Salish Sea 


Act3vity Book 

Salish Sea 


.	 Salish sea is the traditional name for the inland waters of Canada and 

Washington State, stretching from Puget Sound to Johnstone Strait, that was 

used by the First Nation peoples who historically and presently inhabit the 

area. 

it of Georgia, Puget 

ny islands, both large 

b 	 :sandy beaches and 

eelgrass meadows, 

broad expanses 'of o ,a11 with different plants 

About ten thousand years ago, npssive rive& gf ice flowed through the 

Georgia Strait from northern ice fields. ~he<the'ic~ strebm encountered 

the Olympic Mountains, it parted. One part w&t inlo the Puget Sound area, 

and one part went down the Strait of ~~ih de~hci."~l.dciers 
 carved the area 

and when they retreated, left gravel, sands, clay, and till behind. 


Salish Sea area is an extremely rich hdbitat with a lot df biological 

productivity. This is due to river discharge carrying ditrients to the ocean 

and upwelling of cold nutrient rich water to the su&c;. 

Unfortunately, the Salish Sea is losing its' rich diversity in marine life, 

especially in the highly populated or used areas. 
The GEQDUCK (gooey-duck) is the largest of all clams. The 

geoduck is too big for its shell and can't close its shells tight like 

other clams. For protection it lives buried about three feet deep 

in the sand. It has two tubes in its long neck (siphon). To eat, it 

stretches its neck up to the top of the sand where it takes in 

water full of food through one tube and gets rid of wastes 

through the other. 
More kinds of sea stars (sometimes called starfish) are found 

along the northwest coast than anywhere else in the world. They 

can be found "holding onw tightly to the side of large rocks or 

open ledges. Most sea stars have 5 arms, but the number can vary. 

The Sunflower Sea Star may have twenty or more! If one arm 

breaks off, a new one will grow in its place. 
Sea Anemones usually cling tightly to rocks with a 

suction disk. When they do move, it may take hours to 

travel an inch. They are f~und in tidepools and can be I 

to 12inches in diameter. Like jellyfish, they have 

stinging cells [nematocysts) in their tentacles which are 

used toparalyze small crabs or fish. They then bring the 

Qood to their mouths, located in the center oQ the 

tentacles. 
Color evvv
 0-0 

PaeiEic Harbor Seals are the most common marine 

mammal seen in the Salish Sea. Harbor seals are 'true 

seals9 in that they do not have external ear flaps and they 

can not bring their hind flippers under them to walk. 

They are often seen laying on rocks during low tide. 

They can dive as deep as 1,380feet and stay down as long 

as 28 minutes! 
CO~OP ell1
 ... 

In the Salish Sea area, Orcas, or Killer Whales, live three 

different live styles: residents, transients, and offshore. 

Adult males have a tall straight dorsal fin which can be 

up to 5 feet tall. Adult females dorsal fins are triangular 

in shape and smaller, only 3-4 feet tall. 
Sea Urchins, with their rounded bodies all covered with 

spines, look like a pincushion than an animal. Urchins 

use the spines to "wwalas if it were tippy-baeingor stiltwalking. Purple sea urchins are found wave swept ocean 

rocks, while green sea urchins are Pound in the quieter 

tidepools. Urchins eat algae, seaweed, and plankton 

(tiny floating plants). 
The Giant Pacific Octopus is the largest kind of 

octopus in the world. It can weigh up to 600 

pounds and have an arm-spread of over 31feet! 
The words are found down, across, diagonally, forwards, and backwards. 

V C Y R E T T O A E S S K O B 

C A N E M O N E P M A E H D L 

E W N F X D E S L E C Y N K U 

O Q A C R A B S G J R U N A E 

P S S W O U I D E K O N T H M 

L U A C H U J P Y S S D F R U 

L P N A G U V L T A C K I L S 

Q O D B L Y U E F N D A O N S 

R T L T E C G K R D M U R R E 

A C A Z H U N L M I G K L W L 

T O N F P P B L U O S X V R O 

S F C E H N A U P J M L O O N 

A K E Q G E W B N N X R A T Y 

E T J L G H A L I B U T R N E 

S A N J U A N I S L A N D A D 

Vancouver Island Orca 

Puget Sound Anemone 

Loon Sea Star 

Murre Bull Kelp 

Sand Blue Mussel 

Halibut Crabs 

Sea Otter Octopus 


Draw a line from half a fish on the left to the other half 

on the right to see what Wolf Eel, Big Scate, Yellowtail 

Rockfish, and Pacific Sandab look like. 
Spiny Dogfish are the most common shark found 

in the Salish Sea area. They grow up to 5 feet long 

and are most ostera seen at the swdace oQ the water 

at dawn or dusk. They are not dangerous to 

humans, although watch out for the spine on their 

back (how they got their name) if you happen to 

catch one! 
Hermit crabs have no shells of their own,so they 

use the empty shells of other animals as their 

home. As they grow they have find and move into 

larger shells. 
Halibut grow so large that, when caught and taken 

aboard ships, they've killed and maimed people 

with their thrashing tails. Females can grow up to 

nearly 500 poun&sand almost nnim Qeet in length; 

males are about half that length and generally 

weigh under 100 pounds. Most are caught as 

juveniles and only weigh aroung 35 pounds. 
Color e? 


Sea Otters live in kelp forest and often wrap themselves 

up in the kelp fronds to keep drifting away when they 

sleep. Otters eat abalones, crabs, urchins, sea stars, snaos 

and other shellfish. To break open the hard shells, otters 

pound the shells on rocks they lay on their chests. Sea 

otters are important for healthy kelp forests by keeping 

the number of sea urchins (which eat kelp) down. 
Directions: Fill in the mad lib list, then copy your mad libs in to the blanks 

in the story below. Once you have filled in all the blanks, read your 

completed story for a Sun look at how animals and habitats depend on each 

other for suwival. 

Mad Lib List: 

I. Family member 

2. Somebody's name 

3. Animal 

4. Color 

5. Animal 

6. Things 

7. Animal 

I was swimming in the Puget Sound one spring day with my 

and our friend ,who is a 

I a 

very early in the morning. A large 

3 

started to chase us. I think he 

4 $ 

wanted to eat up for breakfast! We ran quickly to get away from it and hid 

in some that were along the shore. We sure were lucky 

L 

they were there so we could get away. We found some 

3 

while we where there that we ate for lunch. 
Tufted Puffins eat mostly fish from 6 to 8inches long. 

Puffins dive and pursue fish using their wings as paddles 

to fly underwater. They can carry up to 6fish crosswise 

in its bill at one time. How do they do that? The Puffln 

secures the first Eish between its rough tongue and its 

upper jaw, which leaves thelower bill available to catch 

more fish! They can also catch fish on one side of its bill 

and then on the other. 
Did you how thaZ salmon must return tothe same area 

in the same river as where they were born? 
Color el 


The beaches, rocky shores, marshes, coastal and 

open oceans are homes to many different plants 

and animals. Be polite and do not mess up their 

homes. Take your trash back to your home, just 

leave footprints Cn theirs. 
How many fish can you find? 10 

Which two are the same? I and 6 


Regional Activity Book Series: 

1. Chesapeake Bay Activity Book -http://www.nccos.noaa.gov/educationlcbbook 

2. Coastal North Carolina Activity Book -

htt~:l/www.coastalscience.noaa.~ov/educatiodncbook.pdf 


3. Salish Sea Activity Book -htt~:llwww.coastalscience.noaa.govieducatio~df 

Copies of this material can be downloaded from: 

l~tt~://www.coa~talscience.noaa.gov/educatiodssbook.pdf 


Produced by: 

Dr. Susan Baker, NOAA National Centers for 

9 Coastal Ocean Science b 

S'47E5 Of