Speicb and Wahl 



Chapter 30 



Marine Habitat Preferences, Variability in Washington 



Eelgrass-Sand/SJF Kelp-Cobble/SJF Cobble-Rock/AS Sand-Mud/WS 



Eelgrass-Sand/WS Kelp-Cobble/SJI Sand-Mud/SJF Sand-Mud/SJl 



MARINE HABITAT TYPES/LOCATIONS 



^B Spring Summer ^H Fall 

 Habitats: Eelgrass and Sand; Kelp and Cobble; Cobble and Rock; Sand and Mud. 

 Locations: Strait of Juan de Fuca. Whatcom and Skagit counties; San Juan Islands; Assorted locations. 



Figure 9 Seasonal abundance of Marbled Murrelets, shorelines with broad shelf. 



Winter 



f- 

 u 



C/3 



_ 



a: 



o- 



O 



O 



I 



O 

 - 











08 



3 0.6 - 



0.4 - 



Eelgrass-Sand/SJF Kelp-Cobblc/SJF CobWe-Rock/AS Sand-Mud/WS 



Eelgrass-Sand/WS Kelp-Cobble/SJI Sand-Mud/SJF Sand-Mud/SJI 



MARINE HABITAT TYPES/LOCATIONS 



^^1 Spring HI Summer ^H Fall 



Habitats: Eelgrass and Sand; Kelp and Cobble; Cobble and Rock; Sand and Mud 



Locations: Strait of Juan de Fuca; Whatcom and Skagit counties; San Juan Islands; Assorted locations. 



Figure 10 Seasonal presence of Marbled Murrelets, shorelines with broad shelf. 



Winter 



an uncertain number found in the waters off the southern 

 coast. However, the numbers there were thought to be low. 

 This pattern was confirmed by the August 1993 aerial survey 

 of the coast (Varoujean and Williams, this volume). 



Regional Distribution and Variability - Puget Sound 



During the 1978 and 1979 survey of northern Puget 

 Sound (Wahl and others 1981), Marbled Murrelets were 

 found differentially distributed temporally and spatially 

 through the study area. Overall, the results of surveys during 

 the spring- summer and winter periods showed on average 

 that the obtained densities and the proportion of surveys 

 with murrelets were higher during the winter, compared 



with the spring-summer period (see appendices 1 and 2, and 

 fig. 3 in Speich and others [1992]). Indeed, the calculated 

 total for northern Puget Sound was higher in winter than the 

 spring-summer period. 



Not only were changes at the region level apparent, but 

 changes within each region, at the subregion level were also 

 found (see appendices in Speich and others [1992]). For 

 example, along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, at the north end of 

 the Olympic Peninsula, the densities (and calculated totals) 

 of murrelets decreased during the winter period in seven of 

 the 20 subregions (35 percent), remained the same in nine of 

 the 20 (45 percent) and increased in three (15 percent). 

 There were no increases of densities in subregions west of 



USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-152. 1995. 



321 



