Seattle Aquarium bestows marine conservation honors on Western's Marco Hatch

On Jan. 26, the Seattle Aquarium conferred its top awards at its annual Chairman’s Dinner to community and scientific leaders who have worked to preserve and protect marine environments both locally and around the world, including Western's Marco Hatch.

Hatch, a member of the Samish Indian Nation and an assistant professor of Environmental Science in Western's Huxley College of the Environment, received the Seattle Aquarium Conservation Research Award, which honors individuals performing leadership research in the field.

Hatch received his doctorate in Biological Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. Prior to WWU he directed the Salish Sea Research Center at Northwest Indian College. The Salish Sea Research Center is charged with preparing the next generation of native environmental scientists and leaders through fostering respect for Indigenous knowledge and providing students with a solid background in scientific methods. Hatch’s research focuses on the nexus of people and marine ecology, with a particular focus on clams. At WWU he will continue to make science a more inclusive and welcoming discipline by focusing on issues important to indigenous people. Through his partnerships with Northwest Indian College and initiatives funded by National Science Foundation he is collaboratively working toward expanding the “discovery space and solutions space” of marine science as a function of a more inclusive set of people, information and ideas.