Marine Resources Committee: Protection and Restoration Past, Present and Future

Ken Carrasco is Vice Chair of the Whatcom County Marine Resources Committee (MRC) and chairs the Nearshore Issues Subcommittee. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) and chairs the Education Committee; additionally, he is the local Marine Environmental Protection officer in the Bellingham Coast Guard Auxiliary unit. His wife Mariann is coordinator of the Whatcom Marine Mammal Stranding Network. They live near Acme on Blue Mountain Farm, and he is pursuing an interest in video documentary.

Part 2

Editor’s Note: The first installment appeared in the April 2010 issue.

As many people are aware, Whatcom County’s increase in population and urbanization over the past several decades has caused a severe decline in the health of our local marine ecosystem. Our populations of salmon, bottomfish and forage fish are dwindling; recreational and commercial shellfish harvesting opportunities have been curtailed because of poor water quality; our eelgrass beds, kelp forests, and other marine habitats have been degraded or have disappeared altogether; and our populations of seabirds and some species of marine mammals have declined.

So we need to ask ourselves: will we be able to work and play in our county’s marine environment in the future — a future only one year from now, in 20 years, or in our grandchildren’s lifetime?

The 19 members of the Whatcom County Marine Resources Committee (MRC) and the staff of the Whatcom County Public Works assigned to assist them have been working since the MRC was formed 10 years ago to address this question and to resolve many of the issues facing our marine waters today. This second of two installments in Whatcom Watch will describe the accomplishments of the MRC.

The first installment of this article described the history and structure of the MRC. To summarize that installment: the Whatcom County MRC is one of seven Marine Resource Committees created by the Northwest Straits Initiative passed by the U.S. Congress in 1999, along with a coordinating agency called the Northwest Straits Commission (NWSC). Senator Patty Murray and the late Representative Jack Metcalf proposed this Initiative to fulfill the objectives of a proposed federal sanctuary program that had been successfully resisted by local citizens who felt that a distant and large bureaucracy could not adequately address the community’s concerns about marine issues.

In creating the MRCs and the NWSC, the Initiative gave citizens possessing local knowledge and having a personal interest with the means to address these issues by providing them with funding to design and implement marine conservation projects.

These projects are to be driven by local priorities, informed by science and guided by the Initiative’s guiding goals and benchmarks. An important component of the MRC concept is to protect the environment while also recognizing the importance of the local economy.

This month’s installment provides examples of the various projects and accomplishments of the MRC over the past 10 years. The majority of projects are accompanied by reports that are available on the MRC website, and more complete descriptions can be found in the Whatcom County MRC 10 Year Report to the Community, which is available from Whatcom County Public Works or from local libraries. With this momentum, the members of the MRC are looking forward to another 10 years of protecting and restoring Whatcom County marine waters.

Soon after it was formed, the Whatcom County MRC undertook several studies to objectively assess and identify concerns and opportunities along the county shoreline. Reports identified here are available on the MRC website or at Whatcom County Public Works—Natural Resources.

The MRC collected information about historic and current marine resources in the report “Marine Resources of Whatcom County,” and maps of this data are available on the MRC website.

Subsequently, a “Rapid Shoreline Inventory” collected on-the-ground data along the Whatcom County shoreline in partnership with the environmental nonprofit organizations RE Sources for Sustainable Communities and People for Puget Sound. Volunteers were recruited, trained, and coordinated to collect these data along selected stretches of county shoreline.

Later, the “Nearshore Habitat Restoration Prioritization” ranked potential restoration sites in three geographic regions (Point Roberts, Birch Bay, and Chuckanut Bay) according to sustainability, risk, practicality, and feasibility. These projects were then further ranked with regard to the site’s ability to support forage fish, juvenile salmon, and aquatic vegetation.

After the initial studies described above were completed, it was apparent which issues were most important for the MRC to address. The educational efforts are of particular value to the entire Whatcom County community and are described first in this article because of their important and ongoing nature. Outside speakers sometimes come to MRC meetings to educate committee members and interested members of the public, and the MRC also offers community events such as talks or field trips about particular topics. Written materials disseminated to the community also inform about natural resource topics.

Public Speaker Events: The members of the MRC’s Education and Outreach Subcommittee actively solicit relevant speakers in the marine sciences field and advertise these free events to the general public. Information on upcoming events can be found on the MRC website. Examples of recent topics include local marine circulation patterns, the origin and consequences of toxic chemicals, historic uses of Chuckanut Bay, and the effects of sea level rise.

Marine Life Fact Sheets: The MRC has created 15 downloadable Marine Life Fact Sheets about important species found in the marine waters of Whatcom County. They are available for download from the MRC website, and paper copies are typically made available for distribution at agencies and at relevant public events. These Fact Sheets include topics in marine vegetation, shellfish, forage fish, ling cod, rockfish, marine mammals and birds.

Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Survey: Submerged aquatic vegetation includes species such as eelgrass, kelps, red algae and green algae, such as sea lettuce. This vegetation is often used to measure the health of an estuary because it responds to many environmental variables and also because so many species depend on it during their life history.

For example, submerged vegetation in our county functions as rearing and refuge habitat for juvenile salmon during their smoltification phase, when they adapt from fresh to salt water. In addition, herring use eelgrass beds and macroalgae as a physical base for spawning. Larval herring, surf smelt, and sand lance, as well as invertebrate organisms that are prey items for juvenile salmon, also dwell in this habitat.

To collect baseline information and to prioritize nearshore restoration and conservation projects, the MRC surveyed submerged vegetation along an important stretch of county shoreline and published the results in 2005.

Marine Creosote Log Remediation Project: Creosoted pilings and remnants from piling projects are a continuous source of pollution to marine beaches. Some of these abandoned pilings work their way out of the sediments and wash up on the beaches as “rogue” logs. Many of these rogue logs remain on beaches, releasing toxic chemicals for years, poisoning valuable beach habitat and nearby plants and animals. In partnership with the city of Bellingham, the MRC inventoried and removed approximately 100 tons of creosote-treated wood from Whatcom County beaches.

Chuckanut Village Marsh Restoration Project: The city of Bellingham and the MRC partnered to evaluate restorative actions to the nearshore environment near the Chuckanut Village Marsh, located at the very north end of Chuckanut Bay north of the railroad trestle. The goals of this restoration project include enhancing the connection between the marine waters and the freshwater wetland and removing a potential pollution source into the marine environment because cars can drive and park along the salt water.

Plans are being developed for the restoration of the wetland that involve the removal and re-vegetation of graveled areas, installation of a public access bridge or trail and removal of a culvert to increase hydrologic connectivity. Current information about the project can be found at www.cob.org/services/environment/restoration/chuckanut-village-marsh.aspx.

Many species of shellfish live in our marine waters including oysters, mussels, clams, shrimp and crab. They do very well along many parts of our county shorelines with our fortuitous combination of tideflats, highly productive uplands, active ocean currents and long summer hours that promote the growth of the algae that provides many species of shellfish with their food. Consequently, we have had ample numbers of shellfish for commercial, recreational and tribal harvest.

But several challenges exist for the continued healthy populations of our shellfish. Water quality is a serious problem. Many shellfish are filter feeders, collecting food by pumping seawater through a filter in their bodies. Unfortunately, along with the food they can also collect pollution, which can later be consumed by humans.

Fecal coliform bacteria concentrations in water are used as an indicator of pollution around shellfish beds. Fecal coliform sources include pets, failing on-site septic systems, agricultural runoff, wildlife congregations and boat discharge. Septic systems can contribute to this pollution with the very real potential of exposure to human pathogens. Other challenges to shellfish include over-harvesting, natural diseases and competition from introduced non-native species.

Clam surveys and restoration: The Whatcom County MRC has conducted clam surveys since 2004 to determine current clam populations and to provide a baseline for the future. Trained volunteers working under strict protocols have collected data about clam species and encountered substrate. Summary reports can be found on the MRC website. Clam surveys are planned for summer 2010, and potential volunteers are urged to contact Whatcom County Public Works—Natural Resources at 360-676-6876.

Native clam restoration projects have been initiated in Birch Bay and seeding efforts are planned for Drayton Harbor. A pilot project looking at the effectiveness of clam tents is planned for summer 2010.

Water quality monitoring: Because of the importance of water quality to shellfish, the Whatcom MRC partnered with several groups to implement a water monitoring program to help determine possible sources of bacteria and to identify areas for community outreach about stormwater and similar issues. This program began in 2004 and is currently scheduled to run through 2011.

Partners include Whatcom County Public Works, the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA), the Birch Bay Watershed and Aquatic Resources Management District (BBWARM), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Summary reports can be found on the MRC website.

Drayton Harbor: This important harbor near Blaine has a community oyster farm, but also has chronic pollution that has closed much of the bay to harvest since 1999. In 2003 and 2004, the MRC partnered with the port of Bellingham and the local Shellfish Protection District to better understand possible sources of bacteria.

Forage fish are small, schooling fish that are critical in the food web of our waters. They serve as the crucial link between the smallest organisms—such as plankton—and the larger fish, birds and marine mammals. Forage fish are commonly called “baitfish” and include herring, surf smelt and sand lance. They depend on the nearshore for spawning and other parts of their life cycle. The removal of vegetation, the construction of bulkheads or other structures and the alteration of natural water circulation along the shoreline can have major effects on forage fish populations.

The Whatcom MRC has conducted several projects to benefit our local forage fish populations. For example, the MRC participated in a multi-county habitat inventory coordinated by the Island County MRC and WDFW in 2002 through 2004. Surveys of 128 county sites were conducted with volunteers that the MRC helped to recruit, train and coordinate.

The MRC arranged for maps to be created from the data collected by this activity. They are available on the MRC website.

The video “Tiny Tails of Survival” describing forage fish ecology and habitat requirements, was produced by a partnership between the MRC and the city of Bellingham, and is available through the Bellingham Public Library.

Although few of them have attained the status of being household names, a wide variety of bottomfish live in Whatcom County waters and support the marine ecosystem. The term bottomfish includes two groups—rockfish and flatfish—and each group dwells in a distinct habitat.

Rockfish live over hard seabed and are popular for fishing because they concentrate over known areas and because of their high-quality flesh. However, only recently has it become appreciated that they are very long-lived and that their ability to reproduce comes late in life. Many species of local rockfish have declined, and reasons include over-harvest, loss of habitat from human activities and predation by other fish. An exception is the lingcod, which has rebounded because of strict fishery regulations.

Flatfish, which include starry flounder, English sole and halibut among other species, prefer softer and flatter seabeds. Several species are consumed, but the status of many flatfish species is unknown. Because they sometimes swim up into shallower and brackish waters of estuaries and eat organisms that dwell on the seabed surface, they can accumulate toxic chemicals.

Too little is known about Whatcom County bottomfish except for occasional research or anecdotal reports. A crucial step has been to gather more information.

ROV rockfish surveys: The Whatcom MRC has been in partnership with Dr. David Shull at Western Washington University to conduct underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) studies on county rockfish populations and their habitat. This project began in 2007 and reports are available on the MRC website.

Local knowledge and outreach: In 2003, the MRC partnered with People for Puget Sound to conduct workshops and interviews to gather local knowledge and historical locations of bottomfish. This information was consolidated with data from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

A brochure and Fact Sheets on sole, flounder, rockfish and lingcod were subsequently produced with People for Puget Sound as part of the outreach described earlier in this article. These were distributed to local fishing and diving shops to educate people about this resource and the need for conservation.

This article has hopefully provided some insight into the Whatcom County Marine Resources Committee. The MRC has and will continue to protect and restore our county’s precious marine waters and all that they give us for many decades to come.

Members of the public who have an interest are invited and encouraged to attend MRC meetings or events. Further information or event details can be found on the MRC website at http://whatcom-mrc.whatcomcounty.org/MRC. §