Pacific Northwest Marine ECOREGIONAL ASSESSMENT PREPARED BY: The Nature Conservancy in Oregon DECEMBER 2013 Pacific Northwest Marine Ecoregional Assessment Prepared by The Nature Conservancy 2013 Recommended Citation: Vander Schaaf, D., K. Popper, D. Kelly and J. Smith. 2013. Pacific Northwest Marine Ecoregional Assessment. The Nature Conservancy, Portland, Oregon. Updates and Digital Version of Assessment: This Ecoregional Assessment is available on the Web at: https://www.conservationgateway.org/ConservationPlanning/SettingPriorities/EcoregionalReports Maps, text and Appendices can be printed from downloadable Web-based files. Any published updates to the Assessment will be made available at the same Website. For questions regarding the assessment: Contact the lead author at The Nature Conservancy, 821 SE 14th Avenue, Portland, OR 97214, (503) 802-8100. Cover photos, clockwise: Oregon’s Mack Arch Reef © David Pitkin; Rockfish survey in kelp © Richard Herrmann; Tufted puffin © Michael McBride; Yaquina Head lighthouse © Rick McEwan; California sea lion © Mark Godfrey/TNC; Copper rockfish © Daniel W. Gotshall. PNW Marine Ecoregional Assessment – page i Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the participation and critical peer review provided by colleagues within The Nature Conservancy and from agencies and academic institutions in Oregon, Washington and California. More than 100 marine experts participated in our peer review workshops and we would especially like to thank the contributions made by the following individuals for privately held data, access to publicly available data, assisted with data analysis and interpretation, or assisted with development of the suitability index: Elizabeth Clarke, Chris Goldfinger, Barbara Hickey, Bob Emmett, and Waldo Wakefield. We would also like to acknowledge the Wild Salmon Center that provided unpublished salmon information for estuaries in the ecoregion. NOAA Fisheries was a major contributor of fisheries information from their trawl surveys and from trawl logbook data that they have collected for many years. NOAA helped us compile the data they provided and they helped us better understand the data so that it could be most useful in the analysis. Maps and figures for the final report were developed by Aaron Jones, TNC spatial analyst, and Justin Saydell, TNC Americorp volunteer, assisted with report editing. Finally we would like to thank Rondi Robison who conducted exhaustive inventories of potential marine conservation targets for both this assessment as well as the PNW Coast Ecoregional Assessment. Funding for this assessment was provided by The Nature Conservancy and a grant from National Fish & Wildlife Foundation # 2008-0100-000. The grant allowed for the development of the ecoregional assessment and its simultaneous application towards the identification of priority conservation areas in state waters off the Oregon coast. Data compiled for the Pacific Northwest Marine Ecoregional Assessment was also used for the evaluation of potential marine reserves in Oregon. Pacific Northwest Marine Ecoregion Core Team Dick Vander Schaaf Core Team Lead (TNC) Ken Popper Project Lead (TNC) Dan Kelly GIS and data management (TNC) Jo Smith Marine Ecologist (TNC) Advisors to Pacific Northwest Ecoregion Core Team (alphabetical) Allison Bailey GIS analyst, Sound GIS, Washington Zach Ferdana Marine Conservation Planner, TNC, Global Marine Team Mary Gleason Marine Scientist, TNC, California Matt Merrifield GIS manager, TNC, California Michael Schindel Information Management Director, TNC, Oregon Jacques White Executive Director, Save the Kings, Washington PNW Marine Ecoregional Assessment – page ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ ii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. iii Executive Summary ................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1 - Introduction ....................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................................... 4 1.2 Purpose ....................................................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Ecoregion Overview ................................................................................................................. 6 1.3.1 Geographic Setting ..................................................................................................................... 6 1.3.2 Ecoregional Sections .................................................................................................................. 8 1.3.3 Oceanography ............................................................................................................................. 9 1.3.4 Marine habitats .......................................................................................................................... 10 1.3.5 Socioeconomic setting ............................................................................................................. 11 1.4 Planning Process ..................................................................................................................... 13 Chapter 2 – Ecoregional Conservation Targets and Goals ............................................. 15 *may include species represented both by presence and abundance data. See Section 2.2 for more information .................................................................................................................... 17 2.1 Coarse Filter Targets ............................................................................................................... 17 2.1.1 Benthic habitats ......................................................................................................................... 17 2.1.2 Shoreline habitats ...................................................................................................................... 18 2.1.3 Estuarine habitats ..................................................................................................................... 18 2.1.4 Kelp communities ..................................................................................................................... 18 2.1.5 Nearshore rocky reefs .............................................................................................................. 19 2.1.6 Submarine canyon walls ........................................................................................................... 19 2.1.7 Upwelling ................................................................................................................................... 19 2.1.8 Chlorophyll-a (primary productivity) ..................................................................................... 20 2.2 Fine Filter Targets ................................................................................................................... 20 2.2.1 Seabirds and Shorebirds ........................................................................................................... 20 2.2.2 Marine Mammals ...................................................................................................................... 20 2.2.3 Groundfish ................................................................................................................................ 21 2.2.4 Snowy plover ............................................................................................................................. 21 2.2.5 Orca critical habitat .................................................................................................................. 21 PNW Marine Ecoregional Assessment – page iii 2.2.6 Steller sea lion critical habitat .................................................................................................. 22 2.2.7 Deepwater coral and sponges ................................................................................................. 22 2.2.8 Native Oyster ............................................................................................................................ 22 2.2.9 Islands ......................................................................................................................................... 22 2.3 Assemble and compile spatial data ....................................................................................... 22 2.4 Set Goals for Conservation Targets...................................................................................... 24 2.5 Targets not included in the analysis ...................................................................................... 24 2.5.1 Data gaps and Limitations ....................................................................................................... 25 Chapter 3 – Protected Areas ............................................................................................... 27 3.1 Existing Protected Areas ........................................................................................................ 27 3.2 Gap Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 29