Stever

There are 18 herring stocks in Puget Sound and 15 of them are healthy, although the Cherry Point stock, which is spiraling the bowl, is the largest in the Sound. In general, the "in sound" stocks, those in central and south Puget Sound are doing better than the north sound/Strait of Georgia stocks.

This may be because these northern fish, particularly the Cherry Point stock, move off of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Vancouver Island to feed. One of the current theories is that warmer ocean temperatures over the past couple of decades has brought further north the coastal hake stock which is predating north Puget Sound herring. The central and south Puget Sound stocks do not move out of the sound so are not exposed to this predation.

Although there is evidence that this is whats happening, sea-surface temperatures have declined over the past 3 years, and so we would expect some kind of recovery; but no deal. The 2000 numbers, which were up in central and south sound, were down for the Cherry Point stock, so something else is going on.

You can see the pickle here. Given we don't know what exactly is going on, plus given the fact that predation may be causing some of the decline, a pro-industry regulatory climate may simply allow further development in the Cherry Point nearshore, which is wear these fish spawn.