Delta and nearshore habitat use by juvenile salmon and forage fish in the Nisqually Reach in relation to restoration and other factors

Speaker

Mike HayesFollow

Presentation Abstract

The Nisqually Reach Aquatic Reserve extends from the Nisqually river delta to public lands surrounding nearby islands. The river delta has been the site of a major estuary restoration; most recently dike removal in fall 2009 to restore tidal inundation to 750 acres of wetlands. Since 2010 we have used a lampara net to conduct sampling (April-September, bimonthly or monthly) at delta and nearshore sites in the Nisqually Reach to assess juvenile salmon and forage fish habitat use and the response to restoration. Monitoring has also been conducted for benthic habitats (bathymetry, sediment characteristics, macroinvertebrates, eelgrass extent) and physical processes (hydrodynamics, sediment transport/deposition). We will highlight our results to date with an emphasis on salmon and forage fish spatial and temporal distributions, including: 1) Effect of benthic habitats and physical processes on fish distributions; 2) Fish distributions in response to restoration; and 3) Salmon migration pathways in the Nisqually Reach together with data on stock composition inferred from coded wire tag recoveries of Chinook salmon

Session Title

Session S-03D: Forage Fish Research and Protection in the Salish Sea

Conference Track

Species and Food Webs

Conference Name

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2014 : Seattle, Wash.)

Document Type

Event

Start Date

1-5-2014 5:00 PM

End Date

1-5-2014 6:30 PM

Location

Room 6C

Genre/Form

conference proceedings; presentations (communicative events)

Contributing Repository

Digital content made available by University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.

Subjects – Topical (LCSH)

Salmon--Habitat--Washington (State)--Nisqually Reach; Forage fishes--Habitat--Washington (State)--Nisqually Reach; Salmon--Washington (State)--Nisqually Reach--Geographical distribution; Forage fishes--Washington (State)--Nisqually Reach--Geographical distribution; Estuarine restoration--Washington (State)--Nisqually Reach

Geographic Coverage

Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Nisqually Reach (Wash.)

Rights

This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. For more information about rights or obtaining copies of this resource, please contact University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9103, USA (360-650-7534; heritage.resources@wwu.edu) and refer to the collection name and identifier. Any materials cited must be attributed to the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Records, University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.

Type

Text

Language

English

Format

application/pdf