Our Lab
Our lab is in the Fisheries Research Building on the University of Washington campus. Our research covers both local and global ecosystems and we work with local, national, and international collaborators to study marine mammals spanning the tropics to the poles.
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The University of Washington is located on the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish and Duwamish peoples, which touches the shared waters of all bands and tribes in the Squamish, Tulalip, and Muckleshoot Nations, and after many generations is now known as Seattle, WA.
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Through our field research, we work on the ancestral lands of multiple different Indigenous peoples. These people are the historic and – in many cases – current stewards of the species we study. We are grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the stewardship of marine mammals and their ecosystems.
OUR TEAM
Arial Brewer
PhD Student, Year 6
Arial earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2010, and is a marine mammal biologist at NOAA focusing on the acoustic ecology and behavior of cetaceans.
Arial has previously worked as a marine mammal trainer and field biologist and has participated in marine mammal surveys off the coasts of Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska and Hawaii.
At SAFS, Arial is investigating the vocal behavior, kinship, and microbiome variability of the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale population in Alaska.
Mollie Ball
MSc Student, Year 1
Mollie is currently working toward an MSc in Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, after earning her BS at UW in Biology: Ecology, Evolution, Conservation and Marine Biology at the University of Washington. She is also a Field Program Lead at the Seattle Aquarium in the Beach Naturalist and Cedar River Salmon Journey programs, where she combines her knowledge of the marine environment with her interest in science communication to help inspire conservation of Washington’s unique marine environments.
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At the W.A.D.E. lab, Mollie is using genetic metabarcoding to describe the diet and gut microbiome of marine predators, including SRKW, beluga whales, and various ice seal species. She originally joined our lab using bioacoustics to explore marine interactions with microalgae farms off the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico.
Sophia Grechishkin
Undergraduate Intern via UW Undergraduate Research Collective
Sophia is an undergraduate in UW's marine biology program, and will be joining the W.A.D.E. lab in the 2026/2027 academic year to work on metabarcoding data analysis with Mollie Ball, under the supervision of Amy Van Cise.
