Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife
This post was submitted by our partners at Pacific Marine & Estuarine Fish Habitat Partnership (PMEP). While PMEP’s primary focus is fish, both the marine and estuarine habitats that PMEP partners are involved in support a multitude of species from the microscopic to the more visible fish, birds and mammals. Pacific Birds Coastal Wetlands conservation priority interfaces in many ways with PMEP's work.
The Pacific Marine & Estuarine Fish Habitat Partnership recently announced that the State of the Knowledge of U.S. West Coast Nearshore Habitat Use by Fish Assemblages and Select Invertebrates report and associated data products have been released and are now available!
So what is the report about? PMEP developed the Nearshore Project with three main objectives:
- Define and map boundaries for delineating nearshore zones along the U.S. West Coast.
- Compile and standardize spatial data on nearshore habitats within defined nearshore zones.
- Produce a state-of-the-knowledge report on U.S. West Coast nearshore fish and invertebrate habitats.
PMEP compiled standardized spatial data on nearshore habitats in four ecoregions: the Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest, Central California, and Southern California Bight. Nearshore habitat data from multiple sources was standardized using the Coastal Marine Ecological Classification System (CMECS). Each ecoregion section describes what we know about nearshore habitat classification, fish assemblages, and invertebrate use along the entire U.S. West Coast.
The report and data products provide a baseline for investigating changes, shifts, and adaptations of habitats for nearshore marine species along the entire U.S. West Coast. The geodatabase includes feature classes of nearshore zones and biotic and substrate habitat layers. These data products were designed for resource managers, restoration practitioners, and researchers.
What does this mean for birds that rely on these habitats? The report and associated data products are freely available for avian conservation and habitat management applications. A better understanding of habitats and species that use similar habitats with birds or provide food resources for birds will improve how we understand habitat use, diet and movement of birds that use marine and estuarine environments.
PMEP designed and completed the Nearshore Report to inform managers and research practitioners about habitat needs and species distributions along the west coast. The report and associated data products provide critical information to comprehensively explore and understand the influences and effects of restoration efforts, sea level rise, and range expansion or retractions of focal species along the U.S. West Coast.
This report was the culmination of four years of work from the PMEP Nearshore Working Group, supported by the Science and Data and Steering Committees. Funding was provided from the NOAA Office of Habitat Conservation, the National Fish Habitat Partnership, and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
Please check it out and share the report!
The Pacific Marine & Estuarine Fish Habitat Partnership is a consortium of organizations focused on West Coast fish habitat in the region’s estuaries and nearshore marine waters. PMEP synthesizes and compiles the best available information in order to enhance our understanding of this habitat. Learn more.
