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About SPU
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SPU & the Environment
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Salmon Friendly Seattle
Salmon Friendly Seattle
Working Together to Recover Salmon
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The City of Seattle is committed to improving habitat for chinook and other salmon species within our city limits and in our watersheds. We are working with scientists to figure out what actions are most needed. We are also taking steps to improve water quality, conserve water and restore shorelines.
Seattle is a gateway for wild chinook salmon, a species threatened with extinction in Puget Sound. Baby chinook (called juveniles) swim through our urban waterways as they make their way from the Green and Cedar rivers to the open ocean. Adult chinook return to our waterways as they begin the difficult journey back to their home waters to spawn the next generation. Lake Washington, Lake Union, the Ship Canal and the Duwamish Waterway all play a critical role in the life cycle of Puget Sound chinook.
Our urban gateway creates challenges for migrating chinook. Dense urban development has dramatically reduced shallow areas and wetlands along Seattle’s river banks and shorelines. Young chinook use these areas to feed and grow before their ocean journey, and to escape from predators. Development along our shorelines has also stripped river banks and shorelines of their vegetation, reducing the shade and the insects that juveniles can find to eat.
As we work together to make Seattle more salmon friendly, we will improve our city for people too. We all benefit from good water quality, restored shorelines and healthy salmon runs.
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An adult chinook swimming upstream to spawn. Photo by: Natalie Fobes
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