Marco Hatch is a member of the Samish Indian Nation and leads the Coastal Community and Ecology Lab as an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Western Washington University (WWU). Marco holds a doctorate in Biological Oceanography and has researched the ecological impacts of clam gardens for ten years in British Columbia Canada. Marco has participated in a culturally-driven clam garden restoration project created out of a direct request from the Hul’q’umi’num and W̱ SÁNEĆ First Nation Treaty Groups. He is the former director of the Salish Sea Research Center at Northwest Indian College. Marco is a founding steering committee member of the Indigenous Aquaculture Collaborative.