Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research has been awarded the first Salish Sea Science Prize.

This is the first and only award of its kind, and comes with a $2,000 cash award given to recognize work that has resulted in the improved conservation of marine wildlife and the Salish Sea marine ecosystem.

When seven resident killer whales that frequent inland waters of Washington went missing this year, there was no shortage of suspects.

On November 6, 2008, the Puget Sound Partnership released their Draft Action Agenda for restoring Puget Sound by the year 2020. Using scientifically-based information on the ecosystem-based principles necessary to design a healthy ecosystem, the SeaDoc Society evaluated this Draft Agenda.

On November 18th, the SeaDoc Society helped the Puget Sound Partnership bring together and moderate a meeting of killer whale and salmon scientists to evaluate the recent loss of 7 Southern Resident killer whales. Chinook salmon comprise roughly 80% of the summer and fall diet of Southern Resident killer whales and there is a strong suspicion that reduced Chinook salmon abundance could have been a major contributing factor in this year's loss of 7 animals, leaving the population at 83. The story is not as simple as starvation, however. We know that decreased food availability causes killer whales to metabolize fat stores, releasing contaminants into their system, which can reduce their ability to fight off disease. Although many efforts are already underway to recover this endangered killer whale populations, post meeting efforts will re-examine Chinook harvest in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California. They also will increase focus on reducing other stressors such as harmful contaminants and boat noise, which could complicate the killer whale's ability to capture prey.

Read more about the meeting in a Kitsap Sun article by Christopher Dunagan.

A recent SeaDoc Society-funded project found that salmon gill net fisheries could pose a threat to populations of harbor and Dall’s porpoise but not Pacific white-sided dolphin in British Columbia. Regional salmon gillnet fisheries accidentally catch and kill dolphins and porpoises and it is critical to know when such bycatch threatens these cetacean populations so that protective actions can be taken.

SeaDoc-funded research suggests that the recovering gray whale population might be important for providing food for marine birds that are in decline. Gray whales, listed as sensitive species by Washington State and threatened by British Columbia, make an annual 10,000 mile migration between calving grounds in Baja California and summer feeding grounds in the Arctic. Every year some of them break-off their northern migration to come into shallow waters of Puget Sound to feed for extended periods.

New research, funded by the SeaDoc Society, has evaluated the use of hatchery-raised pinto abalone to restore abalone populations. The results are encouraging...