Changes in Populations and Distributions of Anadromous Fish, Demersal Fish, and Shellfish Utilizing Nearshore Habitat in Commencement Bay, 1850 to 1988

摘要

Commencement Bay, located on the eastern shore of central Puget Sound, sits adjacent to the city of Tacoma, Washington, and in the inner bay, the Port of Tacoma. Commencement Bay was the scene of drastic environmental alteration since the late 1800s as industry transformed a pristine estuary consisiting of mudflats, vegetated shallows, and salt marsh wetlands, into a system of seven industrial waterways penetrating an expanse of dredge-filled flats. Continuing need for biological information to help the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers evaluate permit applications led to an agreement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to perform this study. The principal study objective was to perform a cumulative, biological impact assessment of special nearshore, intertidal aquatic sites that are or once were found in the bay.