to collaborate and share information while conducting monitoring efforts of European green crab in Alaska.

The Impact

• Built consensus on standard monitoring methods to provide robust and reliable data on invasive European green crabs across Alaska.
• Strengthened capacity of statewide partners to start new monitoring programs in locations across Alaska.
• Facilitated knowledge and resource sharing with communities of coastal Alaska that are likely to be most impacted by marine invasive species.
• Strengthened relationships among NERR, Sea Grant, State, Tribal, regional and local partners and facilitated a collaborative cohort of European green crab monitors.