Pollution Affecting Fish in Puget Sound

Puget Sound is home to scores of fish varieties, including Chinook, Rockfish, Ling Cod, Herring, and English Sole, just to name a few.  This diversity makes Puget Sound one of the most ecologically and fiscally valuable bodies of water in America.  Taylor's Shellfish in Shelton, WA, is just one of the many fisheries that depend on the Sound for income.  However, pollution has been a continuous problem for Puget Sound, threatening the health of marine plants and animals as well as the consumers who eat them.

In 2006, Puget Sound was termed a "toxic stew" by The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which revealed that Chinook in the Sound contained six times the amount of PCB's than the Columbia River.  Puget Sound fish also contained high levels of chemicals identified as flame retardants, drugs such as caffeine, anti-depressants, and hormones.  These chemicals cause developmental and fertility problems in fish, and high levels can cause fishkills.  Edward Furlong of the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver said that exposure to these chemicals was, "constant, direct, and unavoidable."

Although Puget Sound Partnership and other organizations have taken on major restoration of Puget Sound since 2005, pollution is still a problem.  As recently as October 5, reports of new toxins called PBDE's have surfaced; PBDE's are a major concern because they cause thyroid and brain development problems in humans.  Humans that consume fish containing these chemicals are thus put at risk.

The problem with the Puget Sound is that the water inside cycles around the entire Sound, so chemicals that affect one end will eventually disperse throughout the Sound.  The Sound is just large enough that water can cycle, but not large enough for it to be completely flushed out after a pollution problem occurs.  This is critical because the Puget Sound's current population of 6 billion people- increasing to 9-11 billion people by 2020, depend on fish from the Sound for their livelihoods.  Preservation of the Sound must become a priority, and soon.
-Christina Heinlen