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Figure 3.3 – The Salish Sea ecosystem is complex, supporting countless organisms like Pacific salmon, orca whales,
forage fish, kelp, and people! Illustration by: Holly Sullivan

The Coastal Trophic Cascade
Salmon are incredibly important to freshwater like Pacific salmon, seals, and coastal birds like eagles .
ecosystems and the animals that surround spawning At the top of this trophic interaction are predators
rivers, but did you know that they are also part of a such as killer whales and humans . Our Southern
critical trophic web on the coasts? See Figure 3 .3 Resident killer whales depend on the high numbers
for a depiction of the salmon coastal trophic web . of forage fish and salmon, but are currently listed as

Our coasts are home to a diverse array of organisms at risk under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) in Canada
of all sizes . There are tiny zooplankton and (Ocean Wise 2019) .
phytoplankton that drift in the coastal waters, Everything that happens on the shorelines has a
small schooling fish which rely on our soft shores cascade of impacts on the health of the ecosystem
for spawning, our five species of Pacific salmon, and coastal trophic webs . Whenever we make
large predators like resident killer whales, and us! improvements to the shoreline, like planting native
We may think of these organisms and their particular vegetation or creating spawning habitat for forage
habitats as separate entities, but they are intrinsically fish, we are supporting Pacific salmon and Southern
linked to one another . Resident killer whales, amongst many other species!
Phytoplankton are tiny photosynthetic organisms
that drift near the surface of the ocean — they use
the energy of the sun to sequester carbon, just like Photo by: Mitch Miller
trees, grasses and shrubs do on land . Feeding on
these organisms are zooplankton, which in turn are
fed on by schools of forage fish such as Pacific sand
lance, surf smelt and Pacific herring . Forage fish
depend on soft shores since they spawn in the sand
and gravel during high tides, and are particularly
important because they are a primary food source
for predators(also known as secondary consumers)

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