Assess the current status of salmon, associated forage fish populations, and invertebrate communities in the nearshore environment adjacent to the Elwha River and compare fish use in non-impacted regions of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The nearshore environment adjacent to the mouth of the Elwha River is severely degraded and has been impacted over time by restricted flow of sediment from the upper Elwha River watershed. Assessing the status of juvenile salmon and associated forage fish populations, determining their use of this habitat, quantifying the nearshore habitat types and analyzing food web will provide critical baseline information necessary to fully document and understand both the impacts of dams on the Elwha River and the effects that this removal has on the populations of concern.

This assessment effort will consist of 7 primary assessment methods and will provide a quantitative profile of habitat parameters, fish use in the inter-tidal, sub-tidal, and offshore deepwater areas and provide an analysis of the food web of juvenile salmonids encountered in the survey using stable isotopes methodologies.

The project will include beach seining of juvenile salmon and forage fish, inter-tidal habitat surveys, SCUBA-based sub-tidal characterizations of habitat and fish use, profiling of kelp forests use by juvenile salmon and associated forage fish with lampara net sampling coupled with snorkel surveys, and deep water tow netting to sample fish use in deep-water transit corridors adjacent to the mouth of the Elwha River and the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.