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Monthly Member Mtg 2024
May 13, 2024 @ 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Public is welcome to attend! Next meeting is June
10 am: SWS Business Meeting – reports from board and committees
10:30 am: Featured Speaker
11:30 am: Breakout Rooms for Camano and Whidbey
Speaker: Thomas Quinn–School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington
Bio: Thomas Quinn grew up in New York City and was interested in fish and marine biology from a
young age. He received a BA in Biology from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania in 1976 and then a PhD in Fisheries from the University of Washington in 1981. He then lived on Vancouver Island, working for the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, until he returned to UW as a faculty member in 1986, and he has worked there ever since. His research and teaching program is devoted to fish ecology, behavior, evolution, and conservation, with a strong focus on salmon and trout. Most of his research has been conducted in Alaska and western Washington, but he has had projects in Ireland, New Zealand, and other locations.
Topic: Diverse and changing use of the Salish Sea by Pacific salmon, trout, and char.
Each year, juveniles of eight salmon and trout species enter the Salish Sea – the inland marine
waters between northwestern Washington, USA and British Columbia, Canada. These species
vary in the proportions remaining there and migrating to feed in the Pacific Ocean. Such
differential migration affects their growth rates, and exposure to habitat alteration, predators,
fisheries, and contaminants. This presentation will review these diverse migration patterns, first
describing the timing of downstream migration in the Skagit and Stillaguamish rivers as
examples. The species also differ greatly in whether they stay in Puget Sound or migrate to the
Pacific Ocean, and this is revealed using WDFW catch records and estimates of effort in
recreational fisheries. Finally, the timing of upriver return migration was estimated from catches
in rivers. The proportion of salmon remaining in Puget Sound, called residents, is greatest in
Chinook salmon, followed by coho; far fewer pink, chum, and sockeye salmon remain as
residents. Moreover, proportionally fewer salmon have been remaining as residents than in past
decades, declining after peaks in the late 1970s – early 1980s. These declines resist easy
explanation because the factors controlling residency are poorly understood, and the Puget
Sound ecosystem has changed in so many ways over the past decades. Regardless of the cause,
the diversity of migration patterns is important to the conservation of salmon and trout, and to
the humans and other members of the ecosystem with which they interact.
Monthly Meeting Agenda
- 10:00 Welcome and Acknowledgement – Scott Chase
- 10:05 Board Rept – Paul or Robbin
- 10:10 Staff Report – Tabitha and Hadley Whidbey & Camano happenings
- 10:20 Education – VET – Lee B, SWU 2025-Jack Burchard/Tabitha
- 10:25 Stewardship – Scott C.
- 10:30 Speaker, Dr Thomas Quinn
Camano Breakout Room Agenda
- Facilitator: Scott Chase
- Camano project “reports:”
- Intertidal Beach Monitoring
- Nature Discovery Days
- “Baby Salmon Live Here”
- Crabber education
- Green Crab Monitoring
- Giant Northern Hornet – Galen Heacock
- Sound Toxins
- Snow Goose Festival 2025 – Gaylen Heacock
- Pigeon Guillemot
- Two empty SWS Board seats representing Camano
- Steering Committee Lead
- Next First Friday Coffee Social June 7th at Rockaway at 9 a.m.
- The Convergence Room at the Island County Annex has been reserved for June’s SWS Member Meeting. (Water only)
- oAdditional items?
Camano hosts in January, March, May, September
Whidbey hosts in February, April, June, October
Camano Island “Watch Party” will be held at the Island County Admin Building.
Stewards: “Self-Report” Your Hours as Continuing Education in Volunteer Matters
