Ecological baselines for Oregon's coast: a report for agencies that manage Oregon's coastal habitats for ecological and economic sustainability, and for all who are interested in the welfare of wildlife that inhabit our coast and its estuaries

• Main Authors: Hall, Roberta L., Ebert, Thomas A., Gilden, Jennifer S., Hatch, David R., Mrakovcich, Karina Lorenz, Smith, Courtland L.
• Other Authors: Language, Culture, and Society, Anthropology, Oregon Explorer
• Format: Report
• Language: English; unknown
• Published: Oregon State University
• Subjects: aleut
• Online Access: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/defaults/6d56zx411

Against the backdrop of growing concern about dead zones, rare and endangered sea mammals, depletion of Oregon’s once‐abundant fish stocks, acidification threatening coastal molluscs, and proposals for marine reserves along Oregon’s coastline, a multidisciplinary group of scientists was called together in 2008 to discuss what is known about Oregon’s coastal resources at specific points in the past. They agreed that knowing more about the condition of resources in the past could help state resource agencies understand its ecological potential and such information would be useful in planning restoration projects as well as determining gaps in knowledge that need to be filled. Called together by John Meyer, representing Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea (COMPASS), the group decided to develop an “Ecological Baselines” report on past coastal resources at whatever times empirical data exist. We begin this report with a chapter reviewing archaeological, ethnographic, and historic materials to provide a picture of Oregon’s coastal resources before 1750. Subsequent chapters consider salmon, sea otters, and sub‐tidal sea urchins. The salmon chapter provides details on twentieth century abundance and decline of one of Oregon’s most charismatic and economically important ocean resources. This chapter’s authors also evaluate remedies that have attempted to restore salmon species. Next, the sea otter chapter describes a mammal once abundant but no longer present on the Oregon coast, and discusses what the coast has lost by its demise. A decade ago, the author, a descendant of Aleut and Coos/Siuslaw natives, organized a multi‐disciplinary project, named The Elakha Alliance, to study and consider restoration of this keystone species. The sub‐tidal purple sea urchin, described in our fourth chapter, in contrast to salmon and otter, is so small that the intense labor required to harvest it has protected it from commercial harvesting. However, the urchin is affected by all the forces that impinge on the coast’s ...