Last week marked the release of the highly anticipated State of the Salish Sea Report, authored by Kathryn L. Sobocinski of Western Washington University. The paper was published by the Salish Sea Institute. SeaDoc Society Science Director Joe Gaydos has served on the advisory committee for the project since 2016.
Joe’s involvement began when Bert Webber, who led the charge to name the Salish Sea, and Ginny Broadhurst of the Salish Sea Institute, invited him to be part of the 8-person group that would help form the expansive document—which is long and in-depth, but beautifully designed and very easy to read.
The Salish Sea Institute’s report features SeaDoc-led and funded science alongside contributions from other research organizations throughout the Salish Sea, and lays out the complexity of an ecosystem where decline has outpaced restoration and protection.
In short, the Salish Sea is under relentless pressure from an accelerating convergence of global and local environmental stressors and the cumulative impacts of 150 years of development and alteration of our watersheds and seascape. Some of these impacts are well understood but many remain unknown or are difficult to predict.
The report is “an effort to synthesize and characterize the most pervasive problems and state of the ecosystem” with the goal of igniting “deep discussion and meaningful action, from grassroots efforts to large-scale collective and governmental investments.”
Regeneration of the Salish Sea will require multi-faceted and collaborative approaches that support greater understanding through education and science, plus sufficient political will, public support, and systemic changes. Fundamental alteration of human–environment relationships, coupled with new and ambitious goals, are needed to change the arc of anthropogenic impacts.
Read the Abstract
This report synthesizes information on past, current, and emerging stressors within the Salish Sea estuarine ecosystem. The Salish Sea is a complex waterbody shared by Coast Salish Tribes and First Nations, Canada, and the United States. It is defined by multiple freshwater inputs and marine water from the Pacific Ocean that mix in two primary basins, Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia. Human impacts are multifaceted and extensive within the Salish Sea, with a regional population of almost 9 million people. Population growth has driven urbanization and development, which in turn has triggered structural changes to the landscape and seascape. Meanwhile, the growing effects of climate change are fundamentally altering physical and biological processes. The report describes the most pervasive and damaging impacts affecting the transboundary ecosystem, recognizing that some are generated locally while others are the locally realized impacts from global-scale changes in climate, oceans, land use, and biodiversity. The Salish Sea is under relentless pressure from an accelerating convergence of global and local environmental stressors and the cumulative impacts of 150 years of development and alteration of our watersheds and seascape. Some of these impacts are well understood but many remain unknown or are difficult to predict. While strong science is critical to understanding the ecosystem, the report provides a spectrum of ideas and opportunities for how governments, organizations, and individuals can work together to meet the needs of science and science-driven management that will sustain the Salish Sea estuarine ecosystem.