Carbaryl, Carbofuran, and Methomyl - National Marine Fisheries ...

Puget Sound Region
Puget Sound is the second largest estuary in the U.S. It has about 1,330 miles of
shoreline and extends from the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca east. Puget Sound
includes the San Juan Islands and south to Olympia, and is fed by more than 10,000
rivers and streams.
Puget Sound is generally divided into four major geographic marine basins: Hood Canal,
South Sound, Whidbey Basin, and the Main Basin. The Main Basin has been further
subdivided into two subbasins: Admiralty Inlet and Central Basin. About 43% of the
Puget Sound’s tideland is located in the Whidbey Island Basin. This reflects the large
influence of the Skagit River, which is the largest river in the Puget Sound system and
whose sediments are responsible for the extensive mudflats and tidelands of Skagit Bay.
Habitat types that occur within the nearshore environment include eelgrass meadows,
kelp forest, mud flats, tidal marshes, sub-estuaries (tidally influenced portions of river
and stream mouths), sand spits, beaches and backshore, banks and bluffs, and marine
riparian vegetation. These habitats provide critical functions such as primary food
production and support habitat for invertebrates, fish, birds, and other wildlife.
Major rivers draining to Puget Sound from the Cascade Mountains include the Skagit,
Snohomish, Nooksack, Puyallup, and Green rivers, as well as the Lake
Washington/Cedar River watershed. Major rivers from the Olympic Mountains include
the Hamma Hamma, the Duckabush, the Quilcene, and the Skokomish rivers. Numerous
other smaller rivers drain to the Sound, many of which are significant salmonid
production areas despite their small size.
The Puget Sound basin is home to more than 200 fish and 140 mammalian species.
Salmonids within the region include coho, Chinook, sockeye, chum, and pink salmon,
kokanee, steelhead, rainbow, cutthroat, and bull trout (Wydoski and Whitney 1979;
Kruckeberg 1991). Important commercial fishes include the five Pacific salmon and
several rockfish species. A number of introduced species occur within the region,
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