“We need to deal with the impacts of new energy projects at the level of the ecosystem, not just project to project," says wildlife veterinarian Dr. Joe Gaydos, lead author of a new paper analyzing the combined threats posed by six fossil fuel transportation projects in the Salish Sea. The new study by SeaDoc and the Swinomish Tribe was recently published in the international journal PLoS ONE. What did they find? Canada and the US need to do a better job collaborating on Salish Sea issues. The study evaluated the threats posed by each project to 50 species that are important to the … [Read more...]

Dragons and Vipers and Opahs, Oh My! The Salish Sea's famed salmon have a lot of interesting company beneath the surface. From the gumdrop-size spiny lumpsucker to the world's second-largest fish, the basking shark, we've long known our inland sea was home to an amazing range of fish species. However, it wasn't until an exhaustive new SeaDoc-funded study set out to document every species of local fish that we fully understood the diversity of these rich waters. The study, by Ted Pietsch and Jay Orr, revealed more than three dozen fish species not previously known to inhabit the … [Read more...]

Eelgrass (Zostera marina) plays a key role in the health of the Salish Sea ecosystem. It stabilizes sediments, reduces the impact of wave action, provides habitat, and is an important nursery and foraging area for multiple species, some of which are endangered. SeaDoc's involvement in eelgrass issues goes back to 2003, when we convened a meeting of eelgrass experts, resource managers, and land-use specialists to analyze the sudden disappearance of 35 acres of eelgrass in San Juan Island's Westcott Bay. Eelgrass can be damaged by pollutants, by shading from docks and structures, and by … [Read more...]

Project update 2015 This study has been published in the peer reviewed journal, the North American Journal of Fisheries Management. Get the details. According to the author, based on the results of this study the Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to assess smelt harvest at several sites in 2016, bringing a Sound-wide estimate of harvest one step closer to reality. Additionally, in 2015 the Washington Legislature fully funded two important studies that will help the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife take the next step in understanding and protecting forage fish … [Read more...]

Killer whale strandings are always bad news. However, a new paper by SeaDoc scientists and collaborators shows that each orca’s death also is an opportunity to improve our understanding of the species and aid in the recovery of endangered populations. This first-of-its-kind study analyzed live and dead killer whale strandings in the North Pacific Ocean dating back to 1925. It showed that very few orcas that die wash ashore – just 10 per year over the entire North Pacific Ocean. While each rare stranding is a chance to gather a huge amount of data, until recently less than 1 out of every 50 … [Read more...]

Marine birds are important sentinel species for ecological conditions and to track them, scientists often count the birds at the breeding colonies, which tells us the number of adults trying to breed. But for seabirds that nest in burrows like Rhinoceros Auklets and Tufted Puffins, it’s hard to know how big the colony is because the birds, eggs, and chicks can be 15 feet down underground. A recently-published SeaDoc-supported paper recommends ways to improve monitoring of burrow-nesting seabirds. Lead author Scott Pearson and others used Rhinoceros Auklet breeding colony count data for … [Read more...]

Peer-reviewed publication: Vilchis, L. I. C. K. Johnson, J. R. Evenson, S. F. Pearson, K. L. Barry, P. Davidson, M. G. Raphael, and J. K. Gaydos. 2014. Assessing Ecological Correlates of Marine Bird Declines to Inform Marine Conservation. Conservation Biology. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12378. (Open access publication) Where have all the birds gone? The last 30 years have seen precipitous declines in many of the bird species that visit the Salish Sea during the winter. Using various tools, private money and strategic collaborations, SeaDoc made a substantial investment to understand … [Read more...]

Alien Invaders? Subtidal alien invaders swarm, swelling into a slimy mass that grows and covers the shores of the Salish Sea! Or maybe not. While headlines about invasive tunicates have at times reached the breathless pitch of ads for campy horror films, there was legitimate concern because invasive tunicates in other regions of North America have severely impacted the aquaculture industry. Our Pacific Northwest shellfish industry annually pumps millions of dollars into the local economy. Introduced tunicates could potentially cause ecological and financial disaster. Several years ago, … [Read more...]

Project status: A peer-review article has been published. (5/2014) SeaDoc funded a River Otter diet and predation study by Monique Lance of the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife.  The study aims to describe the diet of river otters and investigate the potential effect they have on rockfish and salmon populations in the San Juan Islands. Rockfish and salmon are currently listed under the Federal Endangered Species Act. Because of the dramatic decline in these species over the past several decades, Marine Protected Areas have been created to assist in their … [Read more...]

Surf Scoters are known for eating a lot of mussels, but a recently published SeaDoc-supported paper by Eric Anderson and James Lovvorn shows that scoters also depend heavily on eelgrass habitats. Thousands of Scoters can be found eating mussels in Penn Cove, Washington during the fall and early winter. But then they leave. Why? Well, as it turns out, they prefer to eat small mussels (2-30mm) and once those are gone, the larger mussels and worms left are not as as appealing. It's more productive for them to move to eelgrass habitats where they can feed on creatures like small cr