This version of the Puget Sound Science Update provides an initial evaluation of food web indicators, but is not intended to be comprehensive. Highlights include the evaluation of individual species or species complexes as food web indicators due to their key functional roles (e.g., forage fish, jellyfish), and the identification of existing data sources for assessing food web structure and function at Washington State agencies and via satellite.
Topics Overview
Mammals
Find content specifically related to mammals of the Puget Sound and Salish Sea ecosystems. For checklists and descriptive accounts of individual species, visit our species library.
Additional resources:
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This version of the Puget Sound Science Update provides an initial evaluation of species indicators, but is not intended to be comprehensive. Focal species identified by O’Neill et al. (2008) were evaluated as either measures of population size or population condition. Many of these were identified as potentially good species indicators, and several may be relevant to key attributes of the other PSP goals (e.g., habitat condition).
Photo by Jaime Ramos. Courtesy National Science Foundation.
Background
Three distinct groups of killer whales (Orcinus orca) occupy the coastal waters of the northeastern Pacific. These groups—northern and southern residents, transients, and offshores—are distinguished by diet, behavior, morphology, and other characteristics. Among these, Southern Resident and transient killer whales commonly are found in Puget Sound. Northern residents and offshore killer whales rarely enter Puget Sound (Wiles 2004, Kriete 2007), and therefore are not described in detail here.
Tim Essington1, Terrie Klinger2, Tish Conway-Cranos1,2, Joe Buchanan3, Andy James4, Jessi Kershner1, Ilon Logan2, and Jim West3
1School of Aquatic and Fisheries Science, University of Washington
2School of Marine Affairs, University of Washington
3Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
4Department of Environmental and Civil Engineering, University of Washington
topical_article
Washington State Status Report for the Killer Whale (Orca). March 2004.
Summary:
This report summarizes the status of Washington's four recognized killer whale (Orcinus orca) populations: southern residents, northern residents, transients, and offshore. The author discusses major threats to the whales, including declining prey availability and pollutants in their environment. The report, which came out in 2004, was produced as a first step in listing the killer whale on the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's register of endangered, threatened, and sensitive species.
The full report can be seen in the sidebar, and is also available here.
Author:
Influence of sex and body mass on harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) diving behavior. MS Thesis. Western Washington University. 2013.
Summary:
A recent master's thesis prepared at Western Washington University discusses the impact of harbor seals on fish stocks in the San Juan Islands, where they are a year-round predator.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recently released a Draft Bat Conservation Plan for the 15 species of bats found in Washington State. All but four of these species occur within the greater Puget Sound watershed1, including:
This article originally appeared in Threatened and Endangered Species, State of Washington Annual Report 2011. Further information on these species and others in the Puget Sound basin is available at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife site and the Fish and Wildlife Service page on endangered species.
This article originally appeared in Threatened and Endangered Species, State of Washington Annual Report 2011. Further information on these species and others in the Puget Sound basin is available at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife site and the Fish and Wildlife Service page on endangered species.
This article originally appeared in Threatened and Endangered Species, State of Washington Annual Report 2011. Further information on these species and others in the Puget Sound basin is available at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife site and the Fish and Wildlife Service page on endangered species.
This article originally appeared in Threatened and Endangered Species, State of Washington Annual Report 2011. Further information on these species and others in the Puget Sound basin is available at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife site and the Fish and Wildlife Service page on endangered species.
This article originally appeared in Threatened and Endangered Species, State of Washington Annual Report 2011. Further information on these species and others in the Puget Sound basin is available at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife site and the Fish and Wildlife Service page on endangered species.
This article originally appeared in Threatened and Endangered Species, State of Washington Annual Report 2011. Further information on these species and others in the Puget Sound basin is available at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife site and the Fish and Wildlife Service page on endangered species.
This article originally appeared in Threatened and Endangered Species, State of Washington Annual Report 2011. Further information on these species and others in the Puget Sound basin is available at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife site and the Fish and Wildlife Service page on endangered species.
This article originally appeared in Threatened and Endangered Species, State of Washington Annual Report 2011. Further information on these species and others in the Puget Sound basin is available at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife site and the Fish and Wildlife Service page on endangered species.
This article originally appeared in Threatened and Endangered Species, State of Washington Annual Report 2011. Further information on these species and others in the Puget Sound basin is available at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife site and the Fish and Wildlife Service page on endangered species.
This article originally appeared in Threatened and Endangered Species, State of Washington Annual Report 2011. Further information on these species and others in the Puget Sound basin is available at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife site and the Fish and Wildlife Service page on endangered species.
The Encyclopedia of Puget Sound species library now includes a list of species of concern in the Salish Sea watershed. The list was created by Joe Gaydos and Nicholas Brown of the SeaDoc Society, and was released as a paper presented as part of the Proceedings of the 2011 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference in Vancouver, BC.
A recent report by an independent science panel reviewed data on the effects of salmon fisheries on Southern Resident Killer Whale populations. The report was released on November 30, 2012 and was commissioned by NOAA Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Background
Three distinct groups of killer whales (Orcinus orca) occupy the coastal waters of the northeastern Pacific. These groups—northern and southern residents, transients, and offshores—are distinguished by diet, behavior, morphology, and other characteristics. Among these, Southern Resident and transient killer whales commonly are found in Puget Sound. Northern residents and offshore killer whales rarely enter Puget Sound (Wiles 2004, Kriete 2007), and therefore are not described in detail here.
Harbor seal numbers were severely reduced in Puget Sound during the first half of the twentieth century by a state-financed population control program. This bounty program ceased in 1960, and in 1972, harbor seals became protected under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act and by Washington State.
Puget Sound is calling: EoPS now has custom ringtones. Add the sounds of Puget Sound-area species like the Rhinoceros Auklet or Pacific Chorus Frog to your phone today.
The Encyclopedia of Puget Sound, in cooperation with the USGS, has developed a list of terrestrial vertebrates occurring within the Puget Sound basin.
They are sometimes called Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), or submersible drones. They glide like airships through the deeper channels of Puget Sound, and have become an important tool for a wide array of open ocean applications, including detection of marine mammals, military reconnaissance and the monitoring of environmental disasters like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Puget Sound is the birthplace and key testing area of the Seaglider.
Puget Sound hosts more than 100 species of seabirds, 200 species of fish, 15 marine mammal species, hundreds of plant species, and thousands of invertebrate species. These species do not exist in isolation, but rather interact with each other in a variety of ways: they eat and are eaten by each other; they serve as vectors of disease or toxins; they are parasitic; and they compete with each other for food, habitat, and other resources.
Fishes, birds, and mammals (including humans) serve as top-level carnivores in the Puget Sound ecosystem. With the exception of humans, these organisms have a diet that consists almost entirely of fish or other vertebrates.