JOYCE — Fog didn’t stop Anne Shaffer and Dave Shreffler from keeping their appointed seining rounds early Saturday morning at the mouth of Salt Creek.
The two biologists led a group of about a half-dozen residents to the beach adjacent to Port Crescent during a field trip focusing on the importance of near-shore habitat.
Shaffer, a biologist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Shreffler, of Shreffler Environmental, used the seine to catch a number of fish including sand soul, sculpin and salmon as part of their efforts to monitor the effects of dwindling near-habitats including eelgrass beds, marshes, tidal channels and shorelines.
According to Pacific Woodrush, the environmental group sponsoring Saturday’s field trip to the beach, nearly 75 percent of Puget Sound’s historical estuarine wetlands have been lost because of human modifications to shorelines and streams, septic systems and other pollution.
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