98 



FORAGE RESOURCES 



Forage fish for salmon are not regulated in fishery management. Chinook and 

 chum salmon juveniles prey upon larval northern anchovy in the deeper waters 

 of Grays Harbor but do not use other baitfieh species, even if other baitfish 

 are relatively abundant (Simenstad and Eggers 1981). The authors found that 

 northern anchovy were present from June throuqh October, with adults occurring 

 at Westport and juveniles at Moon Island and Cow point; longfin smelt were 

 prey for Bea-run cutthroat trout in Grays Harbor from May through October. 



Simenstad and Eggers (1981) gave evidence that standing stock of open-water 

 zooplankton limits the population of juvenile salmonids in Grays Harbor. 

 Sources of plankton are the Chehalis River downstream to Moon Island; the 

 estuary itself, especially at Moon Island and Cow Point, and marine waters 

 east to the vicinity of Stearns Bluff (Figure 2). 



Regarding epibenthic zooplankton, Simenstad and Eggers (1981) concluded that 



(1) standing stocks may be critical to growth and survival ot juvenile eilmon; 



(2) juvenile salmonids fed selectively for sparsely distributed prey, which 

 means the total area of shallow waters below t.he low tide line may limit the 

 number of juvenile salmonids which can feed there; and (3) sources of 

 productivity for bottom-dwelling prey of saioson were organic debris from the 

 rivers, eelgrass beds, and B&Vtmarshes, and diatom growth on the mudflats. 



