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In
late 1999 the newly-appointed Island County, WA, Marine Resources Committee--or
MRC, undertook to design and sponsor a comprehensive, multi-year "NEARSHORE
PROJECT" that combined science-funding sources, state and federal
agencies, leading scientists, local governments and specially-trained
volunteers to survey the unmapped marine resources that grace the county's
212 miles of mixed-use shorelines in northern Puget Sound, based upon
the earlier work of the San Juan MRC. It is among the more novel collaborations
devised, and was entirely an offspring of the "bottom-up" Northwest
Straits Initiative.
The
regional forage fish spawning habitat surveys that evolved from that initial
project share its four stated objectives:
1. Supplement and complete the site investigations initiated by WDFW to
map forage fish spawning habitats (Penttila, 1999), and expand project
coverage to provide a complete census of all Northwest Straits beaches
and nearshore areas capable of, and actually supporting forage fish spawning.
[Target Scope: the shores of all seven NW countries bordering Puget Sound,
and adjacent tribal shorelines.]
2. Design and maintain GIS maps and internet accessible databases from
the forage fish spawning habitat assessment project surveys, and deliver
to pertinent local governments, state agencies and the user public. Project
data shall be available to all stakeholders.
3. Complete the project's substantial community outreach, volunteer training,
website and education components--ranging from intensive field volunteer
training and deployment, to creation and distribution of "Best Management
Practices" literature and training materials to shoreline property
owners; and
4. Recommend appropriate MPA, shoreline zoning or other acceptable & effective
protections for spawning site protection to local policy-makers; for inclusion
and protection in county planning maps; and publicly rank feasible restorations
& acquisitions to assist shoreline-owner stewardship.
Surf smelt, sand lance, and herring all were known
to spawn extensively on the shores of Whidbey and Camano Islands; where
native eelgrass beds and sandy or graveled beaches nurse forage and foragers
alike; a habitat that conceals salmon smolts from migrating adults returning
via the same shared submerged vegetation "highways." The three
local species each spawn on a different habitat sub-section, in differing
seasons, or employ unique timing strategies; and many runs mimic salmonid
journeys to their own birthsites. Unlike smelt and sandlance, herring
do not beach themselves, instead secreting billions of adhesive eggs en
mass onto the strands of Zostera marina eelgrass beds, until they are
milky white.
Collectively these schooling millions of near-identical
"forage fish" species are at the dietary core for salmon, rockfish,
shore birds, diving birds, and a host of marine mammals. Recent photography
of "herring balls" and "schooled candlefish" undergoing
simultaneous, frenzied consumption waves by birds, barracuda, otter, salmon,
orcas, and humpback whales breeching up through the whole frothy soup
with jaws agape, attest to the nutritional popularity of these arguably
indistinguishable fish.
One
more marine resource problem
Formerly measured in runs yielding thousands of tons of biomass--collectively
some forage, or batifish are exhibiting a sudden decline locally (down
as much as 90% in 10 years) among Puget Sound's once teeming currents.
They are as invisible, yet as necessary as air. How soon after their collapse
would the foodweb suffer the loss of its hourglass role, conveying nutrients
from the micro scale up to its macro predators? Unlike their charismatic
sealife competitors who can boast of ESA listings or internationally-funded
rescue campaigns, these once-ubiquitous, humble swirls of forage fish
might not readily be noticed by human-events, until they are gone. No
malice is implied, and certainly no one responsible has acquiesced to
such unintended and disastrous consequences, by any means. No one ever
does. The unacceptable reality that drives this work is that such important
species could exit without whimper or bang. Even man is not secured, we
are reminded. But the impact in the case of such a food source would not
be as with an extinct field mouse gone from its last obscure niche, to
be sure. Meanwhile, nearshore forage fish spawning habitats at risk are
in danger of disappearing before they are discovered.
Surveys planned--SeaDoc Society
makes first award
This project was designed to locate, map and protect the county's active
beach and healthy nearshore spawning areas. "No net loss" state
regulations have long protected such spawning sites against loss of habitat
in hydrology permits (WAC 220-110), but only where spawn is properly detected
and the habitat so designated. (Similar "no net loss" policies
apply to eelgrass as well, in state law.) Absent comprehensive and accepted
mapping however, such laws are powerless. Actual protection of these habitats
depends upon complete and comprehensive spawn deposition site inventories,
uniformly sampled, collected, identified, and GIS-located for use by planners,
resource managers, and developers alike with absolute confidence in their
accuracy.
The
year-2000 SeaDoc Society grant
of $17,000 (100% to reimburse Biologist costs) was the first funding awarded
to this original one-county effort sponsored by its citizen-volunteer
Marine Resources Committee (MRC). Subsequent cosponsors and cofunders
have since expanded the scope of work to encompass all seven Northwest
Straits counties, with hundreds of thousands of dollars recently awarded
to that regional undertaking by the Salmon Recovery Funding Board; Northwest
Straits Commission and NOAA/National Fish & Wildlife Foundation grants.
Indeed, what has become the largest geographic forage fish habitat assessment/mapping
project in the world started with the SeaDoc Society's
initial grant!
Project
design The primary objective of the forage fish assessment is to biologically
identify beaches utilized as spawning areas by surf smelt and Pacific
sand lance, and subtidal regions supporting active herring spawning. This
project employs the San Juan County MRC's Early Action Grant training
and collection protocols (Penttila & Moulton, June, 2000) With the supervision
of Department of Fish and wildlife marine biologists, volunteers were
trained to assist actual field collections according to these protocols.
The collected samples are then verified by laboratory analysis, and reported
by locale and date. GIS maps are finally submitted for county use in planning
and permitting. The ongoing, regionalized project enabled qualified DFW
marine scientists to train and lead competent volunteers to sample and
resample the county's smelt and sand lance spawning beaches; gathering
depositions and submitting them for laboratory analysis. Other teams gathered
eelgrass and other seagrass samples containing egg deposits. The sampling
and collections will span al seasons for two years. Analyzing and mapping
the data generated by the collection protocols and reported samples will
result in reliable identification of areas requiring existing legal protections.
Once completed, the Forage Fish component of the MRC's larger Nearshore
Project will establish a baseline for future monitoring, possible MPA
designation, and enable other measures to guide the county's shoreline
users, planners, developers and property owners.
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