Young salmon are dying in the Salish Sea.

The Salish Sea was once a highly productive place for salmon. A keystone species for both fresh and salt water ecosystems, annual salmon runs were at the heart of both environmental cycles and of Tribal and First Nations cultures in the Northwest since time immemorial. These inland marine waters, from the Strait of Georgia to Puget Sound, supported salmon and steelhead populations of remarkable abundance.

Beginning in the late 1970s, that changed abruptly. Marine survival rates for Chinook, Coho, and steelhead, meaning the number of fish which survive the migration from river to ocean and return as adults, dropped sharply throughout the Salish Sea.