Tulalip Natural Resources Department image of microscopic organism
Whale
Sustaining our Traditions and Culture
Tulalip Natural Resources Department image of microscopic organism
Whale
Sustaining our Traditions and Culture
Tulalip Natural Resources Department image of microscopic organism
Whale
Sustaining our Traditions and Culture

Plankton

In 2012, efforts began under the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project to study what was causing declines in salmon returns and marine survival in the Salish Sea after juvenile salmon leave their natal streams. One of the focus areas was to better understand how annual climate changes and ocean conditions affect prey availability and subsequent growth and survival of juvenile salmon. To investigate the seasonal and spatial availability of prey before juvenile salmon become large enough to eat fish, project collaborators under the Puget Sound Zooplankton Monitoring Program have taken a distributed approach; each sampling zooplankton in their watersheds Working with the University of Washington, the Tulalip Tribes developed the Puget Sound Zooplankton Monitoring Program as part of the SSMSP and the . . In the spring of 2013, the Tulalip Tribes and eight collaborating Tribes and agencies began collecting bi-weekly zooplankton samples across Puget Sound, including Hood Canal.

The Tulalip Tribes collect zooplankton at two sampling locations; one off of Mukilteo and the other off of Camano Head. The samples are collected using two types of zooplankton tow nets and sampling techniques. One technique uses dual bongo nets obliquely-towed over the upper 30 meters of the water column, which is the depth that juvenile salmon feed during daytime. These surface tows are designed to sample the dominant juvenile salmon prey groups to provide "Prey Field Indicators." The second technique uses a vertically-lifted ring net that is dropped close to the bottom and then pulled vertically upward from a stationary boat to catch the different zooplankton species that live throughout the water column. These vertical tows are being used to analyze zooplankton communities at a higher taxonomic level to develop "Ecosystem Indicators" that can be used to forecast salmon returns.

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Tulalip Natural Resources Department image of a bucket with plankton
Tulalip Natural Resources Department line art image of forest or wetland area