Articles and Reports – Into the Salish Sea

Articles and Reports

Listed in reverse chronological order

Recovery effort aims to restore pinto abalone mollusks that once flourished in Salish Sea

September 14, 2021. By Lynda V. Mapes. It may be easy to overlook a mollusk, but the Pinto Abalone provides an important ecosystem service to our rocky reefs in the Salish Sea. They eat algae on the rocks below, effectively clearing a path for kelp to attach and grow forests that then provide habitat for dozens of other animals, including juvenile salmon. We fished the Pinto Abalone nearly to extinction, but the Seattle Aquarium is working to bring them back. By raising juvenile Pinto Abalone in tanks and then releasing them to the wild, the Seattle Aquarium is working to restore this unique creature to the Salish Sea.

Salish Sea Marine Survival Project

July, 2021. Young salmon are dying in the Salish Sea. In a five-year, international research effort the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project has just published a report explaining why. This rich website and set of downloadable PDF reports present their findings, resources, and recommendations for what we need to do to help salmon populations recover.

The State of the Salish Sea

May, 2021. For years we have seen reports about the health of various aspects of the Salish Sea: the state of salmon, or watersheds, or the Southern Resident Killer Whales, etc. In this report, Kathryn L. Sobocinski of Western Washington University has led the production of the first assessment of the Salish Sea as a whole, connected ecosystem. As such, it is a long document at >150 pages. It covers the physical characteristics of the Salish Sea, human impacts on the Sea, and the effects of climate change. It also includes a rich reference section. While it does not offer specific calls to action, it does frame questions we need to answer if we are to be responsible stewards of this place we call home.

America’s Most Endangered Rivers 2021

April 13, 2021. In this report, American Rivers names the Snake River as America’s #1 most endangered river. Why? Dams on the Snake are obstructing salmon moving to and from their spawning habitat in the upper reaches of the river.

State of Salmon in Watersheds 2020

January 14, 2021. This report, published by the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and NOAA Fisheries, provides statewide data and explains what we can do to help bring salmon populations back from the brink of extinction.

Nearby Vessels Interrupt Feeding of Southern Resident Killer Whales, Especially Females

January 12, 2021. This new study finds that females often give up foraging for fish when vessels approach. The noise from boat engines interferes with the echolocation they use to hunt fish. This problem is serious for the endangered southern resident population as survival depends on healthy females and calves.

Scientists hunt down deadly chemical that kills coho salmon

December 3, 2020. By Christopher Dunagan. A team of scientists from UW Tacoma achieved a major breakthrough in the search for the chemical responsible for killing Coho salmon in our local urban rivers and streams! This chemical is produced when a preservative in our car tires reacts with ozone. It leaches into our stormwater runoff, which then flows into our urban waterways and kills the Coho as they are returning to spawn each fall.

Sea Lice

November 28, 2020. By Alexandra Morton. Sea lice are parasites that attach themselves to fish to feed on their tissue and blood. In huge numbers, they can overwhelm and devastate fish populations. Alex Morton, a Canadian biologist, has been driving independent research to prove that huge numbers of sea lice that come from marine salmon farms are killing wild salmon stocks in the Discovery Islands, at the northern end of the Salish Sea.

How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled

September 11. 2020. By Laura Sullivan. NPR and PBS Frontline found that the plastics industry sold the public on an idea it knew wouldn’t work — that the majority of plastic could be, and would be, recycled — all while making billions of dollars selling the world new plastic.

Plastic pollution flowing into oceans to triple by 2040: study

July 23, 2020. By Joe Brock. The strategy laid out in the report includes redirecting hundreds of billions of dollars in plastic production investment into alternative materials, recycling facilities and waste collection expansion in developing countries.

COVID-19 has resurrected single-use plastics. Are they here to stay?

July 14, 2020. By Jessica Heiges and Kate O’Neill. COVID-19 is changing how the U.S. disposes of waste. It is also threatening hard-fought victories that restricted or eliminated single-use disposable items, especially plastic, in cities and towns across the nation.

1,000 tons of microplastic rains down on National Parks and the wilderness in the western US every year

June 11, 2020. By Allen Kim. “In a new report…in Science magazine, titled “Plastic rain in protected areas of the United States,” scientists found that these secondary plastics are found in “nearly every ecosystem on the planet.”

An Unexpected Dinner Guest: Marine Plastic Pollution Hides a Neurological Toxin in Our Food

May 7, 2020. By Vivian Li. In this essay, one of the top eight winners of the Learning Network’s first-ever STEM Writing Contest, Miss Li explains how methylmercury journeys up the food chain from phytoplankton and zooplankton to fish and humans.

What’s Gone Wrong With Plastic Recycling

April 30, 2020. By Kevin Loria. Of all the plastic ever produced—more than 10 billion tons of it—less than 10 percent has been recycled. “We can’t recycle our way out of the problem…”

Microplastics found in greater quantities than ever before on seabed

April 30, 2020. By Fiona Harvey. “Scientists have discovered microplastics in greater quantities than ever before on the seabed, and gathered clues as to how ocean currents and deep-sea circulation have carried them there.”

Rebuilding Marine Life – Oceans can be successfully restored by 2050

April 1, 2020. By lead author, Carlos M. Duarte. “We know what we ought to do to rebuild marine life, and we have evidence that this goal can be achieved within three decades. Indeed, this requires that we accelerate our efforts, and spread them to areas where efforts are currently modest.”

Ocean uproar: saving marine life from a barrage of noise

April 10, 2019. By Nicola Jones. Ship engines, underwater blasts, sonar, and oil drilling are filling the seas with sound. Researchers are now trying to pin down the damage humanity’s growing acoustic footprint has on ocean life.

Hostile Waters

November 11, 2018 to September 29, 2019. By Lynda V. Mapes. This is a 5-part series of immersive stories from the amazing Lynda V. Mapes at The Seattle Times. The series explores and exposes the plight of the southern resident killer whales, among the most enduring symbols of our region and most endangered animals.

UW oceanography senior finds plastic microfibers are common on Puget Sound beaches

June 29, 2017. By Hannah Hickey. “As the infamous floating “garbage patch” churns up bits of plastic in the tropical Pacific Ocean, a University of Washington undergraduate has discovered a related problem much closer to home: nearly invisible bits of plastic on Puget Sound beaches.”

Sea Change: Ocean Acidification

September 12, 2013 to April 30, 2014. By Craig Welch. This 7-part series called the Sea Change Project is the result of months of research by photographer Steve Ringman and reporter Craig Welch, who traveled from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, in the North Pacific to Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific to detail what is at stake as ocean chemistry changes.

Part 1: Pacific Ocean takes perilous turn
Part 2: Lucrative crab industry in danger
Part 3: Oysters dying as coast is hit hard
Part 4: Can sea life adapt to souring oceans?
Part 5: Food for millions at risk
Part 6: Acidification fight faces political hurdles
Part 7: Acidification eating away at tiny sea snails