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What is PSAMP?

The Puget Sound Assessment and Monitoring Program has provided essential science for conservation, recovery, and management of the Puget Sound Ecosystem since 1989. PSAMP is an extensive, unique network of regional scientists who monitor key indicators of water and sediment quality, nearshore habitat, and the health or abundance of fish, seabirds, shellfish, and marine mammals.

What does PSAMP Do?

PSAMP's diverse projects fulfill key management needs by providing

  • A long-term record of natural and human-caused changes in the condition of the Sound and its resources.
  • Early warning about ecosystem components needing immediate attention.
  • Guidance towards protecting and restoring the vitality and proper functioning of the ecosystem.
  • Evaluation of success of management actions on a regional and Puget Sound-wide scale.
Why Monitor?

Monitoring tell the story of the ecosystem's health, and PSAMP's long-term studies have shown that Puget Sound's health is declining. Sediment and water quality are poor in many locations. Nearshore habitats have been destroyed, and populations of many fish, shellfish, marine birds and mammals are in decline or contaminated. These conditions threaten our economy, values, and quality of life.

PSAMP and the Puget Sound Partnership

The Partnership's mission is to restore Puget Sound's health by 2020. Its Action Agenda targets a diverse set of goals, including a healthy human population, high quality of life, healthy populations of native species, protected and restored habitats, and sufficient water quantity and quality to support human uses and needs of the species in the ecosystem. PSAMP's long-term monitoring provides a framework for setting Action Agenda objectives, and for understanding how effective these Actions are.

PSAMP Monitoring Highlights

Protecting Human Health: Fecal bacteria and biotoxin monitoring protects shellfish consumers, guides pollution controls, and supports watershed planning. A third of growing areas are still affected by fecal pollution.

Freshwater Quality: Contamination of rivers by fecal bacteria has declined over the past 20 years.

Habitat Quality & Quantity: 1/3 of Puget Sound's shoreline has been armored. Eelgrass has declined in Hood Canal and the San Juan Islands.

Toxic Contaminants: Chinook Salmon from Puget Sound are 3 times more contaminated with PCBs than 6 other West Coast populations.

Long-term Ecosystem Change: Population abundance of western grebes has declined 95% from 1978 to 1999. Scoters have declined 25% from 1998 through 2005.

Marine Water Quality: Many of Puget Sound's embayments are vulnerable to low oxygen levels. Hood Canal is an area of special concern.

Sediment Quality: 1/3 of sediments have lowered quality. The most highly contaminated sediments occur in the most productive habitats.

Fish Health: Prevalence of cancer in bottom-dwelling fish has declined in embayments where contaminated sediments have been cleaned up.

Abundance of Key Species: Abundance of lingcod has increased as a result of adaptive management. Rockfish populations are in serious decline.

Early Warning: Uncontrolled increases in nutrient loads may over stimulate phytoplankton growth, and cause irreversible changes to the ecosystem.

>> Learn more about Science in Puget Sound