Beyond the salmon crisis: Northwest may face broad loss of freshwater species

This story first appeared in the Salish Current

According to a recent Convention of Migratory Species Report, migratory freshwater fish populations have dropped 81% worldwide since 1970. While Northwest Washington species face many of the same pressures as other species across the planet, the story here is a bit more nuanced, and researchers point to a unique interagency collaboration in the state as a pathway forward.

Salish Sea Chinook salmon populations are down 60% since the Pacific Salmon Commission began tracking salmon abundance in 1984, according to the 2024 State of Salmon in Watersheds report.

Around the Salish Sea, Chinook salmon provide immense ecological, cultural and economic value. According to the report, Puget Sound was once home to larger populations of Chinook and other salmon, with a greater diversity of traits than populations existing today. Only 22 of at least 37 historic Chinook salmon populations remain in this ecosystem. The remaining Chinook salmon populations are at about 10% of their historic numbers. Between 2000 and 2018, the total number of Chinook returning to the Salish Sea has shown a relatively stable trend.

These salmon populations face the same pressures as freshwater fish listed in the global report: habitat loss, harvest rates and climate change.

“All the research, all the science, all the data that’s been analyzed shows us that habitat is by far the leading threat,” said Annitra Peck, executive director of the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association. “You’ve got hydropower, you’ve got harvest management, you’ve got these other pieces that have so much to do with it, and they all definitely intersect, but habitat is in large part the driving concern. Salmon are an anadromous species; they utilize freshwater and saltwater, they need to be able to travel back and forth in their unique life cycle, and if they don’t have the habitat to do that, then that falls apart. It prevents that life cycle from continuing and that reproduction for salmon to be able to replace themselves essentially.”

Freshwater species in peril

According to Peck, salmon are directly linked to 365 other species. However, little is known about how many of these other species are trending.

Marie Winkowski, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s native aquatic species lead, said many of the nongame species have not been well studied.

“They’re not targeted in fisheries, and oftentimes that just inherently makes them overlooked,” she said. “You’re not out there looking for your speckled dace or your redside shiners or lamprey that are burrowed in the substrate for most of their life. They’re present, but they’re not visible.”

Fish and Wildlife has categorized about 30 freshwater species under greatest conservation need, including Chinook, chum and coho salmon; bull and rainbow trout; freshwater mussels and lampreys.

Without baseline data, Winkowski must try to understand lesser-studied populations with innovative techniques such as eDNA, she said, where researchers collect water samples and look for the DNA of the focal species. That information is used to create occupancy maps. Knowing where species are is the first step to conserve and protect them, she said.

“You end up with these microscopic telltale signs that a species was there,” she said. “We compare that with reference databases that are available, and then we can have a snapshot of what species are present within that water body.”

While these data are currently incomplete, Winkowski plans to expand the program statewide, and will soon have data for Whatcom, Skagit and San Juan counties.

Though freshwater species such as mussels and lamprey do not receive as much funding as salmon, the stakes of a dramatic decline can be just as high, she said.

“A lot of the fishes that we are focused on require the entire ecosystem in order to be healthy and effective for them to thrive,” she said. “I think about the suckers and our dace. They’re providing a food source, not only through the fish, but also during their spawning events. That’s really important to support the entire ecosystem. If we have a healthy ecosystem, we will have promote at every kind of level of the of the food chain, including those ones that we do fish for, like salmon and steelhead.”

Mussels boost the entire ecosystem from the ground up, she said. Mussels filter up to 10 gallons of water per mussel per day, which cleans the ecosystem and redistributes nutrients from the water column into the riverbed.

Cross-border collaboration

One of the most urgent priorities listed on the Convention of Migratory Species Report is greater cross-border collaboration, as many freshwater species migrate across borders.

According to Peck, Washington is unique in its co-management framework among tribes, state and other governments and nonprofits.

The 1974 Supreme Court ruling, known as the Boldt Decision, re-affirmed the tribes’ treaty reserved fishing rights. The 1985 Pacific Salmon Treaty helped bring a science-based approach to international salmon conservation and harvest sharing.

Lummi Natural Resources Department did not respond to requests for comment.

In 1999, Puget Sound Chinook were listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act. In 2000, the National Marine Fisheries Service issued the salmon ESA 4(d) Rule, establishing take prohibitions for the Puget Sound Chinook and others.

Meanwhile, in 2018, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada assessed Chinook salmon in southern British Columbia, which includes Salish Sea populations.

The organization found that only one Southern B.C. Chinook salmon unit had no risk of extinction.

The 1985 Pacific Salmon Treaty set the long-term goals for the benefit of the salmon and the two countries. In 1999, the United States and Canada reached a comprehensive new agreement, which established two restoration and enhancement funds.

Managed by Long Live the Kings in Washington and the Pacific Salmon Foundation in British Columbia, the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project  brings together U.S. and Canadian experts from federal, state and provincial agencies, tribes and first nations and academic and nonprofit organizations. Since 2012, over 90 studies were initiated by the project, with 25 published in peer-reviewed journals.

Winkowski works with competitive grants that cross state lines and collaborates with Canadian organizations for certain species such as bull trout, she said. 

For the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, these partnerships are important, Peck said, as the Sumas River connects to B.C.’s Fraser River.

“If we’re not collaborating, and if we’re not communicating what these priorities are and where like our set of goals are, then we’re gonna be conflicting each other,” she said. “Salmon to B.C. is just as iconic and culturally relevant as it is here. We’re all in the same boat.”

What can be done

Winkowski said informing the public about what is there and what might be there is a step in the right direction, along with conserving the habitat that researchers know is working.

The Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association focuses on private land, which isn’t accessible to larger regional efforts on a federal and state level. The association provides funding to access land and remove fish passage barriers.

“Once that habitat is open, it is a thriving system for salmon,” Peck said. “We have to be able to make progress toward engaging with those landowners, being able to access that private land and remove those barriers. Many of our projects, we remove a barrier and it opens up several miles of habitat upstream. And if we can keep chipping away at that in western and northern Whatcom County, we’re going to be meeting our goals.”

The State of Salmon in Watersheds report suggests that, for the average person, the best things to do are to keep streams shaded, keep litter out of streams, help protect shorelines, shop for sustainably harvested salmon and volunteer with local enhancement groups.

“It can be really difficult to see those numbers and feel kind of overwhelmed with the loss of biodiversity that we experience,” Winkowski said, “but I do think that the efforts that we’re doing right now to try and understand, especially where those nongame fishes or freshwater shellfish, where they are present and then sharing that data broadly through this interactive mapping tool. I think that it’s an exciting process. It makes me excited about it.”

This story first appeared in the Salish Current