A Systematic Survey of Smelt Spawning Beaches in Pursuit of a Model to Prioritize Survey Effort

Forage fish are critical to the health of the Puget Sound ecosystem and since the 1970’s the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has worked to identify and protect Surf Smelt spawning habitat throughout the region. However, due to limited resources, survey frequency and distribution in many regions have been sparse. Beginning in 2014, working with 12 interns from the Washington Conservation Corps and utilizing a new method of processing samples, we began a pilot study to systematically survey randomly selected beaches for spawn throughout southern Puget Sound on a monthly basis for at least one year. To date we have surveyed over twelve hundred sites and documented occurrence of smelt spawn on over 200 sites in this region; we have expanded our understanding of the timing and distribution of smelt spawning, and verified the effectiveness of our new processing methods. The results and lessons learned from this study will be used to develop a plan to survey all of Puget Sound and develop a model to prioritize sampling effort. We will describe our sampling methods and design, and our findings from the first year of the study.