Feed aggregator

The connection seems obvious until you look into the complexities:

1. Puget Sound chinook salmon are listed as a “threatened” species.
2. Southern Resident killer whales, which frequent Puget Sound, are listed as “endangered.”
3. Southern Resident killer whales eat primarily chinook salmon.

Therefore … isn’t it obvious that the shortage of Puget Sound chinook has had a major impact on the whales?

Once you begin to challenge the assumptions — as a seven-member scientific panel has done — a more complex picture emerges. It is not easy to sort out predator-prey interactions, especially considering that the prey may include hundreds of individual salmon stocks, some of which are doing quite well.

The independent panel (PDF 144 kb), made up of U.S. and Canadian scientists, tackled the question of whether cutbacks or elimination of salmon fishing could help rebuild the killer whale population at a faster rate. The panel’s preliminary conclusion is that reducing fisheries could have a slight benefit, but only if certain assumptions hold true.

I tried to cover all the bases in a story published in yesterday’s Kitsap Sun. But if you are really interested in this complex subject, you need to read the preliminary findings (PDF 1.5 mb) for yourself, keeping in mind that the report is likely to be revised one more time before it is completed.

As for the “obvious” relationship between Puget Sound chinook and our local killer whales, here’s what Pat Pattillo of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife told me:

“A lot of people originally concluded that orcas are in bad shape because Puget Sound chinook are in bad shape. We have discovered that maybe the orcas are not doing so badly (with an annual growth rate of 1 percent) and that they are not even eating Puget Sound chinook.”

In the summer, the whales eat primarily chinook headed back to the Fraser River in Canada, and most Fraser River stocks are doing fairly well, Pat explained.

In the fall, starting about September, the killer whales come south into Central Puget Sound, where they dine on relatively healthy stocks of fall chum salmon.

In winter, the whales generally head out to the Pacific Ocean, where it isn’t so clear what they’re eating. It’s an expensive research project to collect fecal samples from whales in the open ocean, but that’s one way to learn if the whales have a preference for a particular stock of salmon or if they’re eating other kinds of fish.

If experienced scientists have trouble sorting out the assumptions, what does that mean for the rest of us? I think it suggests that we should keep an open mind, review the findings and be prepared to change our thinking if new evidence becomes available.

I’m reminded of an email last year from a Bremerton resident who responded to reports of killer whales swimming through our local waters. Unlike most people, this man seemed dismayed that orcas were around.

“The evidence is staring you in the face why the salmon population is in peril,” he said, blaming marine mammals for the decline of salmon. “The hype and harassment by government continues to blame everybody but the natural appetites of salmon predators.”

It was odd to hear his rant, especially since these particular orcas had been identified as transient killer whales, which eat marine mammals. When I suggested that they were probably eating seals and sea lions and thus saving some salmon from being eaten, it meant nothing to him.

“Give me a break!” he wrote back. “Orcas save salmon? That’s like saying nets across the streams are good for salmon runs, because they catch the dumb salmon and the smart ones get by… Believe what you want, but reality is reality.”

What could I say to that? I guess people who are unable to change their minds simply invent their own reality.

To review the information collected by the independent panel, go to the web page: Effects of Salmon Fisheries on Southern Resident Killer Whales.

Tweet This Post

Share on Facebook

Seth Casteel is a pet photographer who does not believe in sitting your pet down in a studio for a formal portrait. Instead, he always looks for an element of surprise.

During one photo shoot, Casteel was shooting pictures of a dog jumping into a swimming pool. Looking for a better vantage point, he purchased an underwater point-and-shoot camera and gained a surprising new underwater angle on the dog — a Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Buster.

That was the beginning of a series of underwater dog shoots, according to a report by Eve Becker in “Tails,” magazine, a publication focused on pets.

In February, Seth’s collection of photographs went viral on the Internet, where it was picked up on all kinds of blogs and email lists. Overnight, his website, LittleFriendsPhoto.com, jumped from 200 to 30,000 hits, causing the server to crash.

“I went from not having enough business to having too much business,” he told Becker.

Seth’s overnight success story is told by writer Jakob Schiller in an article in “Wired” magazine.

Although this pet photographer is busier than ever, the extra attention has helped him further the nonprofit company, Second Chance Photos, he started last year to help animal shelters adopt out more pets. Too often, he says, photos posted on animal-adoption websites and published in newspapers are simple mugshots of poor quality. Casteel travels around the country to teach shelter staff to compose better pictures and improve on image quality.

An idea that anybody can use when taking pictures of pets is to get them into an active mode, and seek out elements of surprise. That’s why the pictures of dogs diving into the water are so popular. Seth suggested in the Becker piece that one can simply hide behind the couch and call your dog to come:

“When the dog finds you, you’ll get a very surprised reaction. So have your camera ready. As soon as that happens, snap! The moment they find you is the moment you take the picture.”

Seth’s own slide show of underwater dogs can be found on his website Little Friends Photo, where he also sells the prints of the images.

Photo courtesy of Seth Casteel, Little Friends Photo

Tweet This Post

Share on Facebook

Fishermen who catch chinook salmon in the Salish Sea probably are not depriving killer whales of a meal — at least not to the extent that some people believed. That’s the preliminary conclusion of an independent panel of seven U.S. and Canadian scientists. The group was convened to figure out whether the endangered Southern Resident [...]

In a major concession to the forest industry, the Wild Olympics Campaign is accepting the elimination of a “willing-buyer, willing-seller” provision of a land and scenic preservation plan — originally generated by the group — that would have allowed privately owned land to be absorbed into Olympic National Park, group organizer Connie Gallant of Quilcene [...]

Habitat restoration is planned on a 1,200-foot stretch of Ediz Hook this summer. The Lower Elwha ­Klallam tribe and state Department of Natural Resources will restore the “A-frame” site on the spit, a former log dump area that was used until the 1970s. It will be cleared of fill and existing structures during an eight-week [...]

Poulsbo is the first local jurisdiction in Kitsap County to update its Shoreline Master Program, as required by state law, and send it on to the Washington Department of Ecology for ratification.

The Poulsbo City Council approved the document Wednesday, as reported by Kitsap Sun reporter Amy Phan.

As required by formal state policies, the shorelines plan adopts numerous new regulations to accomplish these basic goals:

• Protect the quality of water and the natural environment to achieve “no net loss” of ecological function as time goes on,
• Encourage water-dependent uses along the shoreline while discouraging uses that are not connected to the water,
• Preserve and enhance public access and recreational uses along the shoreline.

Poulsbo shoreline designations (Click to download full size (PDF 976 kb).)

Keri Weaver, Poulsbo’s associate planner, does a good job outlining the content of the Poulsbo Shoreline Master Program in her staff report (PDF 224 kb) submitted to the City Council. The full SMP (PDF 552 kb) is more revealing and not difficult to read.

The document lists five “shoreline environments,” defined by ecological characteristics and current uses, each with its own development rules:

• Shoreline residential
• High intensity
• Urban conservancy
• Natural
• Aquatic

Check out the shoreline maps to locate each of the environments.

The always-controversial issue of buffers was settled during the previous update of Poulsbo’s Critical Areas Ordinance. The City Council saw no reason to revisit its justification for 100-foot buffers along the city’s saltwater shoreline on Liberty Bay and 150-foot buffers along Dogfish Creek, the largest stream draining into bay. In addition, 25-foot setbacks expand the no-building zone, but water-dependent uses and public access may be exempt from those setbacks.

In Poulsbo, a number of structures are prohibited everywhere along the shoreline. They include boat launches, haul-outs and docks except in marinas; private boat houses; dikes; fill except for habitat restoration; and in-stream structures except for public access, public utilities and habitat restoration.

Existing piers, docks and boat launches outside of boating facilities may be maintained, however.

Bulkheads and other shore-stabilization structures will be allowed only when shown that a primary structure, such as a house, is in danger from waves, tidal action or currents. The applicant must show that damage would occur within three years unless quick action could avoid ecological damage at a later time. Soft-bank protection, such as placement of anchored logs and rocks, is the preferred method of stabilization.

Minor repairs and replacements of a bulkhead would be allowed, but if replacement involves more than 50 percent of the structure, the owner may need to prove that the repair is needed to protect a primary structure.

Shoreline trees and native vegetation are protected in the Poulsbo shoreline plan to maintain ecological function. Danger trees may be removed, subject to city approval and mitigation. Other vegetation must be maintained with exceptions for water-related uses, public recreation, city-approved view corridors, utilities and roads. To enhance views or improve a tree’s health, no more than one-fifth of the tree’s original crown may be removed. Non-native vegetation may be removed, provided it does not cause environmental damage.

As for whether an existing residential structure should be considered a “conforming” use, property owners are entitled to submit evidence showing that the structure was legally permitted when it was built.

In addition to the regulatory sections of the SMP, the City Council approved a new Restoration Plan (PDF 2.2 mb), which focuses mainly on further restoration opportunities at Poulsbo Fish Park, existing and future city parks and road ends.

A required Cumulative Impact Analysis (PDF 4.6 mb) supports the idea of “no net loss” by making sure that new development does not degrade the shoreline environment or else makes up for the damage through “mitigation sequencing”: 1) avoiding impacts where possible, 2) minimizing impacts on the property, and 3) conducting mitigation projects where needed.

Tweet This Post

Share on Facebook

I wonder if anyone has noticed that I’ve been away from this Water Ways blog for a time. Aside from visiting my youngest daughter in Yakima, where she had her first baby, I’ve been occupied with breaking news for the Kitsap Sun.

There is no shortage of things to talk about, however, and I’d like to start with the recently approved two-year Science Work Plan for the Puget Sound Partnership.

Joe Gaydos

In developing a plan to investigate science-related questions, the Partnership’s Science Panel set out to identify weaknesses in our overall understanding of the Puget Sound ecosystem. The panel chose to be strategic about filling the gaps in our knowledge.

“We want to know everything, of course,” chairman Joe Gaydos told me. “But just because there’s a gap in our knowledge does not mean we should go out and do a study.

“The real question is, where does the lack of science hinder our ability to make decisions? We’re not just doing science for science’s sake but to help us make better decisions.”

For the Puget Sound Partnership, the most important questions are related to restoration and recovery. The Science Panel came up with 48 actions in three focus areas, taking guidance from the Puget Sound Action Agenda:

• Protect and restore terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems (12 actions)
• Protect and restore marine and nearshore ecosystems (9 actions)
• Reduce and control sources of pollution to Puget Sound (16 actions)

Another focus area looks to the future:

• Emerging issues — ocean acidification (3 actions)
• Scientific tools for informing policy (3 actions)
• Coordinated ecosystem monitoring (1 action)
• Human dimensions in ecosystems (4 actions)

For a quick summary of these science projects, see Priority Science Areas (PDF 152 kb).

At the highest level, the Science Panel has been stressing the need to develop analytical tools to help policy makers decide on specific restoration projects.

For example, a lot of shoreline-restoration projects are under way in Puget Sound, but how do we know we are spending our money on the right ones? We are restoring habitats, but are they the most important habitats to the overall ecosystem of Puget Sound?

The two-year plan notes:

“Valuable information is available on the status and historical changes in physical structure of marine and nearshore shorelines. However, information and analytical tools … need to be improved.”

Important improvements include:

• “Incorporating additional physical attributes as well as biogenic structures like eelgrass, kelp or coastal forest condition into estimates of ecosystem services provided by shorelines.
• “Assessing the impacts of barrier features on embayments.
• “Increasing understanding of the effects of protection and restoration at different spatial and ecological scales, ranging from local domains (e.g., marshes, beaches, drift cells) to process domains (e.g., geomorphic units and salinity regimes) to landscape domains …
• “More robustly incorporating rare forms, species, and processes in understanding landscape composition.
• “Including landscapes and habitats used by target species.
• “Incorporating threats to ecosystem services and potential for protection.
• “Incorporating human use and values.”

“What we don’t want to do,” Joe told me, “is pretend we have a science-based restoration effort when we are actually going out and restoring places where people want to go.”

Besides creating analytical tools, the Science Panel believes that helpful new findings can be developed by compiling and analyzing unrelated monitoring reports and scientific studies in ways nobody has done before.

Of the 48 science actions in the plan, one-third rely on existing information; nearly one-fourth are focused on trends and effectiveness monitoring; and less than half (44 percent) require new research to better understand ecological mechanisms and relationships.

Unlike the work plan from two years ago, the latest plan will be tracked carefully to see if the research efforts get done, Joe said. The first step is to visit with leaders of agencies and organizations already doing research to determine if the priority science projects can be incorporated into work already being done.

A meeting on Monday will begin to determine who should be responsible for what actions.

“What are the items that the Partnership is responsible for?” Joe queried. “What are the things we can expect the University of Washington to do or the Department of Ecology to do?

“We’ll be taking our list around to the different agencies. A big role of the Partnership is to coordinate all these efforts. We want to get the work done that can answer the questions and have the whole effort be science based.”

Last, but not least, the Science Panel will work with environmental educators to help bring scientific knowledge to the people of Puget Sound, without whose support the restoration effort would surely grind to a halt.

In August, the Puget Sound Leadership Council is scheduled to tackle the question of how to fund the two-year science plan.

Download the full two-year Puget Sound Science Work Plan (PDF 2.2 mb).

Tweet This Post

Share on Facebook

The Family Forest Fish Passage Program (FFFPP) just received $10 million as part of a jobs package that the legislature just funded and the Governor signed on Monday April 23rd.  This money is to fund the Family Forest Fish Passage Program, a program that helps small forest landowners meet their RMAP requirements which is essentially [...]

We who live here on the Strait face daily pollution from the hundreds of tankers, freighters and cruise ships that pass by. When the wind is up, it’s not a big problem,but when it’s still, it can be very noticeable. And the health risks here have not been studied. More on the ongoing issue of [...]

The Coast Guard is changing out bulbs in navigational markers in Puget Sound. But these are not ordinary bulbs in navigational marker that boats, ships and ferries use to find their way safely through Puget Sound. Currently a bulky lamp, battery and separate solar panel occupy the platform. The crew is swapping that system out [...]

Across the Strait from us, a mom out for a stroll with her camera caught a most unusual site. She documented a gull being caught by an octopus. Fascinating!  It reminds me of my wife and I watching an eagle swoop down and take away a baby otter off North Beach two years or so [...]

The sediment loads in the Elwha River are spiking because the reservoir behind former Elwha Dam is now completely gone. That means the settling of fines that used to occur in the lake is no longer happening so all that material is pouring into the river, and heading on down to the Strait of Juan [...]

The City of Port Angeles has applied to the Department of Ecology for a water quality permit so that it can build a pipeline for its combined sewer overflow (CSO) project. Ecology is holding a public comment period on the draft permit from April 16 – May 16, 2012. The proposed National Pollutant Discharge Elimination [...]

        PORT ANGELES — Local environmental restoration projects will get a boost thanks to an agreement signed today by federal, state and tribal natural resource trustees to jointly conduct Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) activities within Port Angeles Harbor.         The NRDA process involves evaluating injuries to natural resources due to releases of hazardous materials [...]

Some of us are delighted when we see a rainbow. If we are lucky enough to see a double rainbow, we are doubly delighted.

But one man, who calls himself Yosemite Bear, was driven to ecstasy by the sight of a double rainbow. Click on the video player (at right) now, and then read on for more background.

If you’re like me, you laughed out loud at this man’s excitement. “Double rainbow all the way! What does it mean? Oh, my God!” And then you wonder. Is this guy nuts or is there something we should know about him?

Well, it turns out that a lot of people have watched this video since Yosemite Bear made it two years ago. Many have mocked him. (Just search for “double rainbow” on YouTube.) But others have appreciated the pure joy he expressed.

On the side of appreciation, I believe, is the brilliant autotune version “Double Rainbow Song” by The Gregory Brothers.

Now, the simple explanation for Bear’s excitement is that he had been seeing a lot of rainbows at the time he made the video. And he took the double rainbow as a personal sign from the spirits of the universe. No sex, no drugs were involved. Just the pure joy of connecting with God. It would be nice to leave the story there.

Shortly after the video was produced, Yosemite Bear appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and since then he has appeared on other programs. He seems like a nice guy, but his explanations — including a short video he produced last week — never come close to what you can hear for yourself in his voice when listening to the original video.

Yosemite Bear, whose real name is Paul Vasquez, has gone on to create lots of videos on his YouTube channel — from organic gardening to riding a bike to lose weight. He’s even promoting a new mobile app that will put a double rainbow over any picture you wish to take. What can I say? The guy’s gotten a taste of fame.

Returning to the joy of rainbows, there’s this simple video taken while driving down the road, shown on DarkRose357.

The Irish say there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but this photo shows otherwise.

Then there’s the YouTube video featuring a woman who spots a rainbow in her sprinkler on a sunny day and believes there must be something in the water.

“I’m just wondering what the heck is in our water supply… that creates a rainbow effect in a sprinkler. What is oozing out of our ground that allows this type of effect to happen. Not just around our sun and our moon anymore… Everywhere we look the visible spectrum is rainbows. This cannot be natural. We all know this was not something that happened 20 years ago, but it is happening how. We as a nation have got to ask ourselves what the hell is going on.”

I’ll leave the topic of rainbows on a more friendly note, with Kermit the Frog’s “Rainbow Connection.”

Tweet This Post

Share on Facebook

In talking to ‘old timers’ who have fished most of their lives out on the Peninsula, the Hoko often figures in their memories as the place that they caught their largest fish. Good to see that efforts are underway to recover the habitat. – Editor ——————————————— The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe and Rayonier have proposed [...]

Canada’s new conservative government continues to strip away environmental protections… ————————————— The Harper government unveiled a massive omnibus budget implementation bill Thursday that includes Fisheries Act amendments that will strip the term “habitat” from the most crucial section of the law. The government’s intent, according to a spokeswoman, to assist “everyday Canadians” in their dealings [...]

As Victorians fuss about the idea of an expanded Kinder Morgan pipeline sending 350 oil tankers sliding past our front door every year, consider this: We already have 800 going the other way. U.S. government statistics show 548 tankers entered Juan de Fuca Strait bound for Washington state ports in 2010. Another 252 came in [...]

Shaw TV has created a nice 3minute overview on what the Salish Sea is and it’s importance. Good basic primer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXWJB_YHmdY&feature=plcp Filed under: Puget Sound Tagged: video

Ocean Frontiers doesn’t have a dragonfly inspired alien or a mutant invasive snakehead fish (I love that stuff!), but it is an opportunity to see some inspiring examples of how stakeholders with very different interests can address issues in ocean conservation… to mutual benefit. After a brief introduction, the case studies begin with an amazing [...]