Sediment From Elwha River Reservoirs Rebuilding Estuary, Rapidly Creating Multiple Fish Habitats

PORT ANGELES — Sediment once locked behind two dams has built some 70 acres of new estuary at the mouth of the Elwha River since 2011, according to the Coastal Watershed Institute.

That has created new habitat that fish are flocking to use, said Anne Shaffer, a biologist who is executive director of the Coastal Watershed Institute based in Port Angeles. “As soon as the estuary habitat is available, the fish are using it,” she said, obviously delighted by the quick changes.

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“The new estuary has been immediately accessed by eulachon as well as juvenile chinook, chum and coho salmon; bull trout; and smelt,” she said, citing research by Amy East of the U.S. Geological Survey and Andy Ritchie, Olympic National Park Elwha project hydrologist. Eulachon, a small anadromous fish federally listed as a threatened species, is spawning at the “head of tide,” the transition between salt water and fresh water, Shaffer said. The fish once were an important part of the diet of indigenous people.

Also found in the new estuary “unfortunately,” according to Shaffer, are juvenile shad, “a non-native nuisance species in the new estuary areas. “And last but not least, we documented, with Dan Penttila and National Geographic Student Explorers, that surf smelt are spawning along new western shoreline [but not the eastern area],” Shaffer said.

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http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20141102/NEWS/311029941/elwha-river-mouth-grows-as-sediment-creates-new-habitat-estuaries