Environmental Threats

1. In my opinion the greatest threats facing the Salish Sea are fossil fuel export ships, pollution generated by overpopulation:  too many cars, too many lawns using pesticides etc., destruction of salmon habitat such as dams etc., and climate change.  While the list of threats to the Salish Sea could go on for pages, the chief environmental threat is our unsustainable industrial culture which treats the Earth and her creatures with disrespect, and often treats the Salish Sea as a large sewer. Dana Lyons

2. I think the environmental threats (in no particular order) are many: over-fishing, oil-spill risk, noise, toxic run-off, sewage, acidification, species loss, shoreline armoring… mostly this all boils down to too many people. And too many people living irresponsibly (i.e., non-sustainably). Stefan Freelan

3. Environmental threats are those impacting oceans all over the Earth: overexploitation, loss of species diversity, non-native species, habitat loss, pollution (including plastics), climate change, ocean acidification. There are a lot of pressures on the Salish Sea. Brian Bingham

4. I'd put underwater noise from boats at the top of my list, along with shoreline armoring and overfishing.  I also consider it criminal that there is so little public shoreline access.  Why should we expect people to care about Puget Sound if wealthy people have most of the access? Parker MacCready

5. Growth of the human population in Western Washington brings with it increased pressures on the system from development, release of damaging chemicals into the air and water, and over-exploitation of natural resources. These pressures have associated stressors such as fragmentation of habitats, toxicity, and reduction in resilience of native species. Climate change represents a clear stressor as illustrated by increased acidity of the water. Warmer water will affect the viability of the native species and associated food web. Increased inorganic nutrients are already showing impacts in harmful algae blooms. Overharvesting of salmon is perhaps the leading reason for declines in Orca. Derelict fishing gear kills massive numbers of fish and crabs. Weakening laws such as the Clean Water Act potentially could turn back significant progress that has been made since the early 1970’s. Ron Thom

6. Overall (although not everywhere)- pollution of many kinds (industrial, nutrients, etc) Immediate - invasive species (although not as much as in other parts of the world), development of the shoreline, overharvesting of species, habitat loss (especially coastal and estuarine wetlands) Long term (but also immediate) - climate change, especially (for the Salish Sea) ocean acidification and warming of the ocean. Megan Dethier

7. The most obvious environmental threat to the Salish Sea in my mind is increasing coal and oil ship traffic. This might be the most obvious to me because in recent years it is what our community has been loudest about. Increased ship traffic is problematic in the Salish Sea for a number of reasons. The few that stand out to me are noise impacts on the species living here, the increased probability of ships physically striking the endangered and many keystone species living here and the possibility of devastating spills which increases as traffic does. Susanne Pavyluk

8. Most people think of industrial pollution or a specific “villain” when they think of pollution and other threats to the Salish Sea. However, the biggest threats facing the Salish Sea come from people’s everyday activities – where we live, how we travel, what products we use. These damage habitat for aquatic life, contribute pollution, and impact human communities that need clean water and healthy habitat. One significant challenge for people is that we can’t see the impacts our own activities are having. Few people see the billowing pollution coming out of stormwater outfalls under the water in Puget Sound, but that’s the top source of toxic pollution to the Salish Sea today. Infrastructure that serves human needs – like roads to get around on and wastewater treatment plants that treat our sewage – has impacts that scientists are identifying. Another major threat is simply inaction or doing things “the way we’ve always done them.” Now more than ever, we need to fundamentally rethink how we meet our human needs in a way that values future generations. Mindy Roberts

9. I believe a key threat to the Salish Sea is the possible changes in patterns of freshwater and estuarine flows because of reduced rainfall/snow packs or climate change as well as modifications in flow directions and patterns because of landscape changes such as diversions and dikes. An important idea for people living around the Salish Sea is the concept that water flowing to sea connects our landscape features – river to estuary to ocean. The ecosystems that support our iconic salmon work because of these flows. It is perhaps human flaw that sometimes we cannot see the connections as we are rooted in our “place”-we emphasize our local areas but sometimes overlook the fact that they are connected to others upstream and downstream. Colin Levings

10. I believe the Salish Sea is currently experiencing two main (and very large) pressures. The first is the rapidly increasing human population surrounding the Salish Sea. Elsewhere, I have referred to the Canadian waters of the Salish Sea as arguably Canada’s most human-dominated marine system. Stresses induced on the Salish Sea by increasing human population include physical (e.g. debris, plastics), chemical, and noise pollution; habitat alterations such as shoreline development and hardening, land use changes in the watersheds and surrounding lands adjacent to the Salish Sea; etc. Note that I do not include overfishing in this list as I believe that, at least in Canadian waters, commercial fishing is tightly controlled and is currently much reduced from historical levels, although recreational fishing can still be intense, especially in certain areas at certain times of the year. The second major pressure facing the Salish Sea is climate change. Although ultimately a human-caused pressure, I consider it here as a pressure from the natural environment. It is obviously a large-scale pressure with impacts on the Salish Sea directly (such as changes in sea temperatures, amount and timing of freshwater flows into marine environments, and ocean acidification), but also indirectly through changes to the outside source waters which feed the Salish Sea. For example, the water in the Strait of Georgia takes on average 18-24 months to be fully renewed with water from the NE Pacific. Therefore, conditions in outside open ocean waters can be expected to occur in the Strait of Georgia 1.5-2 years later. Ian Perry

11. Major environmental threats facing the Salish Sea include climate change, ocean acidification, habitat loss, pollutants, and impacts associated with rapid population growth/expansion. The effects of these threats are wide-reaching; each alone has the potential to fundamentally change the Salish Sea ecosystem, and all are interconnected. Iris Kemp

12. The threats that faced this region years ago are in some ways the threats we face today, except they are now being amplified by climate change, which makes the climate crisis the biggest threat we face. From flooding to wildfires to ocean acidification, all the other pressures on these waters are being made all the worse because of the impacts of changes to our climate.  These pressures include habitat degradation through pollution of waterways and destruction of shoreline (marine and freshwater) habitat remain threats to the Salish Sea. The sources of those threats have changed however.  In the 1990s, we talked about pulp pollution and sewage discharge (from municipalities as well as from smaller sources such as recreational boats) as a key threats, while today it's oil spills and stormwater run-off that have our attention, as well as the impact that ships are increasingly having on the health of the region (air pollution, discharges to water, as well as increasing awareness of the products that ships carry such as dilbit). All of this is of course exacerbated by a growing population which is putting more and more pressure on our resources. We have tackled some threats but they have been replaced by others, which highlights that we don't yet have a comprehensive way to protect this region in a systematic way. Christianne Wilhelmson

Climate change, habitat destruction, over fishing, toxic run off, underwater noise related to shipping, invasive species, acidification are all mentioned by the responders.

Perhaps the number one threat mentioned is population increase and the associated impacts of more people.  See responses by Dana Lyons, Ron Thom, Stefan Freelan and Ian Perry. The population numbers are sobering.  According to Richard Hutchings in his book Maritime Heritage in Crisis, The population estimates for the Salish Sea in millions of people are:  1976- 4 million, 2001- 7 million, and projected for 2025- 9.4 million.  The 2020 estimate for the Salish Sea is around 8 million. In the next 5 years an additional 1.5 million people might be added to the Salish Sea population. That’s about 300,000 new people each year. People and their actions pose a major challenge to keep and increase the health of the Salish Sea.

Perhaps the least understood threat is the flow of water in the Salish Sea. All the waters of the Salish Sea (with the possible exception of the Hood Canal) are one connected Ecosystem. Among the families of ecosystems, the Salish Sea is an estuarine ecosystem, characterized by the mixing of fresh water from the rivers and salt water from the ocean. This mixing has a major impact on water quality and on the biological riches of the Salish Sea. Ron Thom, Colin Levings, and Dick Beamish make reference to this estuarine ecosystem. We need to provide better educational information on the Salish Sea’s estuarine ecosystem

 The statement by Parker MacCready that “… of the fresh water in Puget Sound about 10-30% of it originated in the Fraser River” is a reminder that all of the waters of the Salish Sea are interconnected as a single system.

— Bert Webber