Scientists Mystified By Herring Decline
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/InNews/herring2005.html
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From WDFW's Herring Stock Assessment:
"For the 2003-04 period, 50% of Puget Sound herring stocks are classified as healthy or
moderately healthy. This is the lowest percentage of stocks meeting these criteria since
development of the stock status summary in 1994; following 71% and 83% of stocks considered
healthy or moderately healthy in 2000 and 2002, respectively. One stock, N.W. San Juan Island,
was also added to the critical list in 2004.
Regionally, south/central Puget Sound stocks have maintained a healthy stock status since the
first evaluation in 1994. Conversely, north Puget Sound’s combined status has moved from
healthy in 1994, to moderately healthy in 1996, and depressed since 1998; largely due to the
decrease in spawning biomass for the Cherry Point stock. The Strait of Juan de Fuca region’s
status has been consistently classified as critical since 1994, primarily due to the condition of the
Discovery Bay stock, which has remained at a very low level of abundance."
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http://www.psat.wa.gov/Publications/psh ... erring.htm
There are 18 known stocks of herring in Puget Sound; seven are not faring well, ten are at least moderately healthy and one is in unknown condition.
The status of herring stocks in Puget Sound is worse than previously reported. The number of stocks in the depressed and critical categories more than tripled between 1994 and 1998. Herring stocks in the north Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca have fared worse than stocks that spawn in central and south Puget Sound.
Following a status review begun in 1999, the National Marine Fisheries Service may propose to list Puget Sound Pacific herring as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.
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Marine life is disappearing from Puget Sound, and fast
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/specials/ ... sert09.asp
Recent studies show that Puget Sound's herring -- a key link in the food chain -- contain higher contamination levels than those in Europe's highly polluted Baltic Sea. In May, leading federal and state scientists reported that the "food web of Puget Sound appears to be more seriously contaminated than previously anticipated."
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Analysis of the Decline of Puget SoundPacific Herring Stocks: Toxics,Urbanization, Climate Change or Disease?
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~ietc/Landisherring.pdf.
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The Cherry Point spawning population, in particular, has suffered drastic and severe population declines, and that population was, at stable levels, by far the largest and most productive stock in the entire Georgia Basin/Puget Sound region.
Lots of different reasons are out there for the declines, but like most fish species in trouble around here, it's probably a complex combination of PDO cycles, commercial overharvest, pollution, and habitat destruction. The above links are only a tiny bit of the information out there, should anyone care to read it...just Google up "Puget Sound Herring" and you'll find all you could ever want.
All that being said...squid fishing in the Seattle area was pretty grim last year, and way worse this year...but Elliott Bay in particular has been pretty murky most of the season due to muddy water coming down the Duwamish, and murky water in Elliott Bay equals crappy squidding downtown and at Shilshole...
Fish on...
Todd
