Eyes over Puget Sound

Once a month, we take to the air and travel by boat to obtain high-resolution aerial photo observations and gather water data at our monitoring stations and state ferry transects. This provides us a visual picture of the health of Puget Sound, which we call Eyes Over Puget Sound or EOPS.

Eyes Over Puget Sound empowers you to:

• See what is currently happening in Puget Sound.
• See how weather and climate are shaping Puget Sound water quality.
• Use Eyes Over Puget Sound as free educational material for your own endeavors.

Summary of latest observations

Climate and stream data

Although fall and winter were warm, February brought cold snowy weather. Despite lowland snow, river flows were lower than expected because precipitation was generally low.

Marine life

The productive season has already started in Hood Canal and Holmes Harbor despite colder air temperatures. Puget Sound waters were warmer than expected through January, and the warmest waters were in Hood Canal, possibly creating a thermal refuge for cold-sensitive species such as anchovies. We saw lots of sea lions feasting on anchovies in Case Inlet, and we may have captured some herring spawning activity. Suspended sediment made it difficult to distinguish between sediment and spawning fish. Unusual for mid-winter, we saw jellyfish patches in Eld and Budd inlets.

Ocean acidification data for our region

Twenty-five years of our marine monitoring data contributed to understanding ocean acidification. The observations are shared in a new report and help us understand the effects of ocean acidification on Puget Sound estuaries. Read the article.

Learn more about Eyes over Puget Sound