Juvenile Chinook Salmon non-natal habitat restoration planning
We are seeking to quantify juvenile Chinook salmon use of non-natal streams along the central Puget Sound shoreline and to relate juvenile Chinook occupancy in these streams to landscape- and site-scale variables. Juvenile Chinook and anadromous salmon in general are often assumed to follow a linear progression of habitat use: freshwater rearing in their natal river, then migration to their natal estuary for additional rearing, then migration to the marine environment. However, juvenile Chinook salmon sometimes pass through their natal estuary, enter the marine environment, and then temporarily return to fresh water by rearing in small streams along the Puget Sound shoreline. These streams do not support Chinook spawning; therefore, any juvenile Chinook found in these systems originated from elsewhere (thus, we use the term “non-natal”).
Most observations of this phenomenon are from the Whidbey Basin and it is unclear if these observations are relevant to other parts of Puget Sound. However, because central Puget Sound has lost much of its natural estuary habitat, non-natal streams may be important rearing habitats for juvenile Chinook salmon. To quantify the extent of non-natal stream rearing by juvenile Chinook along the central Puget Sound shoreline and to explain variation in juvenile Chinook occupancy in these streams, we plan to identify and collect habitat and fish data for up to 40 non-natal streams along the central Puget Sound shoreline, then will relate Chinook occupancy in these streams to habitat and landscape variables using statistical models. Data collection for this study is occurring in 2025 and 2026.
Relationships
- related to: esrplearning program
- related to: nearshore habitat planning for salmon recovery
- related to: stillaguamish tribe
- related to: tulalip tribes of washington
- related to: whidbey basin
Source: Juvenile Chinook Salmon non-natal habitat restoration planning on Salish Sea Wiki