Contribution by Dr Anne Shaffer: A brief moment of brilliance along the Puget Sound shoreline. Award winning underwater photographer and Salish sea advocate Laura James captures a large herring spawning event underway along West Seattle. Herring spawning is a critical, and very fragile, component to functioning northeast Pacific marine ecosystems. Unfortunately, herring are extremely sensitive to creosote, and oil. Not surprising, herring spawning has decreased throughout much of the Salish Sea over the last century, taking with them an important base for our marine trophic cascade.
In the 1970’s much of the Puget Sound and Hood Canal were (literally) choked with industrial pollution, which led to the advent of the EPA (by the Nixon administration no less). And the pollution trend? Has (slowly) turned around. It’s been a long arduous process of trying to turn around past events while at the same time regulating current industrial and residential development of a burgeoning urban region. It’s not perfect. But where these fish are spawning is primarily intact eelgrass beds and unarmored shoreline. And beaches where creosote piles have (finally) been removed.
The upshot? We lose our sensitive marine resources so quickly, and it can take lifetimes to get it back. Herring spawning on West Seattle beaches is one quiet and important example of why it is so important to preserve the intact ecosystems we have ( including those we’ve recently regained) by keeping up our efforts. This includes our regulatory framework. We absolutely must not abandon them for politics.
For more information on the West Seattle spawn event going on right now, and how to get involved, see this link. For more information on herring life history and the impact pollution has on these important fish, see this link and this link. - Dr. Anne Shaffer, Coastal Watershed Institute, Port Angeles, Washington
.