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UPDATE: On October 30, 2009 the Washington State Board on Geographic Names approved 'Salish Sea' as an official name. The Province of British Columbia Geographic Names Office has likewise approved the name. In November, 2009 the U.S .Board on Geographic Names approved the name. The SALISH SEA extends from the north end of the Strait of Georgia and Desolation Sound to the west end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and south to the southern extent of the Puget Sound including the inland marine waters of southern British Columbia, Canada and northern Washington, USA. These separately named bodies of water form a single estuarine ecosystem. Formerly adopted by British Columbia and Washington State in 2009, 'The Salish Sea' as a name for these waters has been embraced by citizens on both sides of the border for years including the Coast Salish Gathering (the alliance of Coast Salish Tribal and First Nations leaders). The Salish Sea is connected to the Pacific Ocean primarily via the Strait of Juan de Fuca (with relatively slight tidal influence from the north around Vancouver Island and through Johnstone Strait) and is contained by Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula. In addition to the Gulf and San Juan Islands the watershed contains the lower Fraser River Delta and the Puget Lowlands as well as the Hood Canal, the Tacoma Narrows and Deception Pass. Over 7 million people live within the immediate watershed of the Salish Sea 1 (sometimes referred to as the Georgia Basin - Puget Sound watershed), including the cities of Vancouver, Seattle, Victoria, Olympia, Nanaimo, Bellingham, Everett, Port Angeles, Port Townsend and Tacoma.
Current Version (5/19/09) in different formats*: JPEG version (3 MB) Medium resolution version (PDF, 8 MB) High resolution version (PDF, 21 MB)
The 'B' Side (back side of the 11x17 map) w/notes
* right-click on link and choose Save Link As or Save Target As to download
Map Details:
The
Salish Sea Map was produced using a Geographic Information
System (GIS) and publically available spatial datasets for elevation, bathymetry and
hydrology.
Public use and reproduction for non-commercial
purposes is permitted. Reproduction of this map for other websites
or publications is permitted with the following conditions:
Map Production Notes Variations of color on the map are based on elevation (not actual landcover). Colors were chosen to mimic the 'feel' of the Pacific coast landscape (lighter greens for the lowlands, white for the mountain peaks). In addition a 'hillshade' effect has been created casting a virtual 'shadow' across the landscape to better depict the topography as if one is seeing a 3-dimensional shaded relief model. Similar color gradations are applied to the bathymetric data, again with a shadow effect applied as a 'floorshade' (i.e. a 'hill'-shade for the ocean floor). Watershed boundaries were derived from the elevation data following the peaks and ridges. Areas outside the watershed have been masked by a semi-transparent overlay to highlight the geographic area draining into the Salish Sea. Note that all of the upper Fraser River watershed is technically a part of the Salish Sea watershed. For this map, however, the Salish Sea watershed has been defined as just that area draining directly into the ocean, including only the lower Fraser River watershed. It is unusual for a map of this type to not include the cities, roads and borders that have been created by humans. Instead, this map focuses on the Salish Sea and it's surrounding watershed, defined not by political jurisdictions but by the geography of the water and land itself. As such, the text labels on the main map are likewise used only for the natural features defining the Salish Sea.
Name Details: The name Salish Sea is not a historical term for the inland waters of British Columbia and Washington State. It was proposed by marine biologist Bert Webber in 1988. Dr. Webber recognized the need for a single geographic term that encompassed the entire ecosystem, spanning across the international border. Having a name to identify the entire area calls attention to the trans-border commonality of water, air, wildlife and history. Rather than being a replacement for any of the existing names, the designation Salish Sea is an overlay which includes and unites the established and familiar names of the various water and land bodies (the Strait of Georgia, Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound, Gulf Islands, San Juan Islands, etc.). The name also pays tribute to the Coast Salish peoples who have inhabited the area since long before Euro-American explorers first arrived. In 2009 the governments of both British Columbia and Washington officially adopt the name Salish Sea. 3 Salish Sea Details: The surface area of the Salish Sea (saltwater) is approximately 18,000 sq. km. (or about 7,000 sq. miles).4 Within the Salish Sea there are hundreds of islands (or even thousands, depending upon one’s definition of an ‘island’).
Maximum Water Depths
5
6
Approximate
Surface Area % of Salish Sea
(Saltwater) The watershed draining into the Salish Sea (not counting the upper Fraser River watershed) includes approximately 110,000 sq km (or about 42,000 sq miles). In addition to the human population, the ecosystem is home to over 200 different species of fish, over 100 different species of bird, 20 different species of marine mammal and over 3,000 different species of invertebrates. 7 8
A few web links related to the
Salish Sea...
1. GIS calculations derived from US Census Bureau data and Canadian Census statistics ( http://www.censusfinder.com/ and http://www.metrovancouver.org/about/publications/Publications/KeyFacts-MetroVancouverPopulationEstimates1996-2007.pdf and http://www.vancouverisland.com/information/ ). 2. 2008, Hole-filled SRTM for the globe Version 4, Jarvis, A., H.I. Reuter, A. Nelson, E. Guevara, (available from the CGIAR-CSI SRTM 90m Database: http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org ). 3. The Washington State Board of
Geographic Names (http://www.dnr.wa.gov/AboutDNR/BoardsCouncils/WBGN/) 4. GIS calculations derived from SRTM elevation data.2 5. Water Properties in the Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca, Emilie Davenne and Diane Masson, Institute of Ocean Sciences, Sidney, BC, Canada, 2001 ( http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/sci/osap/projects/straitofgeorgia/JdFG_e.pdf ). 6. The Puget Sound Model Summary, John H. Lincoln, University of Washington, Department of Oceanography, Seattle, Wa. 7. Species of Concern within the Georgia Basin Puget Sound Marine Ecosystem: Changes from 2002 to 2006, Nicholas A. Brown and Joseph K. Gaydos, The SeaDoc Society, 2007 ( http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/whc/seadoc/pdfs/brown-gaydos07.pdf ). 8. Puget Sound Georgia Basin Ecosystem, US EPA website, 2009 ( http://www.epa.gov/region10/psgb/ ).
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