Comment:

Polygons in Puget Sound showing locations of documented Pacific Herring (culpa harengus pallasi) spawning areas through 1991. The polygons were later edited by Kurt Stick, and digitized by Dale Gombert, both WDFW, 12/2003. Polygons show documented pacific herring spawning areas at specific sites throughout Puget Sound and Washington coastal areas and bays. Along the Washington coast, small populations spawn in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor, and some spawning has been reported in the Columbia River estuary (Monaco et al. 1990). Larval and juvenile herring have also been found in Grays Harbor (Monaco et al. 1990). Herring deposit their eggs on marine vegetation: eelgrass and various algae, in the shallow subtidal and intertidal zone generally at tidal elevations from +3 feet to -20 feet Mean Low Low Waterline (MLLW). Forage fish are small, pelagic schooling fish which are important as forage for predatory fish, birds, and mammals. They provide an important link in the food chain between zooplankton and piscivorous (fish-eating animals). Because herring migrate considerable distances from their spawning grounds, impact on the critical habitats they utilize in one area could affect harvest or the food chain at other locations. In the model this map layer was used to compute % of area.