The tribe has partnered with Washington Sea Grant to see whether the growing numbers of the voracious green crab are affecting native Dungeness crab.

After setting out several types of traps overnight, tribal staffers pulled the traps the next morning and recorded their elevation and data about the crab they caught: species, sex, size and whether they carried eggs.

With the same data recorded over time, the tribe and partners will learn more about the ratio of green crab to Dungeness, and which direction that trend is headed in.

“This is getting baseline data,” said Scott Mazzone, the tribe’s shellfish and marine fish biologist.

“We want to find out what’s normal. If we keep trapping every year, we might see an increase in green and decrease in Dungeness or vice versa.”

Invasive European green crab can destroy critical eelgrass, estuary and marsh habitats and prey on other shellfish. Their impacts on Dungeness crab need to be studied, given the importance of the native crab in Washington state and to tribal treaty rights and commerce, Mazzone said.

Many years of data will need to be gathered and analyzed to establish a correlation between the populations, and determine whether one has a direct effect on the other.

If green crab harmed the Dungeness crab fishery, Mazzone said, “it would mean heartache for communities up and down the West Coast.”

A staffer with the Quinault Indian Nation hands over a European green crab to be bagged as part of a study. Photo: Trevor Pyle

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“We like to call them naive, and they’re learning the harsh realities of life,” said Ryan Crim, conservation hatchery manager for the Puget Sound Restoration Fund (PSRF) who oversaw the growth operation at its Manchester facility.

But the cockle seeds weren’t completely left to Mother Nature’s trials and tribulations. The seeds were tucked into geoduck tubes on a beach near Suquamish, the latest effort by the tribe to develop a cockle subsistence program for tribal members.

The traditional food has been hard to find on local beaches the past few decades, according to the elders who used to harvest them regularly.

But cockles have been showing up on their own in geoduck tubes on shellfish farms throughout Puget Sound, said Elizabeth Unsell, a Suquamish Tribe shellfish biologist. The tribe wanted to see if using geoduck tubes could help develop out-planting techniques.

Starting with broodstock from a wild population in Sequim Bay, the cockles were spawned at PSRF’s conservation hatchery in April.

“We know they do really well in Sequim Bay, and they’re the same genetic stock as the cockles in Suquamish, so there’s no issue with moving the individuals around,” Crim said. 

The tribe set out 150 geoduck tubes (some PVC, some mesh) on the beach in May. In June, they filled each tube with either 30 or 60 cockles, either all small or all large in size, and topped with a mesh net cap or left open. A group of control tubes were set up that didn’t have cockles but had mesh caps or no mesh caps.

The first monitoring in July showed visible growth and strong survival among some plot types, Unsell said. 

“It makes sense because there was lots of food in the water, so it was a pretty happy time for them to be planted,” Unsell said. “The algae and other plankton were like soup out there.”

The tribe also is learning how to outplant cockles to maximize the genetic diversity.

When spawning at the hatchery and after seed was produced, PSRF took samples to compare the genetic diversity of the offspring of different family sizes, and to compare them to wild populations found in the Salish Sea.

“We’re really hoping with this data we’ll be able to develop a hatchery protocol that produces genetically diverse seed that could be used to enhance wild populations without conferring any genetic risks,” Crim said. 

A cockle seed is measured for growth during the geoduck tube outplanting project. Story and photos: Tiffany Royal

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For the past six summers, Tulalip tribal staff have participated in the ongoing study of juvenile salmon’s marine health—an indicator of the salmon’s chances of surviving years in the ocean and returning home to spawn. 

“This is a tape measure to see how much the fish grew before they go to deeper water,” said Mike Crewson, fisheries enhancement biologist for the Tulalip Tribes. “It’s been shown in past studies to be highly predictive of marine survival.”

The Bureau of Indian Affairs provided funding for the initial five years of this program but discontinued their funding in early 2025. The Tulalip Tribes and its partner Long Live the Kings managed to secure funding from the Salmon Recovering Funding Board to continue surveys for this year and 2027 but future funding is uncertain.

If the research doesn’t secure ongoing funding, valuable long-term data needed to understand salmon survival under a changing climate will be at risk. 

Researchers in this annual offshore monitoring program collect juvenile salmon using a purse seine, sampling their diet, length and weight. They also collect scales to analyze growth rates and DNA from wild fish and coded wire tags from hatchery fish to see what stocks they originated from. In addition, zooplankton samples are collected at each site along with recording other environmental conditions that could also help or hinder their growth and survival.

Samples from the fish collected throughout the sound are also available to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), to help determine areas where fish may be exposed to high concentrations of toxic contaminants.

As in previous years, this year’s foray sampled the marine waters extending from Bellingham Bay to the San Juan Islands and throughout Puget Sound including the northern end of Hood Canal.

The study also surveys the abundance of forage fish such as herring, which serve as a key food source for salmon. 

“We view this as an annual diagnostic—a fish checkup,” said Elisabeth Duffy, associate director of science with Long Live the Kings. The Offshore Marine Juvenile Salmon and Herring Project, and its companion Puget Sound Zooplankton Monitoring Program, were determined as top priority annual monitoring projects under the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project both projects were recommended to continue as the consensus of more than 200 scientists from 60 partner organizations that participated in the Project from the U.S. and Canada.  

“This is one of the tools we need to plan for the future. It’s critical,” Crewson said. 

The ongoing study has given the tribes and partners crucial data, especially as climate change’s foothold grows.

“It’s an essential tool not just to forecast abundance but to identify the main limiting factors affecting salmon survival,” Crewson said. “It’s a responsibility we all have to our constituents.” 

The Tulalip Tribes, together with other tribes and partner organizations, are committed to keeping the program alive, and this year’s sampling effort was no exception. With less than two months warning before the start date, the boat had to be replaced and a new boat acquired and fully equipped.

That was accomplished thanks to the extraordinary efforts of the Canadian captain and veteran crew of four, who collectively have more than 250 years of experience. A delay at the onset of the project required the entire crew of eight to reschedule the entire cruise and add an additional week.  Despite all of these obstacles, a record 21 sites were sampled this year including two new sites.

“We’re going to persevere and make it through these obstacles,” Crewson said. “Losing our salmon is bad enough, but not even being able to explain how or why is incomprehensible to us, so we remain optimistic that the agencies will come together to maintain these vital programs,” Crewson said.

A juvenile salmon is lavaged so scientists can study its diet. Photos: Trevor Pyle

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Chinook began arriving in the South Fork a few weeks earlier than usual this year, and soon after began succumbing to deadly conditions in the water. 

High water temperature is a known factor that has been contributing to pre-spawn mortalities since 2021. Lummi Nation and the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) investigated in August and found a parasite, Dermocystidium, to also be contributing to the pre-spawn mortalities this year. 

“As flows decrease and water temperatures go up, fish crowd in pools and there’s a suite of pathogens we tend to see,”said Marcia House, NWIFC fish health program manager. 

Fish health staff gathered skin, gill, heart, kidney, spleen and intestine samples from a subset of 20 pre-spawn mortalities in August. The samples were analyzed for the presence of a variety of pathogens.

While columnaris disease, a bacterial infection, has been a clear contributor in past die-offs—with a yellow and brown rotting appearance at the gills and on the tails of infected fish—this is the first time the gill parasite Dermocystidium has been found in the watershed. 

“At this time, it is not clear what factors have contributed to the new detection and we will continue to monitor the population,” House said. “We do know that increasing water temperatures can accelerate the progression of disease processes.” 

Data from a nearby U.S. Geological Survey gage has shown high water temperatures in the South Fork through the summer. The water temperature tends to climb as streamflow recedes due to a lack of rainfall, leaving shallow water exposed to the sun. 

“This is supposed to be a river,” said Zoë Lewis, deputy stock assessment manager for the tribe, of the largely walkable gravel riverbed during a site survey. “Temperature is definitely a big factor, and when the river is low, it’s just getting hotter and hotter.” 

Lummi Natural Resources staff survey the South Fork Nooksack River daily for spawning data while chinook are present, usually mid-August through mid-October. 

Coded wire tags, otoliths and tissue samples are collected for genetic analysis. This information is used to identify the origin of spawned-out fish and to estimate escapement—the number of fish that returned and successfully spawned—for those stocks.  

Because pre-spawn mortalities don’t count toward escapement, information from those fish is gathered separately. And when numbers become daunting during die-off events, data is collected for just one of every 10 of those fish. 

The early arrival of fish this year prompted surveys to begin the first week of August. By the end of the month, more than 500 pre-spawn mortalities had been documented so far. 

“The fish arrived in the South Fork about three weeks earlier than usual, and the die-off is about two weeks earlier than we’ve ever seen,” Lewis said. 

Dead fish are removed from the river to reduce the concentration of bacteria and parasite exposure for remaining fish. 

The rate at which die-offs are occurring, and the trend now six years long, is alarming for the population of chinook that Lummi Nation has worked in the hatchery and in the river to protect. 

“Despite ongoing hatchery rebuilding and habitat restoration work, continued habitat degradation—both current and legacy—remains a significant barrier to recovery,” said Devin Flawd, stock assessment manager for the tribe. 

Above: Zoë Lewis, deputy stock assessment manager for Lummi Natural Resources, center, scans a fish held by salmon enhancement biologist Taylor Solomon for a hatchery tag while research intern Kasia Adams takes notes. Photos and story by Kimberly Cauvel

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Newborn elk calves nestled in tall grass have been killed during mowing in the past. Eager to avoid harming wildlife, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), Whatcom County and local residents reached out to the tribe to assist using their thermal-imaging drone. 

“Elk calves are fairly immobile in the first few weeks of their life and rely on cover to hide from predators,” said Amanda Summers, wildlife biologist for the tribe. 

“We’ve used the drone to find mallards and other ducks that are nesting, and identify and track their broods over time,” said Jennifer Sevigny, wildlife program manager with the tribe. “We’re always looking for different ways to use this drone technology.”

Stillaguamish natural resources technician Derek Arterburn piloted the drone, using the thermal imaging to locate three elk calves and several adults in the county’s tall-grassed field. A neighboring landowner provided bamboo sticks with flagging to mark the calf locations. 

“Knowing the potential impact farmers may have on elk calves and deer fawns is something we didn’t give a lot of thought to. But when you talk to farmers, they say it does happen,” Sevigny said. “We want people to know fawning and calving occurs during late spring and early summer. Maybe mowing could be scheduled earlier or later to avoid prime calving and fawning seasons.” 

“The North Cascades Elk Herd population is experiencing a downward trend so addressing additional causes of mortality is important to the Tribe” said Gary Tatro, Stillaguamish natural resource policy representative and tribal board member.

There have been conversations about similar efforts on other Whatcom County properties for 2027, Sevigny said.

The tribe also plans to use the drone for an elk calf survivorship study with WDFW and other tribes next summer. The drone will be used to find elk calves, which will then be outfitted with expandable, breakaway collars that will provide GPS location data and mortality alerts so staff can understand movement, survival and cause of death. 

An elk photographed by Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians staff via thermal imaging (left) and standard camera (right). Photo provided by the Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians. Story: Trevor Pyle

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The small, briny shellfish are native to the region and a traditional food. They are an important part of the marine ecosystem as they are filter feeders and contribute to the intertidal habitat for crab, juvenile salmon, birds and other marine wildlife.

However, Olympia oyster populations have diminished from overharvest, development and industry impacts on tidelands.

In the late 2000s, the tribe learned that the Puget Sound Restoration Fund (PSRF) had a map of sites where Olympia oysters used to grow, including in Sequim Bay. The tribe partnered with PSRF and CCMRC to start an Olympia oyster restoration project in the bay in 2012, a partnership that continues to this day.

“There were very few Olys on the beach in the beginning,” said Chris Burns, a Jamestown S’Klallam natural resources technician and representative for the tribe on CCMRC. “It took me two tides to find the 80 oysters that were needed for genetic analysis prior to broodstock collection.”

 Efforts by the partners to enhance the habitat and introduce oyster seed on the south end of bay have included setting out seeded and unseeded oyster shells, and collecting broodstock. In 2019, the tribe received a grant through the Natural Resources Conservation Service to expand upon the CCMRC-supported restoration sites with 100 cubic yards of blank shell and 100 bags of hatchery-produced seeded cultch.

 “We learned early on that the main limiting factor was the lack of settling substrate for juvenile oysters, so we brought in a bunch of blank oyster shell onto the beach,” Burns said.

 The partners also found that trying to cover large areas with shell did not work, because they just sunk in the mud, becoming unavailable for juvenile oysters to settle on.

Through surveys, the partners started to dial in what kind of habitat Olympias preferred—wet, seepy substrate with a bit of freshwater influence, Burns said.

The latest efforts have involved placing shell in small piles that hold water longer between tide cycles as the little oysters like to be wet during low tides, he said.

 In 2024, the tribe and CCMRC spread 160 cubic yards (75 tons) of blank Pacific oyster shell on the tidelands where Olympia oyster seed could settle. The partners also spread seeded oyster shell in areas considered premium oyster habitat, said Annie Raymond, the tribe’s shellfish biologist. 

As restoration has expanded across the bay over the years, so have the surveys with new ground to cover.

“Measuring oyster density gives us a population estimate, and size gives us age demographics, so we can tell if there has been any recent recruitment,” Raymond said. “Finding areas of good habitat and recruitment is the goal, as we want to see recruitment every year. These surveys tell us how restoration is working.”

“This collaborative effort emphasizes not only the restoration of oyster habitats but has fostered a holistic approach to restoring Washington’s only native oyster,” said Rebecca Mahan, habitat manager for Clallam County Department of Community Development.

An Olympia oyster measured on the tidelands of Sequim Bay. Story and photos: Tiffany Royal

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“Is I-5 providing some sort of barrier between the Olympic and Cascade herds like it does for cougars?” said Kim Sager-Fradkin, the tribe’s wildlife program manager. “Are animals not exchanging genetics?”

The tribe is collecting 1,000 elk genetic samples—tissue, hair or blood—for a broadscale analysis from herds on the Olympic Peninsula and in the Cascade Mountains. 

The tribe is getting samples from multiple sources, including other tribes’ wildlife departments and hunters, Olympic National Park, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and a select group of state hunters. The preferred sample is tissue, such as a snippet from an ear. They also obtain samples by way of the Olympic Cougar Project from the remains of elk killed by cougars.

Samples are sent to a lab in British Columbia for genetic analysis, after which scientists from Panthera, a partner in the Olympic Cougar Project, will do a statistical analysis of the lab results.

“We’re basically trying to create a map that shows the genetic differentiation and helps us determine if we need to improve connectivity between regions,” Sager-Fradkin said. 

This includes supporting state efforts to increase wildlife connectivity planning with highway overpasses.

If the project shows inbreeding or low genetic diversity, then it will be important to protect wildlife habitat corridors and make sure elk are able to move around, she said.

The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe has gathered samples of elk DNA from a variety of sources, including Olympic National Park. Tiffany Royal 

An elk caught on a wildlife camera on the Olympic Peninsula. Photo: Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. Story: Tiffany Royal

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After sounding the alarm for decades about the need to manage outsized populations of pinnipeds, the treaty tribes are encouraged by a bipartisan bill to amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), and are grateful for the collaborative effort from co-sponsors Reps. Baumgartner (R-WA05) and Randall (D-WA06) to support salmon recovery.

Called the Northwest Endangered Salmon Predation Prevention Act, the law would allow the lethal removal of pinnipeds to protect salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and other threatened species in Washington and the Columbia River watershed.

The pinnipeds of concern are harbor seals and California and Steller sea lions, predators that have driven Pacific Northwest salmon to functional extinction because the 1972 MMPA has no provisions for managing these top predators when the ecosystem is out of balance.

The harbor seal population is at carrying capacity—the maximum size the environment can support without degrading resources—and both of the invasive sea lion populations continue to increase. Tribal fishers have watched growing numbers of seals and sea lions travel into river mouths and upriver, interfering with our harvest and feeding on the declining number of salmon.

State legislators directed the independent Washington State Academy of Sciences to synthesize what we know about pinniped predation, where the knowledge gaps are, where additional research is needed, and assess the scientific and technical aspects of potential management actions.

Published in 2022, “Pinniped Predation on Salmonids in the Washington Portions of the Salish Sea and Outer Coast” concluded: “Taken together, the preponderance of evidence supports the hypothesis that current populations of pinnipeds are a contributing factor in the decline and depression of salmon populations in Washington State waters. … Strategic and appropriately scaled adaptive management of pinniped populations are key to resolving these uncertainties but likely will require lethal removals.”

Salmon are a treaty-protected resource. Without them, tribes can’t meaningfully exercise our right to harvest fish. They also are a keystone species of this ecosystem, with some providing nutrients to the rivers where they die after spawning, while others feed critically endangered southern resident orcas.

As implemented, the MMPA prohibits any action that could effectively abate pinniped predation, which has hindered the protection, conservation and recovery of ESA-protected salmon.

The proposed legislation closes a policy gap between the MMPA and ESA. Allowing pinniped predators to drive down the populations of threatened salmon is inconsistent with the expressed intention of federal laws. We can’t protect both marine mammals and endangered species when marine mammals are the threat to the endangered species.

We have tried nonlethal measures such as acoustic deterrents and hazing to address the overpopulation of these predators, but the effects were temporary. Studies have found that seals and sea lions learned that the food reward was worth the irritation of acoustic deterrents and continued preying on salmon anyway.

This legislation is the first step toward adaptive management, allowing intentional lethal removal of pinnipeds to be carried out by eligible entities, including federally recognized tribes with treaty-reserved fishing rights in western Washington.

The federal government has a trust responsibility to protect tribal treaty rights, which requires active adaptive management of threats such as pinniped predation.

We need to take action now, because allowing pinniped predation to continue unregulated is an existential threat to already depressed salmon stocks. We are looking at a future without salmon, which would have cascading impacts disrupting ecosystem function, resiliency and the food supply.

The only way to restore balance to the ecosystem is to move forward with legislation that allows fisheries managers to control the populations of the marine mammals that are taking more salmon than many stocks can endure.

Above: A seal eats a salmon caught in Puget Sound. Photo by Louise Johns for Smithsonian Magazine.

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If water temperature isn’t cool enough during their life span, the stability of an entire population can be impacted, said Leah Mellinger, Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s finfish program manager.

To better understand this, the tribe is testing the water temperature tolerance of juvenile chum salmon. 

“The tribes and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife are developing a comprehensive chum salmon management plan and one of the big missing chunks is how freshwater degradation impacts smolt productivity and pre-spawn mortality,” Mellinger said.

Climate change also is a motivator for starting the study.

“With changing hydrology and climate, rivers are expected to get warmer,” she said. “It is necessary to understand salmon temperature tolerance to be able forecast run sizes and manage populations.”

The tribe developed a thermal study to test around 2,000 chum from about 20 populations in western Washington.

Within each population, 100 juvenile chum are pulled from a hatchery before their scheduled release or beach seined from a nearby creek during outmigration, to assess both natural and hatchery fish. The fish are dispersed into 32-ounce mason jars placed in 12-gallon tubs filled with local creek or hatchery water. 

A heating element slowly increases the water temperature and a pump circulates the water so the temperature increases at a steady rate. Dissolved oxygen is pumped into each jar so that temperature is the only stressor on the fish during the test. 

Staff check the temperature every 10 minutes and observe the fish. When a fish flips, indicating it would not recover in the wild, the temperature is noted and the fish is pulled from the jar and placed in a recovery bucket before being released back into the hatchery or stream.

“We just make them a little unhappy for a few minutes and in return, get important information,” Mellinger said. “While there are many factors that play into fish survival, this kind of information is so necessary that you really can’t do anything else without the baseline.” 

The fish start the experiment at their local water temperature to minimize stress. Some populations seem to handle more heat than others, Mellinger said, as some flipped at 25° C (77° F) while others tolerated as warm as 28° C (82.4° F).

“If we know the rivers are getting to a certain temperature, we could expect that the production of those fish, either on the escapement side or on the smolt side, is probably going to be a lot lower, and that can feed into forecasting for chum four years ahead,” she said.

Following the juvenile study, the tribe will conduct a similar study on a smaller group of adult chum to see if results correlate. 

“If so, then we can extrapolate that out to endangered populations instead of assessing every adult population and potentially adversely impacting ESA-listed stocks,” Mellinger said. 

Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe finfish program manager Leah Mellinger tests the water temperature in jars containing juvenile chum salmon for the tribe’s water temperature study. Story and photos: Tiffany Royal

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Muckleshoot Indian Tribe staff and fishers caught 85 northern pike during a four-week fishery in May and June during an ongoing project to net the big lake to reduce populations of non-native predatory fish. 

While the tribe and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) staff have sporadically encountered the ravenous predator since a first detection in 2017, the number found this year marks a worrisome increase. Last year, they saw only three. 

 A booming northern pike population will mean fewer salmon in the lake—and fewer chances to catch salmon, kokanee, trout and other fish for tribal and non-tribal fishers alike, said Jason Schaffler, the fisheries division director for the tribe.

“We don’t want them here. They’ll limit everyone’s opportunities in the future,” he said. 

The pike were likely illegally transported and released into the lake. Pike are classified as a prohibited aquatic invasive species (AIS) under Washington state law.

Northern pike are large, growing up to 45 pounds, with spiky teeth. They are voracious eaters, mostly focused on soft-bodied fish but also willing to eat frogs and ducklings. They can reproduce quickly and severely damage ecosystems, and pose a particularly dire threat to juvenile sockeye salmon, which feed and grow in Lake Washington for up to two years before swimming into the ocean.

“They’ll eat anything they can fit in their mouths,” said Tiffany Armstrong, a biologist with the tribe. “They sit and wait for something to go by. If it’ll fit in their mouth, they’ll go after it. They eat a pretty hefty amount of salmon.”. 

The tribe is exploring next steps including practicing invasive vegetation control — which would remove vegetation that serves as pike’s hunting grounds and nursing habitat — in an effort to limit the invasive fish’s reproductive output, and will delve into one question: Is the current northern pike population reproducing in the lake? If so, it may prove more difficult to control.

Coordinated response with tribe and state co-managers and expanded federal, tribal, state, and local funding partnerships will be essential to contain impacts and prevent long-term ecological and economic consequences.

In recent years WDFW also operated a state-funded project to suppress populations of non-native predatory fish that feed on salmon in Lake Washington. Despite requests from WDFW, co-manager tribes, and fishing and conservation organizations, this $1.4 million budget proviso was not funded by the State Legislature in the 2025-2027 biennium.

For now, tribal staff hope fishers know that northern pike are illegal to transplant in the lake, and should be killed immediately if caught. Pike may not be transported while alive anywhere in Washington.

If possible, fishers should also take a photo and report the northern pike by phone (1-888.WDFW-AIS) or email (ais@dfw.wa.gov) to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) or through the online form at: invasivespecies.wa.gov/report-a-sighting.

Top: Northern pike caught in Lake Washington by the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe on May 6. Photos provided by the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.

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