Thanks. I should have done some research!

This was pulled from the Pacific Biodiversity Institute's website:

For Washington State the harbor porpoise is found in the Washington Inland Waters (WIW which is mostly the Puget Sound) and along the coast. NOAA Fisheries considers the stock in the WIW to be different from the Northern Oregon/Washington Coast Stock for their Stock Assessment Reports (SARs). The most recent SAR for the harbor porpoise in the WIW was done in 2006 and at that time the population was estimated to be 10,682 and the trend was listed as unknown. The most recent SAR for the Northern Oregon/Washington Coast Stock was done in 2009 and the population was listed as 37,745.


I know I have been seeing a number of them around Possession but thought they were pretty much the same animals just making their local tour. And that may be true but in any case what I am seeing is only a small portion of the Puget Sound's population.

Edit: NOAA paper on harbor porpoise: http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/nmml/PDF/sars/po2011poha-ow.pdf.

Some round numbers for annual food requirements:

Using 11,000 animals at an average weight of 150 pounds (NOAA says 135-170 #) yields 1,650,000 pounds. Apply a reported daily requirement of 8% of body weight the total daily food requirement is 132,000 pounds. Multiply that by 365 days and the total Puget Sound population's annual food requirement is roughly 48,180,000 pounds. Adjust the numbers as you feel appropriate but however you do it will result in a big number. Even a very small percentage (or part of a percent) would equate to a lot of smolt.