The Puget Sound Zooplankton Monitoring Program began in 2014 (formerly part of the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project) as a collaborative effort involving many tribal, county, state, federal, academic and non-profit entities. The program was developed to address two main research objectives:

1) examine how environmental variability affects Puget Sound’s ecosystem through changes in zooplankton and

2) measure how the prey field of salmon and other fish varies spatio-temporally and correlates with survival. 

Zooplankton samples were collected on either a monthly or bi-monthly schedule, depending on sampling group and season, at 16 sampling sites across Puget Sound.  Vertical tows deployed a single ring net to sample zooplankton throughout the depth of the water column, and oblique tows deployed a double ring net to sample larger, more motile zooplankton inhabiting the upper portion of the water column (i.e., the primary feeding zone for juvenile salmonids). Samples were processed and analyzed for species biomass, abundances and lengths at the University of Washington. Resulting data associated with the two methods are provided in this excel file.