Puget Sound. The Puget Sound Ecosystem supports a relatively high standard of living, a robust and diverse economy, and high quality of life. These attributes have resulted in rapid and sustained human population growth. More recently, appreciation of the diverse ecological environment and important socioeconomic attributes have also contributed to growing awareness of limits to the ability of the ecosystem to provide valued ecosystem services, including imperiled salmonid stocks for food and cultural benefits, clean recreational and commercial shellfish beds, endangered species listings, and clean and plentiful water. The primary drivers of the declines in ecosystem functions and human well-being in Puget Sound are land-based pollution, habitat conversion and loss, and legacies of over- harvest. The Puget Sound Partnership (Partnership) efforts build upon and benefit from several previous studies and ongoing work to characterize ecosystem conditions (i.e., for salmonids and their ecosystems, NOAA, Shared Salmon Strategy and others; terrestrial and fresh water biodiversity, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and others; historic and current condition of the nearshore ecosystems, Army Corps of Engineers, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife). The Partnership endorsed the idea of using a modified IEA approach in their Biennial Science Workplan and Action Agenda, which described a prioritized list of actions for the 2009-2011 state budget cycle, and a longer-term outline for recovery of ecosystem properties that will be achieved by 1 ocean temperature and salinity, concentrations of dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll and harmful algal blooms, nutrient loading and eutrophication, fecal indicator bacteria, upwelling intensity, timing of spring transition, El Nino/La Nina events, Pacific Decadal Oscillation 2 eelgrass beds, clams, salt marshes, kelp beds, crabs, non-indigenous species, seabirds, rockfish, bottom fish, salmon, sardines, marine mammals 3 demographic profiles, unemployment rates, property values and income, transfer payments, income generated by extractive activities and ecotourism, willingness to pay for ecosystem services 4 Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems (NANOOS) and Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS)
Puget Sound. WA X X X n/a. 17110020 ........................... Dungeness—Elwha ........... WA X X X n/a. 17110021 ........................... Crescent—Hoko ................ WA X X — n/a.
