In Washington state’s Puget Sound, Chinook salmon are in trouble. Listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act since 1999, the population is currently at 10% of historic numbers, and in some river basins that number goes down to 1%. Recovering the salmon population is both an environmental and an economic priority. Chinook salmon has been recognized as a key species whose recovery will benefit the overall ecosystem health and biodiversity of the Puget Sound, and will also help fulfill tribal rights to catch salmon.
As part of the salmon recovery effort, NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) and the Skagit River System Cooperative (SRSC) have signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to investigate the cumulative benefits of estuary and nearshore habitat restoration to promote increased salmon fishing opportunities. Together, NWFSC and SRSC will carry out a large-scale data collection and analysis program that will determine how restoration activities in Whidbey Basin have benefited juvenile salmon populations. Under the CRADA, NWFSC will provide technical and logistical support (boats and equipment) and SRSC will provide regional and technical expertise and personnel to collect and analyze the data.
Scientists at NWFSC conduct research to support sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, protect and recover endangered species, guide restoration of habitat, and maintain healthy communities and the ecosystems they rely on. NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region works with the Science Centers to protect and conserve Chinook salmon under the Endangered Species Act. Under the CRADA, NWFSC will contribute technical expertise and logistical support such as boats and equipment.
“The new CRADA between NWFSC and SRSC continues a long-standing partnership to improve our understanding of salmon ecology and habitat restoration in Puget Sound’s estuarine and nearshore marine environments,” says NWFSC Research Ecologist Josh Chamberlin. “Such partnerships are vital for advancing science and building applied tools that support management and rebuilding of salmon in the region.”
SRSC and NOAA have collaborated before, as the SRSC is a natural resource consortium of the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community that works to improve fisheries management within their usual and accustomed fishing areas. Their expertise includes harvest and hatchery management, research, environmental review, and habitat restoration, making them an ideal partner to assess the return on investment of habitat restoration activities for the Chinook salmon.
“Our collaboration has been critical to advance our understanding of the key areas that Chinook salmon use during their migrations into marine waters, and to address how habitat restoration is contributing to productive fisheries,” says Correigh Greene, senior scientist at SRSC. “We still have more habitat restoration to do, and improving our understanding of the ways in which we can more quickly recover the ecosystem should help us jumpstart the salmon populations that our tribes depend on.”
The work of NWFSC and SRSC under this CRADA will fill critical knowledge gaps that will help to inform policy decisions and assess the return on investment for restoration activities. In addition to assisting NOAA in executing its responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act, the partnership will allow NWFSC to better provide scientific expertise to policy makers.
NOAA regularly partners with private sector companies through CRADAs to conduct research and development work that is mutually beneficial and helps to accomplish NOAA’s mission. NOAA CRADAs are coordinated through the NOAA Research Technology Partnerships Office.