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66-610: The Whatcom Trail was an overland trail from the Puget Sound area of Washington Territory during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858. The trail began on Bellingham Bay , at Fairhaven (now a Bellingham neighbourhood), the route used went via a route known as the Columbia Valley, which is a lowland route connecting the mid- Nooksack River area with Cultus Lake and the lower Chilliwack River in

132-563: A bay with numerous channels and branches; more specifically, it is a fjord system of flooded glacial valleys. Puget Sound is part of a larger physiographic structure termed the Puget Trough, which is a physiographic section of the larger Pacific Border province , which in turn is part of the larger Pacific Mountain System . Puget Sound is a large salt water estuary , or system of many estuaries, fed by highly seasonal freshwater from

198-609: A formal application to the Geographical Names Board of Canada . A parallel American movement promoting the name had a different definition, combining of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound as well as the Strait of Georgia and related waters under the more general name Salish Sea . This latter definition was made official in 2009 by geographic boards of Canada and the United States. In October 2009,

264-545: A number of Native Americans and environmental groups, is Whulge (or Whulj), an Anglicization of the Lushootseed name for Puget Sound, x̌ʷəlč , which literally means "sea, salt water, ocean, or sound". The name for the Lushootseed language, dxʷləšucid , is derived from the root word √ləš , an alternative name for Puget Sound. The USGS defines Puget Sound as all the waters south of three entrances from

330-454: A total volume of 26.5 cubic miles (110 km ) at mean high water. The average volume of water flowing in and out of Puget Sound during each tide is 1.26 cubic miles (5.3 km ). The maximum tidal currents, in the range of 9 to 10 knots , occurs at Deception Pass. Water flow through Deception Pass is approximately equal to 2% of the total tidal exchange between Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The size of Puget Sound's watershed

396-463: A valve was mistakenly opened aboard the submarine USS Puffer , releasing up to 500 US gallons (1,900 L; 420 imp gal) of radioactive water into Puget Sound, during an overhaul in drydock at Bremerton Naval Shipyard . Strait of Juan de Fuca The Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) is a body of water about 96 miles (83 nmi; 154 km) long that

462-602: Is 12,138 sq mi (31,440 km ). "Northern Puget Sound" is frequently considered part of the Puget Sound watershed, which enlarges its size to 13,700 sq mi (35,000 km ). The USGS uses the name "Puget Sound" for its hydrologic unit subregion 1711, which includes areas draining to Puget Sound proper as well as the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Strait of Georgia, and the Fraser River . Significant rivers that drain to "Northern Puget Sound" include

528-500: Is 450 feet (140 m) and its maximum depth, off Jefferson Point between Indianola and Kingston , is 930 feet (280 m). The depth of the main basin, between the southern tip of Whidbey Island and Tacoma , is approximately 600 feet (180 m). In 2009, the term Salish Sea was established by the United States Board on Geographic Names as the collective waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and

594-633: Is also the second-largest estuary in the United States, after Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Virginia . In 1792, George Vancouver gave the name "Puget's Sound" to the waters south of the Tacoma Narrows , in honor of Peter Puget , a Huguenot lieutenant accompanying him on the Vancouver Expedition . This name later came to be used for the waters north of Tacoma Narrows as well. An alternative term for Puget Sound, used by

660-621: Is attributed to a variety of issues, including human population growth, pollution, and climate change. Because of this population decline, there have been changes to the fishery practices, and an increase in petitioning to add species to the Endangered Species Act . There has also been an increase in recovery and management plans for many different area species. The causes of these environmental issues are toxic contamination, eutrophication (low oxygen due to excess nutrients), and near shore habitat changes. On May 22, 1978,

726-511: Is home to numerous species of marine invertebrates, including sponges , sea anemones , chitons , clams , sea snails , limpets , crabs , barnacles , starfish , sea urchins , and sand dollars . Dungeness crabs ( Metacarcinus magister ) occur throughout Washington waters, including Puget Sound. Many bivalves occur in Puget Sound, such as Pacific oysters ( Crassostrea gigas ) and geoduck clams ( Panopea generosa ). The Olympia oyster ( Ostreola conchaphila ), once common in Puget Sound,

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792-403: Is no border crossing at the Columbia Valley today, only a fence across farmland. Puget Sound Puget Sound ( / ˈ p juː dʒ ɪ t / PEW -jit ; Lushootseed : x̌ʷəlč IPA: [ˈχʷəlt͡ʃ] WHULCH ) is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins located on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Washington . As a part of

858-634: Is the Salish Sea 's main outlet to the Pacific Ocean . The international boundary between Canada and the United States runs down the centre of the Strait. It was named in 1787 by the maritime fur trader Charles William Barkley , captain of Imperial Eagle , for Juan de Fuca , the Greek navigator who sailed in a Spanish expedition in 1592 to seek the fabled Strait of Anián . Barkley

924-616: The Gulf of Maine boundary dispute . In this Atlantic Ocean context, Canada favours an outcome based on the principle of equidistance. In March 2008, the Chemainus First Nation proposed renaming the strait the " Salish Sea ", an idea that reportedly met with approval by British Columbia's Aboriginal Relations Minister Mike de Jong , who pledged to put it before the BC cabinet for discussion. Making Salish Sea official required

990-791: The Coho carried 475,000 passengers and 130,000 vehicles in 2018. A passenger-only ferry on the same route, named the Victoria Express , operated from 1990 to 2011. Victoria is also the terminus of the Victoria Clipper , a passenger-only ferry from Seattle . Sidney, located northeast of Victoria, is served by a seasonal extension the Washington State Ferries system's route serving the San Juan Islands and Anacortes, Washington . This strait remains

1056-714: The Nooksack , Dungeness , and Elwha Rivers . The Nooksack empties into Bellingham Bay, the Dungeness and Elwha into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The Chilliwack River flows north to the Fraser River in Canada. Tides in Puget Sound are of the mixed type with two high and two low tides each tidal day. These are called Higher High Water (HHW), Lower Low Water (LLW), Lower High Water (LHW), and Higher Low Water (HLW). The configuration of basins, sills, and interconnections cause

1122-796: The Olympic Peninsula , Washington, to Haro Strait , San Juan Channel, Rosario Strait , and Puget Sound . The Pacific Ocean boundary is formed by a line between Cape Flattery and Tatoosh Island , Washington, and Carmanah Point (Vancouver Island), British Columbia. Its northern boundary follows the shoreline of Vancouver Island from Carmanah Point to Gonzales Point, then follows a continuous line east to Seabird Point ( Discovery Island ), British Columbia, Cattle Point ( San Juan Island ), Washington, Iceberg Point ( Lopez Island ), Point Colville (Lopez Island), and then to Rosario Head ( Fidalgo Island ). The eastern boundary runs south from Rosario Head across Deception Pass to Whidbey Island , then along

1188-524: The Salish Sea , the sound has one major and two minor connections to the Strait of Juan de Fuca , which in turn connects to the open Pacific Ocean. The major connection is Admiralty Inlet ; the minor connections are Deception Pass and the Swinomish Channel . Puget Sound extends approximately 100 miles (160 km) from Deception Pass in the north to Olympia in the south. Its average depth

1254-668: The San Juan Islands Dispute (the Pig War ). Similarly, on the Canadian side, the large tract of land in Sardis that for many years was Canadian Forces Base Chilliwack was laid aside as a military reserve during the scare over potential Fenian Raids in the 1870s and 1880s. That allocation, however, was as much a response to local Stó:lō First Nations numbers as it was to potential American aggression. There

1320-446: The Strait of Georgia . Sometimes the terms "Puget Sound" and "Puget Sound and adjacent waters" are used for not only Puget Sound proper but also for waters to the north, such as Bellingham Bay and the San Juan Islands region. The term "Puget Sound" is used not just for the body of water but also the Puget Sound region centered on the sound. Major cities on the sound include Seattle , Tacoma , Olympia , and Everett . Puget Sound

1386-496: The Strait of Juan de Fuca . The main entrance at Admiralty Inlet is defined as a line between Point Wilson on the Olympic Peninsula , and Point Partridge on Whidbey Island . The second entrance is at Deception Pass along a line from West Point on Whidbey Island, to Deception Island, then to Rosario Head on Fidalgo Island . The third entrance is at the south end of the Swinomish Channel , which connects Skagit Bay and Padilla Bay . Under this definition, Puget Sound includes

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1452-538: The Tacoma Narrows , and the Main Basin , which is further subdivided into Admiralty Inlet and the Central Basin. Puget Sound's sills, a kind of submarine terminal moraine , separate the basins from one another, and Puget Sound from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Three sills are particularly significant—the one at Admiralty Inlet which checks the flow of water between the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound,

1518-628: The double-crested cormorant ( Phalacrocorax auritus ). Puget Sound is home to a non-migratory and marine-oriented subspecies of great blue herons ( Ardea herodias fannini ). Bald eagles ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) occur in relative high densities in the Puget Sound region. Puget Sound has been home to many Indigenous peoples, such as the Lushootseed-speaking peoples , as well as the Twana , Chimakum , and Klallam , for millennia. The earliest known presence of Indigenous inhabitants in

1584-427: The gray whale , another cetacean with both residential and nomadic groups in the Strait. As migratory gray whales swim between Baja California and Alaska each year, they will often be seen in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, feeding on small marine creatures on the seafloor, and using the Strait as a sort of "rest stop" on their long journeys. They also socialize with and encounter the local, non-migratory gray whales in

1650-579: The spiny dogfish ( Squalus acanthias ). There are about 28 species of Sebastidae (rockfish), of many types, found in Puget Sound. Among those of special interest are copper rockfish ( Sebastes caurinus ), quillback rockfish ( S. maliger ), black rockfish ( S. melanops ), yelloweye rockfish ( S. ruberrimus ), bocaccio rockfish ( S. paucispinis ), canary rockfish ( S. pinniger ), and Puget Sound rockfish ( S. emphaeus ). Many other fish species occur in Puget Sound, such as sturgeons , lampreys , various sharks , rays , and skates . Puget Sound

1716-810: The tidal range to increase within Puget Sound. The difference in height between the Higher High Water and the Lower Low Water averages about 8.3 feet (2.5 m) at Port Townsend on Admiralty Inlet, but increases to about 14.4 feet (4.4 m) at Olympia, the southern end of Puget Sound. Puget Sound is generally accepted as the start of the Inside Passage . Important marine flora of Puget Sound include eelgrass ( Zostera marina ) and various kelp , important kelps include canopy forming bull kelp ( Nereocystis luetkeana ). and edible kelps like kombu ( Saccharina latissima ) Among

1782-515: The western grebe ( Aechmophorus occidentalis ); loons such as the common loon ( Gavia immer ); auks such as the pigeon guillemot ( Cepphus columba ), rhinoceros auklet ( Cerorhinca monocerata ), common murre ( Uria aalge ), and marbled murrelet ( Brachyramphus marmoratus ); the brant goose ( Branta bernicla ); seaducks such as the long-tailed duck ( Clangula hyemalis ), harlequin duck ( Histrionicus histrionicus ), and surf scoter ( Melanitta perspicillata ); and cormorants such as

1848-508: The 2010s and 17.2 in 2022 with the COVID-19 pandemic . It is the largest ferry operator in the United States. Over the past 30 years, as the human population of the region has increased, there has been a correlating decrease in various plant and animal species which inhabit Puget Sound. The decline has been seen in numerous populations including forage fish , salmonids, bottom fish, marine birds , harbor porpoise , and orcas . The decline

1914-590: The Chehalis River until the Chimacum Valley  [ ceb ] , in the northeast Olympic Peninsula , melted, allowing the lake's water to rapidly drain north into the marine waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which was rising as the ice sheet retreated. As icebergs calved off the toe of the glacier, their embedded gravels and boulders were deposited in the chaotic mix of unsorted till geologists call glaciomarine drift. Many beaches about

1980-647: The HBC's subsidy operation, the Puget Sound Agricultural Company was established in part to procure resources and trade, as well as to further establish British claim to the region. Missionaries J.P. Richmond and W.H. Wilson were attending Fort Nisqually for two years by 1840. British ships, such as the Beaver , exported foodstuffs and provisions from Fort Nisqually, and would eventually export Puget Sound lumber, an industry that would soon outpace

2046-678: The Indians (still a Hudson's Bay Company monopoly during the gold rush). The route's ongoing use was demonstration of the early colony's essential inability to prevent unregulated intrusion by US citizens, as was also the case with the Okanagan Trail . US troops of the Border Commission who were stationed near the route's southern US end were put on alert during the McGowan's War crisis, and were also stationed there during

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2112-487: The Olympic and Cascade Mountain watersheds. The mean annual river discharge into Puget Sound is 41,000 cubic feet per second (1,200 m /s), with a monthly average maximum of about 367,000 cubic feet per second (10,400 m /s) and minimum of about 14,000 cubic feet per second (400 m /s). Puget Sound's shoreline is 1,332 miles (2,144 km) long, encompassing a water area of 1,020 square miles (2,600 km ) and

2178-538: The Puget Sound region is between 14,000 BCE to 6,000 BCE. Dispatched in an attempt to locate the fabled Northwest Passage , British Royal Navy captain George Vancouver anchored on May 19, 1792, on the shores of Seattle , explored Puget Sound, and claimed it for Great Britain on June 4 the same year, naming it for one of his officers, Lieutenant Peter Puget . He further named the entire region; New Georgia , after King George III . After 1818 Britain and

2244-485: The Puget Sound region with an ice sheet about 3,000 feet (910 m) thick near Seattle, and nearly 6,000 feet (1,800 m) at the present Canada-U.S. border. Since each new advance and retreat of ice erodes away much of the evidence of previous ice ages, the most recent Vashon phase has left the clearest imprint on the land. At its maximum extent the Vashon ice sheet extended south of Olympia to near Tenino , and covered

2310-472: The Sound display glacial erratics , rendered more prominent than those in coastal woodland solely by their exposed position; submerged glacial erratics sometimes cause hazards to navigation. The sheer weight of glacial-age ice depressed the landforms, which experienced post-glacial rebound after the ice sheets had retreated. Because the rate of rebound was not synchronous with the post-ice age rise in sea levels,

2376-539: The United States, which both claimed the Oregon Country , agreed to "joint occupancy", deferring resolution of the Oregon boundary dispute until the 1846 Oregon Treaty . Puget Sound was part of the disputed region until 1846, after which it became US territory. American maritime fur traders visited Puget Sound in the early 19th century. An Hudson's Bay Company expedition led by James McMillan in late 1824

2442-660: The Upper Fraser Valley , about 80 km east of today's Vancouver . In 1858, T. G. Richards built the first brick building in Washington as an outfitter for those using the Whatcom Trail. The name "Whatcom" comes from the Lummi place name x̣ʷátqʷəm , probably meaning "noisy" with reference to a waterfall. A more westerly route now in use for a major border crossing (at Sumas ) was not usable due to

2508-545: The Washington State Board of Geographic Names approved the Salish Sea toponym , not to replace the names of the Strait of Georgia, Puget Sound, and Strait of Juan de Fuca, but instead as a collective term for all three. The British Columbia Geographical Names Office passed a resolution only recommending that the name be adopted by the Geographical Names Board of Canada , should its US counterpart approve

2574-598: The Whatcom Trail during the gold rush, although certainly they may be counted in the thousands. Its existence was in open defiance of the edict from the British Governor on Vancouver Island that access to the Fraser goldfields must be made from Victoria , and then from there via the Fraser River only . In part this measure was intended to prevent the entry of large parties of armed Americans, and also to strip them of any handguns and any goods for trading with

2640-466: The bed of what is now Puget Sound filled alternately with fresh and with sea water. The upper level of the lake-sediment Lawton Clay now lies about 120 feet (37 m) above sea level. The Puget Sound system consists of four deep basins connected by shallower sills. The four basins are Hood Canal , west of the Kitsap Peninsula , Whidbey Basin, east of Whidbey Island, South Sound , south of

2706-595: The climate of the Strait is disputed, with the Köppen system classifying it as Mediterranean , but most regional climatologists preferring oceanic . While the climate is mostly oceanic in nature, the dry summers result in the Mediterranean classification in the Köppen system. Rainfall ranges from over 100 inches (250 cm) ( temperate rainforest ) conditions at the west end to as little as 16 inches (410 mm) at

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2772-538: The dominant fur trading market and drive the early Puget Sound economy. The first organized American expedition took place under the helm of Commander Charles Wilkes , whose exploring party sailed up Puget Sound in 1841. The first permanent American settlement on Puget Sound was Tumwater , founded in 1845 by Americans who had come via the Oregon Trail . The decision to settle north of the Columbia River

2838-726: The east end, near Sequim . Because it is exposed to the generally westerly winds and waves of the Pacific, seas and weather in Juan de Fuca Strait are, on average, rougher than in the more protected waters inland, thereby resulting in a number of small-craft advisories , gale warnings , and storm warnings . An international vehicle ferry, the MV ; Coho , crosses the Strait from Port Angeles, Washington , to Victoria, British Columbia , several times each day. It began operating in 1959, replacing an earlier ferry, and remains privately owned;

2904-604: The edge of the Juan de Fuca Plate are being subducted under the North American Plate . There has not been a major subduction zone earthquake here since the magnitude nine Cascadia earthquake ; according to Japanese records, it occurred on January 26, 1700. Lesser Puget Sound earthquakes with shallow epicenters , caused by the fracturing of stressed oceanic rocks as they are subducted, still cause great damage. The Seattle Fault cuts across Puget Sound, crossing

2970-637: The fifth, called "Northern Puget Sound" includes a large additional region. It is defined as bounded to the north by the international boundary with Canada, and to the west by a line running north from the mouth of the Sekiu River on the Olympic Peninsula. Under this definition, significant parts of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Strait of Georgia are included in Puget Sound, with the international boundary marking an abrupt and hydrologically arbitrary limit. According to Arthur Kruckeberg,

3036-490: The landscape via the mechanics of ice/glaciers, but rather eroding the landscape from melt water of the Vashon Glacier creating the drumlin field. As the ice retreated, vast amounts of glacial till were deposited throughout the Puget Sound region. The soils of the region, less than ten thousand years old, are still characterized as immature. As the Vashon glacier receded a series of proglacial lakes formed, filling

3102-443: The line. Resolution of the issue should be simple, but has been hindered because it might influence other unresolved maritime boundary issues between Canada and the United States. In addition, the government of British Columbia has rejected both equidistant proposals, instead arguing that the Juan de Fuca submarine canyon is the appropriate "geomorphic and physiogeographic boundary". The proposed equidistant boundary currently marks

3168-644: The lowlands between the Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges. About 14,000 years ago the ice began to retreat. By 11,000 years ago it survived only north of the Canada–US border. The melting retreat of the Vashon Glaciation eroded the land, creating a drumlin field of hundreds of aligned drumlin hills. Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish (which are ribbon lakes ), Hood Canal , and the main Puget Sound basin were altered by glacial forces. These glacial forces are not specifically "carving", as in cutting into

3234-617: The main trough of Puget Sound and inundating the southern lowlands. Glacial Lake Russell was the first such large recessional lake. From the vicinity of Seattle in the north the lake extended south to the Black Hills , where it drained south into the Chehalis River . Sediments from Lake Russell form the blue-gray clay identified as the Lawton Clay. The second major recessional lake was Glacial Lake Bretz . It also drained to

3300-1265: The marine mammals species found in Puget Sound are harbor seals ( Phoca vitulina ). Orca ( Orcinus orca ), or "killer whales" are famous throughout the Sound, and are a large tourist attraction. Although orca are sometimes seen in Puget Sound proper they are far more prevalent around the San Juan Islands north of Puget Sound. Many fish species occur in Puget Sound. The various salmonid species, including salmon , trout , and char are particularly well-known and studied. Salmonid species of Puget Sound include chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ), chum salmon ( O. keta ), coho salmon ( O. kisutch ), pink salmon ( O. gorbuscha ), sockeye salmon ( O. nerka ), sea-run coastal cutthroat trout ( O. clarki clarki ), steelhead ( O. mykiss irideus ), sea-run bull trout ( Salvelinus confluentus ), and Dolly Varden trout ( Salvelinus malma malma ). Common forage fishes found in Puget Sound include Pacific herring ( Clupea pallasii ), surf smelt ( Hypomesus pretiosus ), and Pacific sand lance ( Ammodytes hexapterus ). Important benthopelagic fish of Puget Sound include North Pacific hake ( Merluccius productus ), Pacific cod ( Gadus macrocelhalus ), walleye pollock ( Theragra chalcogramma ), and

3366-457: The name-change. The United States Board on Geographic Names approved the name on November 12, 2009. Counties along the Strait of Juan de Fuca: Regional districts along the Strait of Juan de Fuca: Certain groups of seabirds called common murre migrate north by swimming. Some Pacific Coast murres paddle north to the sheltered bays of the Strait of Juan de Fuca to feed on herring and other small fish. Humpback whales can be observed near

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3432-519: The northern boundary of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary . British Columbia's position is based on the principle of natural prolongation which developed in international law . It poses a dilemma for the federal government of Canada. If Canada holds that the principle of natural prolongation applies to the Juan de Fuca Canyon on its Pacific Ocean coast, the assertion could undermine Canada's argument in

3498-540: The one at the entrance to Hood Canal (about 175 ft or 53 m below the surface), and the one at the Tacoma Narrows (about 145 ft or 44 m). Other sills that present less of a barrier include the ones at Blake Island , Agate Pass , Rich Passage , and Hammersley Inlet . The depth of the basins is a result of the Sound being part of the Cascadia subduction zone , where the terranes accreted at

3564-522: The presence of Sumas Lake , a large shallow lake, now drained and turned into agricultural land. An alternate route to the main Whatcom Trail was the Skagit Trail, which went up the river of that name to its headwaters, from which another "back valley" emerges on the Fraser near Hope , then the HBC fur trading post Fort Hope . There are no known statistics for the number of goldseekers who travelled

3630-609: The southern tip of Bainbridge Island and under Elliott Bay . To the south, the existence of a second fault, the Tacoma Fault , has buckled the intervening strata in the Seattle Uplift. Typical Puget Sound profiles of dense glacial till overlying permeable glacial outwash of gravels above an impermeable bed of silty clay may become unstable after periods of unusually wet weather and slump in landslides. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) defines Puget Sound as

3696-422: The subject of a maritime boundary dispute between Canada and the United States. The dispute is only over the seaward boundary extending 200 nautical miles (370 km) west from the mouth of the strait. The maritime boundary within the strait is not in dispute. Both governments have proposed a boundary based on the principle of equidistance , but with different basepoint selections, resulting in small differences in

3762-607: The term Salish Sea to refer to the greater maritime environment. Continental ice sheets have repeatedly advanced and retreated from the Puget Sound region. The most recent glacial period , called the Fraser Glaciation , had three phases, or stades . During the third, or Vashon Glaciation , a lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet , called the Puget Lobe, spread south about 15,000 years ago, covering

3828-449: The term "Puget Sound" is sometimes used for waters north of Admiralty Inlet and Deception Pass, especially for areas along the north coast of Washington and the San Juan Islands, essentially equivalent to NOAA's "Northern Puget Sound" subdivision described above. Kruckeberg uses the term "Puget Sound and adjacent waters". Kruckeberg's 1991 text, however, does not reflect the 2009 decision of the United States Board on Geographic Names to use

3894-400: The waters of Hood Canal , Admiralty Inlet, Possession Sound , Saratoga Passage , and others. It does not include Bellingham Bay , Padilla Bay, the waters of the San Juan Islands or anything farther north. Another definition, given by NOAA , subdivides Puget Sound into five basins or regions. Four of these (including South Puget Sound ) correspond to areas within the USGS definition, but

3960-431: The western coast of Whidbey Island to Point Partridge , then across Admiralty Inlet to Point Wilson ( Quimper Peninsula ). The northern coast of the Olympic Peninsula forms the southern boundary of the strait. In the eastern entrance to the Strait, the Race Rocks Archipelago is in the high current zone halfway between Port Angeles, Washington, and Victoria, BC. Like the rest of the Salish Sea and surrounding regions,

4026-420: The western end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, mostly from June to November, especially in areas near Neah Bay and La Push . There is a resident (non-nomadic) population of killer whale in the Strait and surrounding waters, where they feed on spawning Chinook salmon . The migrating, so-called "transient" populations of killer whale often prey on the California sea lion and Steller's sea lion , in addition to

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4092-408: Was admitted to the union in 1889 as part of the Enabling Act , and the regions borders have since remained unchanged. The Washington State Ferries (WSF) are a state-run ferry system that connects the larger islands of Puget Sound the Washington mainland, and the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas. Its vessels carry both passengers and vehicular traffic. The system averaged 24.3 million passengers in

4158-458: Was depleted by human activities during the 20th century. There are ongoing efforts to restore Olympia oysters in Puget Sound. In 1967, an initial scuba survey estimated that were "about 110 million pounds of geoducks" (pronounced "gooey ducks") situated in Puget Sound's sediments. Also known as "king clam", geoducks are considered to be a delicacy in Asian countries. There are many seabird species of Puget Sound. Among these are grebes such as

4224-459: Was first non-Indigenous group to enter Puget Sound since George Vancouver in 1792. The expedition went on to reach the Fraser River , first again to reach the lower Fraser since Fraser himself in 1808. The first non-Indigenous settlement in the Puget Sound area was Fort Nisqually , a fur trade post of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) built in 1833. Fort Nisqually was part of the HBC's Columbia District , headquartered at Fort Vancouver . In 1838,

4290-435: Was made in part because one of the settlers, George Washington Bush , was considered black and the Provisional Government of Oregon banned the residency of mulattoes but did not actively enforce the restriction north of the river. In 1853 Washington Territory was formed from part of Oregon Territory . In 1888 the Northern Pacific railroad line reached Puget Sound, linking the region to eastern states. Washington State

4356-435: Was the first recorded person to find the strait, unless Juan de Fuca's story was true. The strait was explored in detail between 1789 and 1791 by Manuel Quimper , José María Narváez , Juan Carrasco , Gonzalo López de Haro , and Francisco de Eliza . The United States Geological Survey defines the Strait of Juan de Fuca as a channel . It extends east from the Pacific Ocean between Vancouver Island , British Columbia, and

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