Salish Sea

The Salish Sea (/ˈseɪlɪʃ/ SAY-lish) is the intricate network of coastal waterways of the Cascadia bioregion that includes the southwestern portion of the Canadian province of British Columbia and the northwestern portion of the U.S. state of Washington. Its major bodies of water are the Strait of Georgia, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Puget Sound. It reaches from Desolation Sound at the north end of the Strait of Georgia to Oakland Bay at the head of Hammersley Inlet at the south end of Puget Sound. The inland waterways of the Salish Sea are partially separated from the open Pacific Ocean by Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula, and are thus partially shielded from Pacific Ocean storms. Major port cities on the Salish Sea include Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Bellingham, Port Angeles and Victoria. Much of the coast is part of a megalopolis stretching from West Vancouver, British Columbia, to Olympia, Washington.

The Salish Sea, showing the open Pacific Ocean at lower left, and from there, heading inland: the Strait of Juan de Fuca; Puget Sound at the lower right; heading northwards, the wide Strait of Georgia; and at the extreme northern end of that strait, Johnstone Strait. Sediment from the Fraser River is visible as a greenish plume in the Strait of Georgia.

Definition

The Salish Sea includes the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Strait of Georgia, Puget Sound, and all their connecting channels and adjoining waters, such as Haro Strait, Rosario Strait, Bellingham Bay, Hood Canal, and the waters around and between the San Juan Islands in the U.S. state of Washington and the Gulf Islands in British Columbia, Canada.[1] The western boundary is the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, defined as a line between Cape Flattery and Carmanah Point. The southern boundary is the southern end of Puget Sound. The northern boundary reaches just beyond the northern end of the Strait of Georgia to include waters that experience the floodstream or tidal surge from the south: Discovery Passage south of Seymour Narrows, Sutil Channel south of Penn Islands, Lewis Channel (between Cortes and West Redonda Island), Waddington Channel (between West Redonda and East Redonda Island), and Pendrell Sound, Desolation Sound, and the southern portion of Homfray Channel (between East Redonda Island and the mainland). These boundaries were based on the 2002 "Georgia Basin–Puget Sound Ecosystem Indicators Report".[2] The total extent of the Salish Sea is about 18,000 square kilometres (6,900 sq mi).[1]

Name

Origin of the term

The first known use of the term Salish Sea was in 1988, when marine biologist Bert Webber from Bellingham, Washington, created the name for the combined waters in the region with the intention to complement the names Georgia Strait, Puget Sound, and Strait of Juan de Fuca, not replace them.[3] The adoption of the term, he said, would raise consciousness about taking care of the region's waters and ecosystems. Webber's efforts are credited with the official recognition of the term in Canada and the U.S.

Coast Salish peoples

The Coast Salish are the indigenous peoples who live in southwest British Columbia and northwest Washington along the Salish Sea and share a common linguistic and cultural origin. The Coast Salish are seen as one of the main cultural and linguistic branches of a larger group known as Salishan or Salish. Five divisions of the Salish language family are recognized, with Coast Salish and Interior Salish being the primary two. The Salish family consists of 23 separate languages.[4] European and American explorers first encountered Salishan people along the Pacific Northwest coast in the late 18th century. The first detailed information was obtained by the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806.[5] The term "Salish" was originally applied only to the Interior Salish Flathead tribe living in the region of Flathead Lake, Montana.[5][6] By the mid-20th century, it had been extended to cover all people speaking a similar language.[7] The Flathead Nation continues to refer to their language and culture as Salish.[8][9] A variant name for Flathead Lake is "Selish Lake".[10] The name Salish Sea was coined only in the late 20th century. No overarching title exists for this area or even a commonly shared name for any of the waterbodies in any of the Coast Salish languages.

The waterways of the Salish Sea were important trade routes for the Coast Salish, and they remain a source of food and other resources for the indigenous peoples. The basin includes territory of not only Coast Salish peoples, but also the Northern Wakashan Kwakwaka'wakw and Southern Wakashan peoples (the Nuu-chah-nulth, Makah, and Ditidaht) and, formerly, that of the Chimakum (a Chimakuan people related to the Quileute who no longer exist as a recognizable group, having been wiped out by the Suquamish and others in the 19th century).[11]

Official recognition

In March 2008, the Chemainus First Nation proposed renaming the Georgia Strait the "Salish Sea," an idea that reportedly met with approval by B.C.'s Aboriginal Relations Minister Mike de Jong, who pledged to put it before the B.C. cabinet for discussion. Making the name "Salish Sea" official required a formal application to the Geographical Names Board of Canada.[12] A parallel American movement promoting the name had a different definition, combining of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound as well as the Strait of Georgia and related waters under the name Salish Sea.

In August 2009, the British Columbia Geographical Names Office approved a resolution recommending that the Geographical Names Board of Canada adopt the name Salish Sea contingent on approval by the United States Board on Geographic Names.[13][14] The name was endorsed by the Washington State Board on Geographic Names in late October, 2009.[15] It was approved by the United States Board on Geographic Names on November 12, 2009,[16] and by the British Columbia Geographical Names Office in February 2010. The French name Mer des Salish is also official in Canada.[1]

In a 2019 survey of residents in the general vicinity of the Salish Sea, only 9 percent of Washingtonians and 15 percent of British Columbians were able to correctly identify and name the Salish Sea.[17]

Opposition

Opponents to the Salish Sea designation assert that it is really a series of interconnected straits, sounds and inlets. Others oppose it for historical reasons and question the validity of the term "Salish".[18] Overcoming these objections, the geographic boards of both Canada and the United States have officially recognized the name since the year 2010.

Other names

The region encompassing these waterways is or was also known variously as the Georgia–Puget or Puget–Georgia Basin, or in the singular as the Georgia Depression, the Georgia Basin or Puget Sound et al. The Canadian half of the region was originally named in 1792 by George Vancouver, and often remains referred to as the Gulf of Georgia,[19] a term which encompasses the Strait of Georgia and all other waters peripheral to it, as well as to the communities lining its shores or on its islands. Like the term "Puget Sound", the terms "Georgia Strait" and "Gulf of Georgia" refer to the general region as well as the body of water.

Fauna

Fish

Scientists have identified 253 fish species observed in marine or brackish waters of the Salish Sea ecosystem. These 253 species, encompassing one myxinid, two petromyzontids, 18 chondrichthyans, two chondrosteans, and 230 teleosts, are contained within 78 families and 31 orders.[20]

Marine mammals

There are 37 species of mammals[21] in the Salish Sea.

The plight of southern resident orca (Orcinus orca) in the Salish Sea has attracted global attention, as these fish-eating whales are starving due to low salmon populations. Video footage showed an orca named Tahlequah, who carried her dead calf on her head for more than 1,000 miles over 17 days before parting with it. Known as southern resident killer whales, this orca population is at a 35-year low after three adult deaths in 2019 and no surviving calves over three years, leaving only 73 whales in the community.[22][23][24]

Healthy mammal-eating orca pods also visit the Salish Sea and their population is increasing. These orcas are known as Bigg’s Killer Whales, or Transient Killer Whales.

Birds

There are 172 species of birds[25] in the Salish Sea. Of those species, 42% (72) are highly dependent on the marine ecosystem for their food.

Notes
  1. "Salish Sea". BC Geographical Names.
  2. "Georgia Basin–Puget Sound Ecosystem Indicators Report, Spring 2002" (PDF). Transboundary Georgia Basin-Puget Sound Environmental Indicators Working Group. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  3. pdf document Stefan Freelan (Washington State University) 2009: "The Salish Sea (& surrounding basin"): "Rather than being a replacement for any of the existing names, the designation Salish Sea is an overlay, which includes and unites the established and familiar names of the various water and land bodies".
  4. Czykowsky-Higgins, Ewa; Marvin Dale Kinkade (1998). Salish languages and linguistics: theoretical and descriptive perspectives. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1–4, 59. ISBN 978-3-11-015492-4.
  5. Hodge, Frederick Webb (1910). Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico, Volume 2. United States Government Printing Office. pp. 415–417. OCLC 1297754.
  6. Oxford English Dictionary. Salish. Second Edition 1989 (online). Retrieved 2009-11-23.
  7. "Salish". Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
  8. "Tribal Preservation Department". Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
  9. "Salish Culture Committee". Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
  10. "Flathead Lake". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
  11. Curtis, Edward S. The North American Indian. Volume 9 - The Salishan tribes of the coast. The Chimakum and the Quilliute. The Willapa. pp. 141–142. ISBN 978-0-7426-9809-3.
  12. "Strait of Georgia could be renamed Salish Sea". Canadian Press. CBC.ca. 2008-03-09. Retrieved 2008-03-10.
  13. Washington state adopts “Salish Sea” name for body of water including Strait of Georgia, Carlito Pablo, Georgia Straight, October 30, 2009
  14. Berger, Knute (Oct 20, 2009). "Smooth Sailing for the Salish Sea?". Crosscut Blog. Retrieved Jun 1, 2020.
  15. "State Board on Geographic Names Approves 'salish Sea'". 2009-10-30. Archived from the original on 2013-10-30.
  16. Berger, Knute (November 12, 2009). "U.S. approves Salish Sea name". Crosscut.com. Retrieved August 13, 2011.
  17. Trimbach, David; Gaydos, Joe (May 20, 2019). "Survey illustrates a lack of familiarity with the Salish Sea". Puget Sound Institute. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  18. "The Sound and the Sea, Paolo Pietropaolo, The Current, CBC Radio, November 2, 2009". Retrieved Jun 1, 2020.
  19. Roberts, John E. (2005). A Discovery Journal: George Vancouver's First Survey Season - 1792. Trafford Publishing. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-4120-7097-3.
  20. Pietsch, Theodore W.; Orr, James W. (September 2015). NOAA Professional Paper NMFS 18-Fishes of the Salish Sea: a compilation and distributional analysis (PDF) (Report). National Marine Fisheries Service. p. 1. Retrieved November 15, 2015.
  21. "About the Salish Sea". SeaDoc Society. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
  22. Wasser, Samuel K.; Lundin, Jessica I.; Ayres, Katherine; Seely, Elizabeth; Giles, Deborah; Balcomb, Kenneth; Hempelmann, Jennifer; Parsons, Kim; Booth, Rebecca (2017). "Population growth is limited by nutritional impacts on pregnancy success in endangered Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca)". PLOS ONE. 12 (6): e0179824. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0179824. PMC 5491047. PMID 28662095.
  23. Lynda V. Mapes (January 3, 2019). "2 more Puget Sound orcas predicted to die in critically endangered population". Seattle Times. Retrieved January 5, 2019.
  24. Robinson, M. (7 August 2019). "Deaths of southern resident killer whales raise fears for population". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  25. Gaydos, Joseph (2011). "Birds and Mammals that Depend on the Salish Sea: A Compilation" (PDF). Northwestern Naturalist. 92: 79–94.

General references

Further reading
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