| You Can Help Protect Eelgrass for Salmon and Orca!Boaters have an important role to play in protecting the marine environment. When boating in the bay, you are surrounded by many marine creatures. Birds, seals, porpoise, and whales as well as millions of small species we don’t see on the surface and a rich bounty of life is beneath the surface where kelp forests and eelgrass prairies teem with activity.Where you drop your anchor impacts the health of eelgrass, salmon and orca. Eelgrass provides nursery habitat, food and shelter for Dungeness crab, juvenile salmon, and salmon food like sand lance, surf smelt and Pacific herring. Young Chinook salmon utilize eelgrass to hide from predators, rest and feed while on their migration from freshwater to the sea. Chinooks are the preferred food for our local Orca whales. |
Eelgrass plays an important role in protecting shorelines by trapping sediment and absorbing wave energy to offset erosion. Using catch records from commercially important species such as Dungeness crab and Pacific herring, it has been estimated that eelgrass within a single bay provides $800,000 dollars of direct value in ecosystem services. In Washington State, eelgrass is classified as a priority habitat and is protected under no net loss policy. Thanks for pitching in. Your part makes a BIG difference. Let us know if you’d like to know more, or help with restoration efforts.
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