Watching Our Water Ways

Navy officials have approved a plan to deploy specially trained Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions to protect the Navy’s submarine base at Bangor.

Dolphins will be used to guard the Navy's submarine base at Bangor, similar to operations at King's Bay, Ga., and other places.
U.S. Navy photo by Veronica Birmingham

Roger Natsuhara, acting assistant secretary of the Navy for installation and environment, signed the record of decision (PDF 1.7 mb) on Wednesday. Check the document for official details about the program.

Reporter Ed Friedrick wrote a story about the decision for Thursday’s Kitsap Sun. His article includes the following description of how the Navy plans to use the marine mammals.

The dolphins, accompanied by handlers in small power boats, will work at night. If they find an intruder, they’ll swim back to the boat and alert the handler, who will place a strobe light on a dolphin’s nose. It will race back and bump the intruder’s back, knocking the light off. The light will float to the surface, marking the spot. The dolphin will swim back to the boat, join the handler, and they’ll clear out as security guards speed to the strobe to subdue the intruder.

Sea lions can carry in their mouths special cuffs attached to long ropes. If they find a suspicious swimmer, they clamp the cuff around the person’s leg. The intruder can then be reeled in.

The dolphins’ sonar is better than any that man has made and they’re best for moving quickly in open water. Sea lions can see and hear better underwater and are better for shallower work around piers

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

Early next year, two reports will be released focusing on the conditions of the nearshore ecosystem throughout the Puget Sound region. These reports will mark a turning point for the Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project, an effort that could lead to a multi-billion-dollar restoration effort. Read some details in a story I wrote for today’s Kitsap Sun.

I haven’t had a chance to dig deeply into all the reports written for this project the past few years, but they provide a true framework for understanding the structure and function of shoreline habitats. I hope to find time to study these reports, as I would a college textbook. I encourage anyone seeking to increase his or her level of knowledge about ecology to take a close look.

Here is the list of reports you can find on the Web site of the Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project.
Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

As part of an effort to rebuild Northwest populations of endangered frogs — specifically Oregon spotted frogs — two inmates at Cedar Creek Corrections Center near Olympia were given 80 frog eggs with the goal of growing them into adult frogs.

Oregon spotted frog// Photo courtesy of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

The two — Harry Greer and Al Delp — not only took the job seriously, their frogs grew larger and with a higher survival rate than identical frogs grown by experts at Woodland Park Zoo and Oregon Zoo.

Sarah Waller, a reporter for KUOW News, tells the story well, and I encourage you to listen to her report. Other accounts are provided in a news release from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and in a newspaper story by Jennifer Sullivan of the Seattle Times.

What Sarah Waller does not tell us is why the inmates were able to grow larger frogs, so I contacted Marc Hayes, project leader for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research has announced that the newest killer whale calf, designated J-46, should be known as “Star,” because the young animal has garnered so much attention.

This newborn calf could become a poster child in the effort to save the Southern Residents from extinction.

Ken’s naming announcement came as a surprise to me, because he rarely uses names for our local orcas. Like most killer whale researchers, Ken and other staffers at the Center for Whale Research generally call the whales by the alpha-numeric system set up by researchers many years ago.
Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

The photo below, titled “Quiet Waters” by Michele Lewis of Kingston, won the People’s Choice Award at a recent photo contest sponsored by Stillwaters Environmental Center near Kingston. The photo, taken at a pond along Hansville Road, was chosen to adorn the cover of the first Stillwaters Calendar, a fund-raiser for the nonprofit organization. To view and order the calendar, visit the MagCloud Web site.

The calendar also features the photos of other winners of the photo contest: Brandy Dickinson of Port Orchard in the beginner category; Kathy Henry of Kingston and Teresa Heather of Poulsbo, both winners in the amateur category; Bonnie Block of Kingston in the talented amateur category; and Paula Suter of Poulsbo in the professional category.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

I often play a guessing game that involves rainfall and streamflows: Are we getting the right amount of rain to help our salmon, or are the rains causing streamflows to be too high or too low?

A coho salmon tries to leap into a culvert against the rushing water in a stream above Wildcat Lake Kitsap Sun photo by Meegan M. Reid

It is easy to come up with an answer when we’ve had hardly any rain. The streams are running low; salmon are ready to swim upstream; and fish in the stream are obviously struggling through shallow water. We’ve seen this kind of condition in early fall during many recent years.

When can we say we’ve had enough rain? Well, certainly when a wide variety of streams and rivers are flooding over their banks. But because of the complexity of natural systems, there may never be a “just right” level for salmon.

I was up above Wildcat Lake in Central Kitsap yesterday, discussing the conditions with Jon Oleyar, a biologist for the Suquamish Tribe. Thanks to recent rains, coho salmon are well distributed throughout the Chico Creek watershed, which includes Wildcat Lake.
Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

NASA reported last week that data from its Oct. 9 moon mission demonstrates the presence of water on the surface of the moon. See LCROSS pages and/or LCROSS video.

NASA photo

I realized immediately that this discovery of water was both good news and bad news. On the good side, we’ll have something to drink when we take our vacations on the moon. The request “shaken, not stirred” will have real utility. On the bad side, we won’t be allowed to use any of this water until legal water rights are worked out. Based on our experience in Washington state, that will never happen.

Soon after NASA’s announcement, speculation about the political and business implications of moon water began to hit the news services.
Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

It seems like $4.6 million is a lot of money for removing abandoned fishing nets from the waters of Puget Sound. But I bet most people would agree that it would be great to get rid of 90 percent of the nets still submerged and killing marine life.

Twila Dawn Captain Steve Sigo (right) and First Mate Aaron Leschi (left) help diver Jake Johnston suit up for his dive at Apple Tree Cove near Kingston on Thursday, when the crew brought up an abandoned fishing net.
Kitsap Sun photo by Meegan M. Reid

Kitsap Sun reporter Tara Garcia Mathewson was on a boat Thursday, watching divers bring up a net in Apple Tree Cove near Kingston. See the story she wrote for today’s Kitsap Sun as well as a video.

Ray Frederick of Kitsap Poggie Club first informed me about “ghost nets” more than a decade ago. At the time, officials were just becoming aware about how much damage the nets can do. But, when it came to money, it wasn’t a high priority. State officials were reluctant to allow volunteers to do much, in part because they worried about people’s safety, or so they said. There also seemed to be a concern about using robotic equipment to yank up the nets, because it could harm sea life and undersea habitat where the nets were wrapped around rocks.

Now, with federal stimulus dollars, professional divers are on the job with a goal of removing 3,000 nets before the end of next year. If I’ve done the math correctly, we’re talking about a little more than $1,500 for each net.

For perspective on the history, see stories I wrote for the Kitsap Sun in May of 2000 and in June of 2002.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

I updated the story about the new newborn killer whale calf for Friday’s Kitsap Sun with some last minute information from conservation biologist Fred Felleman, who spent a good part of Thursday afternoon with J and K pods.

A newborn killer whale calf, designated J-46, was photographed Thursday afternoon while swimming with its mother, J-28, south of Whidbey Island and west of Hansville
Photo courtesy of Fred Felleman

Here’s the new information from the story:

“It was a spectacular encounter,” Felleman said. “They were spread out on both sides of the (Possession) Bank, running north and south.”

“I got a cute shot of the calf riding behind mom’s dorsal fin,” Felleman said, noting that the calf’s grandmother, J-17 or Princess Angeline, stayed between the calf and the boat the whole time. “It was a magical day.”

“Surfing? Really?” I asked Fred. I could picture in my mind the big wave from the freighter, but I couldn’t quite imagine what the whales were doing. Fred said he would send me pictures to share with readers of Water Ways.

Here are three of the pictures he sent, beginning with one of the ship:

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

I received word tonight from Orca Network that a new calf has been born in J Pod. I’ve written the following story for tomorrow’s Kitsap Sun:

New orca calf born in J Pod.
Photo by Jeanne Hyde

A newborn killer whale calf has been reported in J Pod, one of the three pods that frequent the Salish Sea, which includes Puget Sound.

This birth brings the population of J Pod to 27 and the total for all three pods to 87.
—–
This appears to be J-28’s first baby. See Center for Whale Research.

For some first-hand accounts of the exciting discovery, check blogs by Jeanne Hyde and Monika Wieland.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post