Two conservation organisations in British Columbia, Canada have undertaken a drift card study in an effort to document the likely pattern of oil travel should there be a spill within the Salish Sea.
Using ‘citizen science’ the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the Georgia Strait Alliance dropped over 1,000 cards into the Salish at various points along major shipping routes in the area. Drift studies have been used to track potential movement of animals that might have died during oil spills as an aid to estimating numbers of animals not recovered. In this case, the public is being asked to report any of these cards they have found to a dedicated website: Salish Sea Spill Map. Each card has a unique number, allowing the researchers to determine which drop site the card originated from and to provide information on where spilled oil might reach land.
The Salish Sea is actually a network of coastal waterways, which includes Puget Sound, Georgia Strait and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The Canadian cities of Vancouver and Victoria, as well as the US cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Bellingham are all ports within this water body. It is also home to the Northeast Pacific southern resident population of orca, or killer whale, which is listed by both the US and Canadian governments as Endangered. Their primary prey species, the Chinook salmon, is also an endangered species. In addition, the Salish Sea also hosts large populations, both migratory and resident, of aquatic birds.
While the project is specifically designed to highlight concerns over the potential for increased oil shipping in the area, with its attendant increased risk of spills, the information will aid in any oil spill response efforts in the region. Additional drops are planned to determine how different weather and seasons may affect the path of spilled oil in the Salish.