The Race Is On to Stop an Armored Invader on the West Coast

In Willapa Bay in southwestern Washington, the situation is beyond early detection. It’s the worst-hit spot in the state. Of the 4.7 million crabs the state has removed since 2022, a majority were pulled from the shallow, 120-square-mile bay.

(WWU alum) Emily Grason, a marine ecologist who since 2014 has managed the green crab response for Washington Sea Grant, an organization that fosters marine ecosystems, led the bay’s annual green crab checkup in August. She spent four days with her team in sucking sulfurous muck, setting and retrieving hundreds of mackerel-baited traps. (Fish chunks combined with the rotten-egg odor of the mud do not yield a pleasant smellscape.)