Friends of the San Juans wishes to thank the 29 volunteers from Orcas, Lopez, San Juan, and Shaw Islands as well as LUSH Seattle store volunteers who participated in a shoreline work party at Fossil Bay on Sucia Island.

Following a beautiful boat ride to Sucia and an overview of the value of beaches to surf smelt and salmon, everyone got right to work clearing litter from over a mile of beach; conducting five surf smelt egg surveys and removing rock from 1,500 square feet of surf smelt spawning habitat.

Fossil Bay beach is one of the latest identified as a smelt spawning beach in San Juan County. FRIENDS and Washington State Parks are working together to develop multiple shoreline projects on Sucia Island including: improving fish passage by reconnecting a salt marsh to the marine environment, unburying beach habitat at a newly documented surf smelt spawning beach and educating visitors on the important role Sucia’s shorelines play in supporting marine food webs for seabirds, salmon, and orca.

For more information on forage fish or FRIENDS restoration programs and volunteer opportunities for 2014/2015 contact FRIENDS at tina@sanjuans.org or 378-2319.