Puget Sound Vital Signs Measures of ecosystem health and progress toward Puget Sound recovery goals

Puget Sound Salmon Habitat Indicators

Measures of ecosystem conditions in salmon habitats

Salmon are a cultural icon of the Pacific Northwest. They are highly prized by anglers and commercial fishermen, are guaranteed to be available to Indian Tribes by treaties signed with the federal government, and are a favorite food of Southern Resident orcas.

Many Puget Sound salmon populations are threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The Salmon Vital Sign tells us about the health of salmon populations.

Salmon use many different habitats during their life cycle. They move from rivers to estuaries to the ocean, and back again. Healthy habitats along the way help salmon to feed, grow, rest, avoid predators, and spawn. Natural changes and human activities impact the quality and quantity of healthy habitat.

Puget Sound Salmon Habitat Indicators measure the health of habitats across Puget Sound that are important to salmon.

Salmon habitats from the headwaters to Puget Sound A map of one river basin laid out like a tabletop, the Cascades behind it. Headwater streams run out of the conifer forest at the back, past a gravel bar and a log jam where adults spawn, and a tributary with a temperature logger joins them. The river winds through a floodplain valley with an oxbow lake, a side channel, flow gauges, alders along its banks and a flooded pasture, then braids through a delta marsh to the beach. A feeder bluff with forest on top stands on the left shore and a pocket estuary sits behind a spit on the right. Eelgrass and kelp grow in the shallows; the Sound along the front is cut away to show the water column, with a buoy and a moored sensor. The life cycle route runs down the river, out into the Sound and back up to spawn. Eggs and alevins Fry and parr Smolts Ocean adults Adults return to spawn Stream Structure Freshwater Streams & Floodplains Estuaries Beaches & Marine Vegetation Marine Water Sediment Stream temperature Stream structure Hydrologic regime Summer low flow Floodplain function Freshwater riparian forest Flood events Nearshore riparian forest Estuary area Pocket estuaries Feeder bluffs Eelgrass sites Eelgrass area Understory kelp Floating kelp bed area Marine water temperature Dissolved oxygen

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Related Progress Indicators

Throughout their life cycle, salmon depend on a wide variety of freshwater, estuary, nearshore, and marine habitats. This leaves salmon vulnerable to many forms of human activities.