Spatiotemporal Detection of Forage Fish Eggs Derived from Long-term Spawning Surveys

Surf smelt (Hypomesus pretiosus) and Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes hexapterus) are vital parts of the Salish Sea ecosystem â€" providing an important energetic link between primary and secondary producers and many marine mammals, sea birds, and other fish species. Unfortunately, we know little about the status or trends of their populations and no monitoring strategy has been developed or implemented. We also have little information describing the life history or geographic distribution of these species that are prerequisites for developing an efficient monitoring strategy.

WDFW has been conducting surveys in Puget Sound for more than thirty years to identify beaches where surf smelt and Pacific sand lance spawn. We constructed a geodatabase to house these data and initiated analyses to discern spatial and temporal patterns within Puget Sound.