Welcome to the Floating Homes Association

-- Season's Greetings
-- Kayaking Carollers
-- Argosy Christmas Cruise Dates
-- Holiday Houseboatique!
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-- Follow Up: Vancouver Float House Zastrozzi
-- FHA Annual Meeting! April 26th, 2012

Governor Chris Gregoire signs FHA bill into law on April 29, 2011. From l to r : Tom Clingman, Department of Ecology, Nick Federici, FHA Lobbyist, and Lake Union houseboaters, Marty Greer, Amalia Walton with daughter Lilian, Lon Marie Walton and Melissa Ahlers. Photo courtesy of the Washington State House of Representatives

Last year, the City of Seattle undertook to revise its Shoreline Management Plan.  The FHA was involved from the beginning, and though the City was receptive to FHA's concerns, the potential impact of some of the changes spurred the FHA to further action.  Lead by Amalia Walton and the Association's Legislative Committee, the FHA drafted a bill seeking to revise Washington's law to ensure the long-term vitality of our floating community.  Working with the City, the State, and thanks to the strong support of legislators Jamie Pederson, Ed Murray, Frank Chopp, Dave Upthegrove, Jeanne Kohl-Wells and others, the bill passed both the house and the senate!  The bill, which makes explicit the legislature's goal of allowing the "continued use, improvement and replacement" of houseboats, becomes law on July 22, 2011.

120705-1 April 29, 2010 Table of Contents

Juvenile Salmon Use in Lake Union in Relation to Floating Home Complexes
Seattle, Washington

Snorkeling Survey Photos by Pentec. Log of all photos submitted with this report.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

During the spring and summer of 2009, Pentec Environmental conducted a juvenile salmon study in Lake Union for the Floating Home Association (FHA).

The principal objective of the study was to conduct site-specific surveys to provide the City of Seattle with improved scientific data with which to develop reasonable guidance and regulations for floating homes; these data were intended to clarify the actual significance, if any, of these structures to outmigrating juvenile salmon.

Observational data were collected around 9 floating home complexes by fisheries biologists at above water and snorkel transect stations using standardized methodologies. To augment findings, the results from recent acoustic tagging studies conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) were also included in this report.

Results and conclusions are as follows:

• Based on above water and snorkel observation events, juvenile salmonids do not appear to be associated with the Lake Union nearshore either at floating home communities or at the Gas Works Park reference site. Only 1 of 97 observations events conducted between late-April and early-July revealed the presence of juvenile Chinook salmon proximal to floating homes.
• These findings are consistent with juvenile Chinook salmon acoustic tagging studies conducted during the 2007 and 2008 outmigratory period. These studies showed a pattern of use in Lake Union and throughout the Ship Canal characterized by a general offshore use of aquatic habitats. Juvenile salmonids largely selected against nearshore habitats in South Lake Union and Gas Works Park.
• Above water and snorkel results showed that nearshore habitats in the vicinity of floating home complexes were used by several fish species, most abundant was the small forage species threespine stickleback. Several other warm water resident species were present in low to moderate numbers including smallmouth bass, yellow perch, prickly sculpin and sunfish. Most warm water residents were juveniles that would not pose a predatory risk to juvenile salmon.
• No large adult smallmouth bass, northern pikeminnow, or other predatory fish were observed during observation events near or beneath the structures of floating home complexes.
• The prevalent offshore behavior of juvenile salmon in Lake Union is likely influenced by a number of physical and biotic factors including prey abundance, predator avoidance, and the high level of nearshore development already present in the lake.