Deception Pass | Project 11 of 30
As you look out from the Deception Pass bridge linking Fidalgo to Whidbey Island, plunging rock faces and forests jut into the vibrantly blue coastline waters of the Salish Sea. The variety of recreation and visual appeal makes Deception Pass one of Washington’s top parks to visit. Over the past 5 years, Skagit Fisheries has been working side by side with Northwest Straits Foundation and Skagit County Marine Resource Committee (MRC) to make this place more than just bountiful to the human eye and body, but to enhance the landscapes for the many plant and animal species that rely on this habitat.
Cornet Bay Pre-Project 2012
Cornet Bay Post-Planting 2019
When visiting Deception Pass you’re likely to see salmon, bull trout, marine birds, crabs, and countless other critters. Over the past decade groups of volunteers have sifted through the sand for a particularly special species. The brackish water on the park’s beaches serves as a home for salmon forage fish, such as surf smelt. These fish provide important nutrients for salmon as they prepare their bodies in the estuary to transition into the ocean. This period in a salmon’s life cycle can determine their survival out at sea, where they also serve as a main energy source for our beloved orcas. However, these beaches were not providing the proper habitat for forage fish, and thus salmon, to survive.
Prior to 2015, Deception Pass’s Bowman Bay contained large boulders and logs, referred to as riprap, that were piled up along the shore to protect the once standing fish hatchery on site.
Volunteers weeding Bowman Bay
This infrastructure caused huge problems to the shoreline ecosystems, preventing forage fish eggs from surviving as they are usually nestled in the sand and pebbles along the shore. As Island County MRC and volunteers surveyed the beach for the little fish eggs for almost 10 years, they received alarming results of limited populations of forage fish.
The same problem was occurring just a few minutes down the road at Cornet Bay. The site is a perfect spot for salmon fry migrants as its estuary habitat provides protection and food for the growing fish. However, this fish sanctuary wasn’t being utilized to its full potential due to the creosoted bulkheads and fill backing that covered a majority of the shoreline. In 2015, the restoration process,spear-headed by Northwest Straits Foundation, took off. The shore armor and bulkheads were removed, the beaches were re-graded to match the natural beach slope, and native vegetation was restored to the shore area. The project was completed in November in 2016, just a year after it began. But the work to bring back forage fish populations had only just begun.
Cornet Bay Beach January 2014
After a grand total of nearly 2,400 volunteer hours at both sites (not including the many hours SFEG volunteers have contributed to planting and maintenance), conducting pre/post construction monitoring to survey the physical and biological changes after the riprap was removed, and 5 years later, forage fish eggs were found once again on the shorelines of both of these sites.
The restoration of these sites undoubtedly has a cascade effect on the ecosystems in the surrounding area and far beyond the Salish Sea. As the forage fish populations rise, the salmon will thrive, providing more nutrients to all of the Pacific Northwest species that rely on their bounty.
Bowman Bay Panorama
Further reading and resources:
Bowman Bay Restoration-Northwest Straits Foundation Video
