Salish Sea Activity Book

The Salish Sea

The Salish Sea is the traditional name for the inland waters of Canada and Washington State that stretch from Puget Sound to Johnstone Strait. This name has been used for a very long time by the First Nations peoples who have lived in this area, both in the past and today.

The Salish Sea includes the Strait of Georgia, Puget Sound, and many islands, both large and small. Along its shores you can find sandy beaches, eelgrass meadows (underwater grass that grows near shore), and wide stretches of open water — all filled with different plants and animals.

About ten thousand years ago, huge rivers of ice called glaciers flowed through the Georgia Strait from ice fields up north. When this river of ice reached the Olympic Mountains, it split into two parts. One part flowed into what is now the Puget Sound area, and the other flowed down the Strait of Georgia. These glaciers carved deep grooves into the land. When they finally melted and retreated, they left behind gravel, sand, clay, and a mix of rocky material called till.

The Salish Sea is an incredibly rich habitat, meaning it supports a huge amount of life. This happens because rivers carry nutrients (natural "food" for tiny ocean organisms) out to sea, and cold, nutrient-rich water rises up from the deep ocean to the surface in a process called upwelling.

Sadly, the Salish Sea is losing some of its rich variety of marine life, especially in areas where lots of people live or use the water.

Meet the Animals

The Geoduck (pronounced "gooey-duck") is the largest clam in the world. It's actually too big for its own shell, so it can't close its shell tightly the way other clams can. To stay safe, it buries itself about three feet deep in the sand. It has a long neck, called a siphon, with two tubes inside. To eat, it stretches this neck up to the surface of the sand. One tube pulls in water full of food, while the other tube pushes out waste.

More kinds of sea stars (sometimes called starfish) live along the northwest coast than anywhere else in the world. You can find them clinging tightly to the sides of large rocks or open ledges. Most sea stars have five arms, but the number can vary — the Sunflower Sea Star may have twenty or more! If a sea star loses an arm, it can grow a brand-new one in its place.

Sea anemones usually hold on tightly to rocks using a suction disk on their base. When they do move, it might take them hours just to travel one inch! You can find them in tidepools, and they can grow to be 1 to 12 inches across. Like jellyfish, sea anemones have stinging cells called nematocysts in their tentacles. They use these stingers to paralyze small crabs or fish, then bring the food to their mouth, which sits in the center of all their tentacles.

Pacific harbor seals are the marine mammal you're most likely to spot in the Salish Sea. They are considered "true seals" because they don't have flaps on their ears, and they can't tuck their back flippers underneath themselves to walk on land. You'll often see them resting on rocks during low tide. Harbor seals can dive as deep as 1,380 feet and hold their breath underwater for up to 28 minutes!

Orcas, also called Killer Whales, live in the Salish Sea in three different lifestyle groups: residents, transients, and offshore whales. Adult male orcas have a tall, straight fin on their back (called a dorsal fin) that can reach up to 5 feet tall. Adult females have smaller, triangle-shaped dorsal fins, only about 3 to 4 feet tall.

Sea urchins have round bodies completely covered in spines, making them look more like a pincushion than an animal. They use their spines almost like stilts to "walk" along the ocean floor. Purple sea urchins live on rocks that get pounded by waves, while green sea urchins prefer calmer tidepools. Urchins eat algae, seaweed, and plankton (tiny floating plants and organisms).

The Giant Pacific Octopus is the largest species of octopus in the entire world. It can weigh up to 600 pounds and stretch its arms out to a span of more than 31 feet!

(Word search puzzle with hidden ocean-related words, including: Vancouver Island, Orca, Puget Sound, Anemone, Loon, Sea Star, Murre, Bull Kelp, Sand, Blue Mussel, Halibut, Crabs, Sea Otter, and Octopus.)

(Matching activity: Draw a line connecting each half-fish picture to its other half to reveal what a Wolf Eel, Big Skate, Yellowtail Rockfish, and Pacific Sanddab look like.)

Spiny dogfish are the most common type of shark found in the Salish Sea. They can grow up to 5 feet long and are most often seen near the surface of the water at dawn or dusk. They aren't dangerous to people, but watch out for the sharp spine on their back — that's actually how they got their name! — if you ever catch one.

Hermit crabs don't have shells of their own, so instead they move into the empty shells left behind by other animals. As a hermit crab grows bigger, it has to find and move into a larger shell.

Halibut can grow so large that when sailors haul them onto boats, the fish's thrashing tail has actually injured or even killed people. Female halibut can grow to nearly 500 pounds and almost 9 feet long, while males usually grow to about half that length and typically weigh under 100 pounds. Most halibut that are caught, however, are young fish that weigh only around 35 pounds.

Sea otters live in kelp forests and often wrap themselves in kelp fronds while they sleep so they don't drift away. They eat abalones, crabs, urchins, sea stars, snails, and other shellfish. To crack open hard shells, otters will float on their backs, place a rock on their chest, and pound the shell against it. Sea otters play an important role in keeping kelp forests healthy because they help control the population of sea urchins, which eat kelp.

(Mad Libs activity: Fill in the blanks with a family member, someone's name, an animal, a color, another animal, a type of thing, and a third animal to complete a silly story about swimming in Puget Sound and escaping from a chasing animal by hiding among shoreline plants.)

Tufted puffins mostly eat fish that are 6 to 8 inches long. They dive underwater and chase fish, using their wings like paddles to "fly" beneath the surface. A puffin can carry up to six fish crosswise in its beak at once! How do they manage that? The puffin holds the first fish between its rough tongue and upper jaw, which frees up its lower bill to catch even more fish. They can also catch fish on one side of their beak and then the other.

Did you know? Salmon must return to the very same area of the very same river where they were born.

Take Care of Their Home

Beaches, rocky shores, marshes, and both coastal and open ocean waters are home to many different plants and animals. Please be respectful and don't disturb their homes. Take your trash back home with you — leave only your footprints behind.

(Puzzle: How many fish can you find? Answer: 10. Which two fish are exactly the same? Answer: 1 and 6.)

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Regional Activity Book Series:

1. Chesapeake Bay Activity Book
2. Coastal North Carolina Activity Book
3. Salish Sea Activity Book

Produced by Dr. Susan Baker, NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science.