Salish Sea Activity Book

The Salish Sea

The Salish Sea is the old name for the waters between Canada and Washington State. It stretches from Puget Sound to Johnstone Strait. First Nations people have lived near these waters for a very long time, and they still do today.

The Salish Sea has many islands, both big and small. It has sandy beaches and eelgrass meadows (eelgrass is a kind of underwater plant). It also has wide open waters, all with different plants and animals living in them.

About ten thousand years ago, huge rivers of ice, called glaciers, flowed down from the north. When the ice hit the Olympic Mountains, it split into two parts. One part went into the Puget Sound area. The other part went down the Strait of Georgia. The glaciers carved out the land. When the ice melted and pulled back, it left behind gravel, sand, clay, and rocky dirt called till.

The Salish Sea is a very rich home for plants and animals. This is because rivers carry nutrients (food for tiny ocean creatures) into the sea. Cold water full of nutrients also rises up from deep in the ocean. Sadly, the Salish Sea is losing some of its animals and plants, especially in busy places where lots of people live or visit.

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The Geoduck (say it "gooey-duck") is the biggest clam of all. It is too big for its shell, so it can't close its shell tight like other clams do. To stay safe, it buries itself about three feet deep in the sand. It has a long neck called a siphon with two tubes in it. To eat, it stretches its neck up to the top of the sand. It sucks in water full of food through one tube, and pushes out waste through the other tube.

Sea Stars (also called starfish) come in more kinds along the northwest coast than anywhere else in the world. You can find them holding tightly onto big rocks or ledges. Most sea stars have 5 arms, but some have more. The Sunflower Sea Star can have twenty arms or even more! If a sea star loses an arm, a new one grows back in its place.

Sea Anemones cling tightly to rocks using a sucker on their bottom. When they do move, it can take hours just to go one inch! You can find them in tidepools. They can be 1 to 12 inches wide. Like jellyfish, they have stinging parts on their tentacles (called nematocysts). They use these stingers to stop small crabs or fish from moving. Then they bring the food to their mouth, which is in the middle of their tentacles.

Pacific Harbor Seals are the marine mammal you'll see most often in the Salish Sea. They are called "true seals" because they don't have ear flaps you can see, and they can't tuck their back flippers under them to walk. You'll often spot them lying on rocks at low tide. They can dive as deep as 1,380 feet and hold their breath for up to 28 minutes!

In the Salish Sea, Orcas (also called Killer Whales) live in three different ways: some stay in one area (residents), some travel through (transients), and some live far offshore. Adult male orcas have a tall, straight fin on their back that can be up to 5 feet tall. Adult female orcas have a smaller, triangle-shaped fin, only 3 to 4 feet tall.

Sea Urchins have round bodies covered in spines, so they look more like a pincushion than an animal! They use their spines to "walk," almost like walking on stilts. Purple sea urchins live on rocks where waves crash. Green sea urchins live in calmer tidepools. Urchins eat algae, seaweed, and plankton (tiny floating plants).

The Giant Pacific Octopus is the biggest octopus in the whole world. It can weigh up to 600 pounds, and its arms can stretch out more than 31 feet across!

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(A word search puzzle goes here. Find these words: Vancouver Island, Orca, Puget Sound, Anemone, Loon, Sea Star, Murre, Bull Kelp, Sand, Blue Mussel, Halibut, Crabs, Sea Otter, Octopus.)

(A matching game goes here: draw a line to match each half-fish to its other half. The fish are: Wolf Eel, Big Skate, Yellowtail Rockfish, and Pacific Sanddab.)

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Spiny Dogfish are the most common shark in the Salish Sea. They grow up to 5 feet long. You'll most often see them near the surface of the water at dawn or dusk. They are not dangerous to people, but watch out for the sharp spine on their back — that's how they got their name!

Hermit Crabs don't have their own shells. Instead, they use empty shells from other animals as their home. As they grow bigger, they have to find a new, larger shell to move into.

Halibut grow so big that when sailors catch them and bring them onto the boat, the fish can thrash their tails so hard they've hurt people! Female halibut can grow almost 9 feet long and weigh up to 500 pounds. Male halibut are about half that length and usually weigh under 100 pounds. Most halibut caught are still young and only weigh around 35 pounds.

Sea Otters live in kelp forests (kelp is a large seaweed). They often wrap themselves in kelp so they don't drift away while sleeping. Otters eat abalones, crabs, urchins, sea stars, snails, and other shellfish. To crack open hard shells, otters lie on their backs, place a rock on their chest, and pound the shell against it. Sea otters help keep kelp forests healthy by eating sea urchins, which would otherwise eat too much kelp.

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(A "mad libs" story activity goes here, where kids fill in blanks with a family member, a name, animals, a color, and things, then read a funny story about swimming in Puget Sound and escaping a chasing animal by hiding near the shore.)

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Tufted Puffins mostly eat fish that are 6 to 8 inches long. Puffins dive underwater and use their wings like paddles to swim after fish. They can carry up to 6 fish at once in their beak! Here's how: the Puffin holds the first fish between its rough tongue and its upper beak. This leaves the bottom of its beak free to catch more fish. It can even catch fish on one side of its beak, then the other side too.

Did you know? Salmon must swim back to the very same part of the river where they were born.

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Beaches, rocky shores, marshes, and the open ocean are home to many different plants and animals. Please be kind and don't disturb their homes. Take your trash with you when you leave — just leave footprints behind, not garbage!

(A picture puzzle asks: How many fish can you find? Answer: 10. Which two pictures are the same? Answer: 1 and 6.)