Tessa Francis, PhD University of Washington Tacoma

Puget Sound Institute

Forage Fish & the Puget Sound Food Web

An  ecologist  at  work  

Land-­‐water  connec3ons  

litterfall

litterfall

BRANDON COLE / WWW.BRANDONCOLE.COM! Redorbit.com!

The mysterious decline of !Puget Sound herring!

Forage  fish  are  30-­‐60  /mes  more  valuable  in  the  water  

Source:  DFW  2008,  TCW  Economics;  LenFest  Forage  Fish  Task  Force  Report  

Direct  value   Suppor/ve  value  

$25  million  $0.4  –  0.8  million  

Pacific  herring  Clupea  pallasii  

photo  by  Walter  Rung  

Surf  smelt  Hypomesus  preCosus  

photo  by  Frank  Varga  

Sand  lance  Ammodytes  hexapterus    

photo  by  Ground  Truth  Trekking  

Meet  the  fish.  

0

3,000

6,000

9,000

12,000

15,000

18,000

1973 1978 1983 1988 1993 1998 2003 2008 2013 2018

TON

S Puget Sound Herring Abundance

photo  by  Walter  Rung  

Photo  by  Madeline  Stevens  

No  change  

Decrease  Increase  

Eelgrass  bed  trends  (2004-­‐2009)    

33%  of    shoreline  altered  

25%  of    shoreline  armored  

2005-­‐2010  Rate  of  new  armoring:  1.8  km/yr  

Does  the  road  to  herring  recovery  go  through  eelgrass?  

Rodger  Jackman/  geUyimages.com  

Are herring (spawning) habitat limited?

1.  Which spawning habitat is the highest quality?

2.  Are herring limited by the amount of this high quality habitat?

Puget  Sound  Herring    Spawning  Sites  

1.  Egg  Loss  on  spawning  habitat      

2.  Egg  survival  in  the  lab  

Days  Since  Spawn  

Egg  De

nsity

 

1   14   Days  Since  Spawn  

Egg  De

nsity

 

1   14  

Little effect of habitat on egg loss Da

ily  Egg  Loss  R

ate  

Prop

or/o

n  of  Eggs  H

atched

 

EB   PM   HH   CP   QB  

1.0  

0.0  

0.2  

0.4  

0.6  

0.8  

Hatch rates vary across spawning sites.

Pro

babi

lity

of h

atch

ing

Site effects are stronger than habitat effects

What We Learned

1.  WHERE  maUers  more  for  herring  egg  success  than  ON  WHAT    

2.  While  eelgrass  is  important  in  Puget  Sound,  eelgrass  recovery  may  not  impact  herring  popula3ons.  

Next Steps

Why  does  egg  success  vary  across  site?  

Thank  you.