Forage fish, such as surf smelt and Pacific sand lance, provide critical services for the health of Puget Sound's marine ecosystem. Forage fish in San Juan County and throughout Puget Sound spawn on soft shore beaches; they share this zone with humans who seek visual and physical access to the shoreline. Humans often choose to armor their shoreline property to protect it from erosion. These bulkheads and other shore modifications threaten forage fish spawning beaches by directly burying habitat and degrading the nearshore sediment sources that sustain them. The cumulative impacts of these modifications to marine food webs may be far-reaching and are currently not being addressed by state or local laws.
Climate change threatens both forage fish spawning habitat and human properties. In the face of anticipated increases in sea level and storm induced erosion, shoreline property owners are expected to increasingly demand new shoreline armoring, further threatening forage fish spawning habitats and habitat forming processes.

To help understand these risks and guide long-term management of forage fish spawning beaches and shoreline development, FRIENDS of the San Juans (FRIENDS) has developed an integrated multi-year program that includes: a cumulative impacts workshop and pilot cumulative impact study; pilot climate change risk analysis; pilot landowner incentive program; and shoreline management recommendations for application throughout Puget Sound.