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A significant number of Puget Sound property owners have been altering their shorelines without required permits. A new report suggests that state and local regulators should increase enforcement and make penalties more costly for violators.

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.

The skeletal beginnings of nearly all models is a conceptual understanding of the basic workings of the system being studied: Who are the important actors, and what are their roles within the system?

Artificial intelligence is emerging as a powerful new tool for whale identification. New software can be adapted and used to identify any animal with a dorsal fin on its back.

Historically, the eastern part of the state has seen the largest impacts from fires, but climate change is now increasing the risk west of the Cascades. That could have big implications for many rural communities throughout Western Washington, including those in the Puget Sound region.

From orcas to starfish to humans, disease affects every living creature in the ecosystem. Scientists are increasingly alarmed by its potential to devastate already compromised populations of species in Puget Sound.  

Crab Team members maintain a massive surveillance program to track the population’s advance, while researchers probe the inner workings of the invasive species.

Scientists at the Washington Department of Ecology along with many other researchers have spent years studying and debating the problem of low oxygen in Puget Sound. Now, many new developments — technical, scientific and legal — are reaching a critical stage and setting up a framework to make some major decisions. This is part four of a four-part series originally published in the Puget Sound Institute blog.

A December 2014 report from the University of Washington examines when and where climate change impacts will occur in the Puget Sound watershed.