Sharing the SeaAward honors whale entanglement project.

When Oregon’s largest commercial fishery faced rising reports of whales tangled in crab gear, Oregon State scientists partnered with commercial crabbers and conservation groups to find solutions. This fall, OSU’s whale entanglement project earned recognition as one of four regional winners of the 2025 W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award. Led by Associate Professor Leigh Torres of OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute and Oregon Sea Grant Extension, the project now advances to the national stage to compete for the C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award and a $20,000 prize, announced this November. This is the second consecutive year OSU has earned a Kellogg regional award. Results from more than 42,000 miles of surveys showed risk peaks in nearshore waters during April, when whales’ feeding overlaps with the end of crab season. “No one wants to catch a whale, and we all want a thriving, sustainable Dungeness crab fishery,” Torres said. “Our findings are an important step toward achieving both goals.”

In early November, the collaborative research and outreach effort led by Oregon State University to protect whales and sustain Oregon’s commercial Dungeness crab fishery was named the C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award winner. Read more.