Watching Our Water Ways

UPDATE, June 7, 2013
Orca Network reported last night:
The L12s, who had been with J pod for a two days, departed late in the afternoon June 2, then returned June 5 with most, if not all, of the rest of L pod. These 60+ orcas traveled up and down their familiar route from south of San Juan Island well into Georgia Strait for the past two days, passing Lime Kiln Lighthouse this evening, heading south.
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June is Orca Awareness Month, as proclaimed by Gov. Jay Inslee, and whale observers are now waiting for all three pods to get back together for their annual salmon feast in the Salish Sea.

In previous years, the three Southern Resident pods might have shown up by now, but it would not be surprising to see them as late as the end of this month or even early July.

Killer whales off the south end of Stuart Island last night.
Photo by Capt. Jim Maya

J pod has been around our local waterways following an unusual absence, as I reported in Water Ways last month (May 16). As of last night, J pod was near Stuart Island, which is just south of the Canadian border, according to a report from Capt. Jim Maya of Maya’s Westside Charters. Jim, who sent the photos shown on this page, called it “one of my best evenings ever on the waters of the San Juan Islands.”

Earlier this week, J pod was seen several times with 10 members of L pod, known as the L-12 subpod, which includes a year-old calf, L-119.

The rest of L pod and K pod have not been back for awhile, although K pod was spotted along the west side of Vancouver Island on May 20. K pod is the one tracked for three months this past winter by researchers with the National Marine Fisheries Service. See Water Ways, April 5.

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Today is Earth Day and a good time to consider the Earth as a whole. Thanks to an impressive set of videos released by NASA in celebration of Earth Month, we can take a wide-angle view of the entire planet.

The first video serves to demonstrate the many images generated by NASA’s fleet of science satellites and aircraft. The space agency chose to accompany the video with music rather than narration, which ties together the images better than a detailed description. To delve more deeply into the science behind the images, visit NASA’s “Missions” page.

The second video shows the beauty of the Earth as seen from the International Space Station. The third is a blend of Earth images, computer animations and glimpses of the science behind it all. Although these videos are not amusing in a humorous way, I hope you’ll find them worth a look on Earth Day.

If you would like more NASA videos, still images and explanations, check out NASA’s “Earth Month 2013.”

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Wednesday is International Polar Bear Day, an unofficial holiday that is gaining increasing attention as more and more people become worried about the future of this unique species.

Nobody seems to know how Polar Bear Day got started, but it has strong connections to the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage and to Polar Bears International, which is leading an enthusiastic campaign to curb global warming and reduce the loss of sea ice, which may be the greatest threat to polar bears.

The campaign goes by the name Save Our Sea Ice! or just SOS!. Check out this bulletin board created by first and second graders at Carpathia School in Winnipeg.

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Brian Maffitt, an experimental videographer from Chestnut Ridge, N.Y., had a brilliant idea when he aimed a video projector out his window into a swirling snowstorm. The result, documented in both still photos and video, resembles abstract art.

“I’ve toyed with the idea of shooting swirling snow for a while, but this was the first big snowstorm we’ve had when I was prepared to experiment,” Maffitt told Lewis Wallace of Wired magazine.

His video can be viewed in the top window on this page; his series of photos can be seen in a Flickr slideshow in the bottom window. Be sure to view both of these full-screen.

Personally, I’m intrigued by the variety of images produced by this blending of nature and technology, knowing that the images are an artifact of the mechanical and electronic function of the video projector. By the way, the video he chose to project was “The Lorax,” a colorful animated film based on a Dr. Seuss book.

The stock music for the video was taken from the video-editing software Final Cut Pro, and I think the piano tune is a nice accompaniment to the video. However, I wish Brian would recognize the poor sound quality on the YouTube video and re-do the soundtrack.

As for the slideshow, he told Chris Lambeth for his blog on F Stoppers:

“I used a somewhat slow shutter speed to capture a little relative motion, but seldom more than a second or so. When the snow was drifting slowly, the results were colorful and etherial. When the snow moved more rapidly however, the spinning color wheel of the projector produced a strobing effect that generated separate red, green, and blue dots where the snowflakes fell… The end results are a wonderful mix of analog photo techniques, augmented by digital projection.”

Maffitt, 50, is a founder and chief creative officer for Total Training, which provides online classes in web design, digital video and related technology.

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If you enjoy environmental photography, the Environmental Protection Agency is an unusual source of photographs from sea to shining sea. They include contributions from amateurs, professionals and EPA staffers, along with one series of photographs connecting history to the modern world.

An EPA diver maps eelgrass beds in Eagle Harbor to assess the success of the Wyckoff cleanup project. / EPA photo, 2007

One can easily get lost, as I sometimes do, following the photo links from the EPA’s photo blog to its Flickr galleries to its Facebook page, with side trips to photo exhibits in the National Archives.

Let me provide a guided tour, if you will. A good place to start is EPA’s State of the Environment Photo Project — especially if you like to share your pictures of nature with others. This is a blog that features interesting and often amusing pictures from throughout the United States and even from other countries.

You may choose to subscribe to EPA’s photo blog in the right column to receive notice of new posts. (Don’t forget that you can subscribe to this “Water Ways” blog as well.)

For the past two years, EPA has been encouraging people to submit photos that document the environment and way of life in the U.S. The Documerica Photo Project updates a similar project launched in the early years of the EPA in the 1970s. It is scheduled to continue through the end of this year.

David Falconer photo of Spokane River and Spokane Falls, May 1973. (Click to enlarge.)
EPA photo

A specific feature of the overall project is “Documerica Then and Now” (Flickr page), in which photographers try to match the exact locations from the original series and place them alongside recent photographs. I’d like to see more contributions from Northwest photographers. Check out one set of “Then” photographs for Seattle and another set for Olympia and Tacoma, or go to the full list of location challenges.

Here’s a match: John Day Dam on the Columbia River, 1973 and 2012, by David Falconer and Scott Butner, respectively. Notice the wind turbines in the modern photo.

David Falconer (Flickr page) documented the fuel shortage and water pollution in the Northwest during the early 1970s. It would be fun to match his photographs, including one of Spokane Falls and another of the Thunderbird Motel alongside the I-5 Bridge over the Columbia River.

Photographer David Falconer captures visitors swimming in the pool at the Thunderbird Motel alongside the I-5 Bridge on the Columbia River, May 1973. (Click to enlarge.)
EPA photo

It’s a quick jump to the National Archives photostream, where the original Documerica photographs are displayed.

To view recent submittals to the Documerica Project and other EPA galleries, you have the choice of using either EPA’s Facebook photo page or its Flickr page. Both options provide a wide range of EPA photo albums.

Although not connected with the Documerica project, you may wish to wander into the Puget Sound gallery, which features staff photos from our familiar waterway, which EPA calls “a place of rare biological diversity and high economic value.” That’s where I found the picture of the EPA diver assessing conditions at the bottom of Bainbridge Island’s Eagle Harbor.

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Bolstered by a low-pressure weather system, yesterday’s “King Tide” was felt throughout Puget Sound. At its extreme, the high tide came within 0.01 feet of breaking the all-time tidal record set for Seattle on Jan. 27, 1983.

Reporter Chris Henry wrote about some of the local problems in a story published in today’s Kitsap Sun. And the Sun’s editors put together a “photo gallery” of pictures taken by area residents. Pictures from other areas were posted on the Flickr website, where the Department of Ecology manages the “Washington King Tide Photo Initiative.”

I especially liked Jim Groh’s photos of the Poulsbo waterfront. Take a close look at the picture taken yesterday (below) and compare it to the one in Sunday’s Water Ways entry, which shows last year’s King Tide. If the word “Poulsbo” doesn’t look right in the picture below, it’s because the bottom half of the letters are under water.

This week’s King Tides are declining, but they are expected to be high again starting Jan. 14.

Poulsbo’s waterfront on Liberty Bay. / Photo by Jim Groh

Silverdale Waterfront Park on Dyes Inlet. / Photo by John Yates

The boat ramp at Fort Ward on Bainbridge Island was nearly covered by water. / Photo by Julie Leung

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Some of the highest tides of the year, combined with a strong low-pressure system, could provide “King Tide” observers with ideal conditions tomorrow (Monday) for taking pictures of near-flood conditions or even flooding in some places.

This is the third year the Washington Department of Ecology has put out a call for photos of high-tide conditions.

Photo of Poulsbo waterfront taken during “King Tides” Dec. 28, 2011.
Photo by James Groh, Poulsbo

“Documenting how very high tides affect the natural environment and our coastal infrastructure will help us visualize what sea level rise might look like in the future,” states Ecology’s “Climate Change” blog.

The King Tide photo initiative began in Australia in January 2009. Washington and British Columbia joined in 2010, followed by Oregon and California in 2011.

Tide tables predict that tides in Bremerton and Port Orchard will reach 13.4 feet at 8:28 a.m. tomorrow. Check on other locations and other days in Washington state at Saltwater Tides.

The National Weather Service has issued a coastal flood advisory for Western Washington because of low-pressure conditions, which could add 1.5 feet to the tide table prediction. That would put the Bremerton area at 14.9 feet. Check out the Weather Service advisory and the Kitsap Sun story.

While it looks like we’ll have a very high tide, it probably won’t be a record. I was unable to find historical data for Bremerton, but the record high tide for Seattle is 22.4 feet on Jan. 27, 1983. The tide tables predict that Seattle will reach 12.5 feet tomorrow, or 14 feet with the added 1.5 feet because of the low pressure.

Historical data can be found on NOAA’s “Tides and Currents” webpage after selecting a station.

Shortly after I posted this, Jeff Adams of Washington Sea Grant sent me an email to point out that NOAA’s numbers need to be corrected by subtracting 7.94, because NOAA uses a different baseline than we commonly use in this area. That would place the record in Seattle at 14.5 feet, much closer to what we may see tomorrow. I should have known that something was amiss with that data. For more on this point, check out Jeff’s blog, Sea Life. 

King Tides will continue through this week, declining slightly each day, then will return on Jan. 14.

I’m certainly not hoping for high water levels, but where they occur it would be great to have some photos. Feel free to send them to me at cdunagan, as well as uploading to the Flickr page called “Washington King Tide Photo Initiative.”

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I’m always pleased to present the winners of “National Wildlife” magazine’s annual photo contest. This year’s winning photos seem better than ever.

The magazine’s editors say they continue to be surprised by the quality of the entries — which reached 28,000 in the 2012 contest. And they were pleased to see expected and unexpected animal behaviors shown in the images.

To view the top winners and the stories behind the photos, go to the page “2012 Photo Contest Winners” on the National Wildlife Federation’s website.

The photo of the leopard seal and the baby penguin captures a moment after the seal ambushes the bird and starts playing with his food. The photographer, Amos Nachoum of San Francisco, had to hang out patiently under water to catch this and similar images.

The photo of sockeye salmon was captured when photographer David Hall of Woodstock, N.Y., tried to escape the swift current by taking refuge near a tree trunk. The stream is the Adams River of British Columbia.

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When 60 students from Central Kitsap High School took off in double kayaks to look for jumping salmon, they had no idea how the changing weather would make the trip more exciting.

Bill Wilson, who teaches environmental science, organized Tuesday’s trip on Dyes Inlet near Silverdale. Lead guide Spring Courtright of Olympic Outdoor Center shares the story in her words.

Reminder: Free stream tours from land are scheduled for Saturday. See the story I wrote for Tuesday’s Kitsap Sun.

Wind pushes the kayaks along, as 60 Central Kitsap High School students return to Silverdale Tuesday after watching jumping salmon. / Photos by Spring Courtright

By Spring Courtright
Program Director, Olympic Outdoor Center

At 9 a.m. on election day, anyone peering through the fog at Silverdale Waterfront Park would have seen 35 bright kayaks lined up on the beach and 60 high school students preparing to paddle.

Central Kitsap High School environmental science students study salmon in class, then are given the option to paddle with jumping salmon on an annual Salmon Kayak Tour with the Olympic Outdoor Center (OOC). For the last two years, 60 students have jumped on the opportunity.

This trip started about 10 years ago with about half that number of students. I have been one of the lead guides for nearly all of these tours. It’s always an adventure, but this year was one of the more memorable trips because of the beautiful clouds and quick change in weather.
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A giant Pacific octopus with 4- to 5-foot tentacles washed up dead this week at Elandan Gardens in Gorst. Diane Robinson, who owns the gardens with her husband Dan, called to tell us about it, and I went by and took a few photos.

Marine biologist Jeff Adams of Washington Sea Grant, who writes a blog for the Kitsap Sun, says there are probably plenty of places for the creatures to live in Sinclair Inlet, including rocky shores and sunken boats. Jeff wrote about octopuses in his blog Sea Life in February of 2010.

Diane Robinson with an octopus that washed up dead at Elandan Gardens near Gorst
Photo by Christopher Dunagan

Some facts about the giant Pacific octopus, taken from the blog Wild Pacific Northwest by Ivan Phillipsen and the National Geographic website:

• The record size of a giant Pacific octopus is about 30 feet (9.1 meters) from tip to tip with a weight of more than 600 pounds (272 kilograms).
• They live to about 4 years old, and both males and females die soon after breeding. Females usually live long enough to take care of their eggs and watch them hatch.
• They hunt at night. living mostly on shrimp, crab and fish. Their suckers can taste and capture their prey, which is brought to a sharp beak, the only hard part on its body.
• They can change colors to blend in with their surroundings.
• They are highly intelligent with a brain that encircles the throat and extends down to each tentacle. In laboratory tests, they have been been able to distinguish shapes and patterns, solve mazes and twist off jar lids.
• During sleep, they demonstrate brainwave patterns that suggest dreaming.

One of my Amusing Monday pieces focused on a video of a battle between an octopus and a shark. I later learned that the video was taken at the Seattle Aquarium, and I told the story behind the video.

Amusing Monday: Battle of the Depths

Update on share-versus-octopus battle

If that’s not enough, check out the videos I posted during Octopus Week at the Seattle Aquarium:

Amusing Monday: You’ve got to love an octopus

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