Ian Perry
Environmental Threats
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.
Cultural Issues
I suspect that a big cultural issue in the Salish Sea relates to the inherent differences in the ways that urban and rural peoples are aware of, and ultimately value, their interactions with the Salish Sea. In both the Canadian and American jurisdictions of the Salish Sea there are huge ethnically-diverse and globally-connected urban centres, and small, less diverse, communities (including many First Nations and Tribal communities) with much more direct and immediate connections to their marine environments. How these different types of communities perceive their dependence on the Salish Sea is likely to be very different (e.g. see the report titled “Social Science for the Salish Sea: An action-oriented research agenda to inform ecosystem recovery” submitted to the Puget Sound Partnership on 19 July 2019). There continue to be issues of social justice and reconciliation for Native Peoples living around the Salish Sea that need to be resolved. There are also differences, sometimes subtle and often unrecognized, between how many Canadian and American residents view their interactions with and responsibilities towards collective action in the Salish Sea, both for its problems and also for its recovery.
Stewardship
I do not think most people living around the Salish Sea are fully aware of how tightly coupled and how strongly-connected this marine ecosystem is among its various parts, especially across the U.S. - Canada border (other than perhaps those living near that border or perhaps on the San Juan and southern Gulf Islands). Better knowledge of how the water, contaminants, etc. circulate throughout the Salish Sea, and in particular across the international boundary, may help people to understand that what they do to their land, beachfronts, and marine environments can have significant impacts throughout the entire system.