These in-their-own-words pieces are told to Patricia Lane and co-edited with input from the interviewee for the purpose of brevity.

Sofia Panzetta is helping restore balance to Pacific marine ecosystems. As climate change warms the ocean, the invasive European Green Crab thrives, threatening the health of clams, mussels and even salmon stocks. Sofia won a Starfish Canada Climate75 Fellowship for her research showing us where we need to act to ensure our fisheries have a fighting chance.  

Tell us about your research. 

European Green Crabs do not belong on our coast. They were first seen in British Columbia in 1998 off Vancouver Island. Each female lays up to 185,000 eggs once or twice a year with a very high survival rate, credited to its high adaptability to changing temperatures and salinities. They are voracious and successful predators and, as a result, less than 30 years later, are outcompeting many native species and threatening our commercial salmon and shellfish industries. For my Masters in Science in Ecology degree at the University of Alberta, I developed maps showing which places on the coast of British Columbia are most vulnerable to the impacts of the growth of the European Green Crab population. My work is being published in two scientific journals to inform decision-makers and those who........

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