Watching Our Water Ways

The Washington King Tide Initiative is entering its third year, and state officials would like people to shoot photographs of flooded roads, yards and buildings — if such events occur.

In 2010, the high tide at the mouth of Gorst Creek comes close to reaching Toys Topless at the head of Sinclair Inlet in Gorst.
Photo by Meegan M. Reid, Kitsap Sun

High tides are expected to continue for the next few days and return to high levels again in mid-January. Whether flooding occurs at any one place depends on rainfall, winds and atmospheric pressure, as well as tidal levels dictated by the position of the moon and sun. (See NOAA Ocean Service Education.)

Not much flooding occurred during king tides last year, but plenty of photographs were collected in early 2010. That’s when the picture on this page was taken in Gorst between Bremerton and Port Orchard. For additional photos, check out the Flickr page or the video slide show put together by the Washington Department of Ecology.

Taking note of these high tides is one way to gauge how climate change may affect shoreline areas. Over the next 100 years, sea level is expected to rise by at least 2.6 feet, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, although previous estimates by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were in the range of 7 inches to 2 feet.

The King Tide Initiative started in Australia in 2009, according to Ecology’s website on King Tides, but it soon became a project for the West Coast of North America, with Washington and British Columbia joining in 2010 and Oregon and California joining in 2011.

Visit Flickr pages for British Columbia, Oregon and California, which includes regional pages for San Francisco Bay, Santa Monica and San Diego.

For a list of high tides, go to Ecology’s King Tide Schedule page and click on the map. More precise information can be found on NOAA’s page of tide predictions, where you can zoom in to your area of interest.

For past King Tide events, check out my Water Ways entries for Jan. 21, 2011 and Feb. 1, 2010.

Share on Facebook

The headline on BBC Nature News calls an underwater ice formation the “Brinicle Ice Finger of Death.”

“Brinicle” is short for “briny icicle,” while “Ice Finger of Death” is a dramatic title for a fascinating natural phenomenon found in Antarctica and captured in stunning time-lapse photography for the BBC One series “Frozen Planet.” Click here for the video.

The video shows a finger of heavy water reaching down from the surface and then advancing across the sea floor, encasing starfish and sea urchins in unexpected ice.

The water coming off Little Razorback Island near Ross Archipelago contained a high salt content, the result of separation as ice freezes at the surface. Because of its high concentration of salt, the runoff water was denser and colder than the surrounding ocean (well below the freezing point of fresh water). As the brine drained off the island, it caused the seawater to freeze around it as the brinicle advanced.

The phenomenon had been noted before, but finding a place where a brinicle was forming and setting up the film equipment was a feat in itself, as photographer Hugh Miller explained to reporter Ella Davies of BBC Nature:

“That particular patch was difficult to get to. It was a long way from the hole and it was quite narrow at times between the sea bed and the ice. I do remember it being a struggle… The kit is very heavy because it has to sit on the sea bed and not move for long periods of time.”

Frisky seals in the area barged into the scene, breaking off pieces of the brinicle and messing with the film gear, but eventually the crew got the dramatic video they were seeking.

The series “Frozen Planet” apparently is not yet available in the United States. The clip shown in the video player above can be viewed on the BBC Nature page if the YouTube version does not work.

Since the clip above was posted on YouTube last Wednesday, it has gone viral, with more than 4.9 million viewings. (The clip, which was copied from the BBC website, has since been taken down.)

Share on Facebook

The gravitational pull of the moon offers an enormous potential to provide electrical power, since ocean tides move massive amounts of water on a regular schedule.

Harnessing ocean energy has the potential of providing a steady, predictable power supply. And, while wind and solar power are still favored on a cost basis, tidal power has the benefit of being always on, undiminished by clouds or lack of wind. That alone is considered a major benefit when it comes to operating the regional power grid.

This week’s conference on ocean energy in Bremerton turned out to be interesting, not only for the types of technology discussed but also for its variety of viewpoints — including fishermen who want to make sure tidal turbines don’t hurt their operations. Check out the story I wrote for Thursday’s Kitsap Sun.

In the Puget Sound region, the Snohomish County Public Utility District is studying the potential environmental effects of placing a tidal turbine in Admiralty Inlet between Port Townsend and Whidbey Island. A small pilot project is all that is planned at this time.

At the Bremerton conference, Jim Thomson of the University of Washington described some of the ongoing studies, from measurements of currents passing through Admiralty Inlet to the possible effects of noise on sealife. So far, concerns appear to be manageable. I reported some of Thomson’s comments in my story.

Another news report on the project itself was written this past summer by Charlie Bermant of the Peninsula Daily News. Charlie reported that the latest schedule calls for installing the turbines in 2013.

The top video on this page depicts a commercial turbine developed by OpenHydro, the company working with the PUD on the Admiralty Inlet site. The second video, though made in 2008, offers a nice perspective of the overall effort by SnoPUD General Manager Steve Klein.

Worldwide, the quest for energy is not bypassing the gravitational power of the moon. John Daly of Oilprice.com reported last week that Rolls Royce, which has become a formidable player in the energy business, has developed a tidal turbine that could make inroads into Great Brittain’s electrical needs — although Daly failed to describe the potential cost obstacles.

Needless to say, this subject is worth following, and sponsors of the Bremerton event — including organizer Cleantech West Sound — are already discussing new issues that could be discussed at a repeat conference next year.

Share on Facebook

New Zealand’s environment minister, Nick Smith, is now calling an oil spill resulting from a grounded cargo ship “New Zealand’s most significant maritime environmental disaster.”

Smith made the comments Monday in Tauranga, where near-pristine beaches are becoming fouled with oil.

“It is my view that the tragic events we are seeing unfolding were absolutely inevitable from the point that the Rena ran onto the reef in the early hours of Wednesday morning,” Smith is quoted as saying in Aljazeera.

Al Fleming of Forest and Bird, New Zealand’s largest independent conservation group, has mobilized volunteers to search for oiled wildlife.

“We are faced with a potential disaster along our coastline, and many bird species are currently breeding,” said Fleming in a news release. “The news that the oil spill is getting much worse is a huge worry.”

The organization estimates that 10,000 grey-faced petrels are breeding on nearby islands, along with thousands of diving petrels, white-faced storm petrels and fluttering shearwaters.

Up to 300 little blue penguins are estimated to be living along the coast in the vicinity of the oil spill. Seven of the penguins were among the birds fouled by oil and brought in for rehabilitation.

Spring tides and storm surges could bring oil-laden water up high on the beaches, where New Zealand dotterels, oystercatchers, white-fronted terns and other shore birds are beginning to nest on sandy beaches just above the high-tide mark, the group says.

Migratory birds such as the godwits and red knots are returning to New Zealand from the Northern Hemisphere and arriving in Tauranga and other estuaries along the Bay of Plenty coast.

Whales and dolphins are known to be in the area, and a blue whale and calf were spotted about a week ago. Fur seals are molting on headlands and beaches throughout the region.

Mussels, crabs, and skinks are plentiful on the beaches.


“Without quick action,” said Fleming, “the oil will blanket our filter feeding marine life which are not only important water filters but also crucial in the diets of many animals. Eventually the oil will accumulate throughout the food web.

In this video by the New Zealand Herald, Greg Gay of Portland, Ore., joins local residents in cleaning up a beach near Tauranga.

The latest news is that containers from the ship have fallen into the sea, broken up and their contents — including freeze-dried foods — are washing up on nearby beaches.

“A crack running around the ship’s hull was steadily widening in heavy seas, and officials believed it was only a matter of time before the vessel split in two,” reports a team of reporters from the New Zealand Herald.

“Three tug boats were waiting either to hold the stern on the reef as authorities try to remove oil from the Rena’s fuel tanks or to tow the stern to shallow water.”

Share on Facebook

Betsy Mason, editor of Wired Science, continues to amaze us with stunning photos taken from outer space. Of course, she doesn’t take the pictures, but Betsy describes each photo in superb detail, often using interpretations from folks at NASA’s Earth Observatory and various research centers. I could spend hours looking at these photos and reading about what I see.

One of my favorite groupings of photos is the series called “Stunning Views of Glaciers Seen from Space,” which includes a credit to Hadley Leggett. Featured below is Crater Lake, from the latest series called “Most Beautiful National Parks Seen From Space.”

Below this photo, you’ll find links to other blog entries showing a variety of pictures from space.

Crater Lake / NASA photo

Out of the Blue: Islands Seen From Space

Channeling Earth: Rivers Seen From Space

Cryosphere: Earth’s Icy Extremes Seen From Space

Magnificent Marine Algae Blooms Seen From Space

Earth as Art: Stunning New Images From Space

Share on Facebook

That odd-looking floating object topped by a dome, which arrived in Puget Sound in May, departed yesterday after three months of maintenance at Vigor Shipyard Seattle (formerly Todd Shipyards).

The sunny weather provided prime viewing for boaters and shoreline observers, as the huge radar platform — called the Sea-Based X-Band Radar, or SBX — moved out of Elliott Bay and up through Puget Sound.

The radar ship is part of the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) and is the only vessel of its kind in the world. One of the upgrades during refit was a new electrical system to allow the ship to operate with offshore power instead of running its diesel generators while in port.

The radar that sits on top of an oil-drilling platform is extremely powerful and can cover a huge area, limited mainly by the Earth’s curvature.

“You could put the SBX in the Chesapeake Bay and it could track something the size of a baseball hit outside here from Safeco Field, provided it could get over the curvature of the earth,” Army Col. Mark Arn was quoted as saying on the Seattlepi.com website after the ship arrived in Seattle. Arn is the Missile Defense Agency’s project manager for the X-band sensors.

In operation, the radar is designed to track missiles in flight, with the ability to distinguish between a hostile missile warhead and decoys, according to a fact sheet (PDF 148 kb) from the Missile Defense Agency and a booklet called “A Brief History of the Sea-Based X-Band Radar-1” (PDF 3.4 mb) Data collected from the radar system can be transmitted to interceptor missiles that are sent out to destroy the incoming missile before it strikes its target.

When the SBX first came in, I wondered what the radar equipment looked like under that white dome, which stands 103 feet high and is made of a synthetic inflatable fabric that apparently can withstand 130-mile-per-hour winds. I found a photo on Boeing’s website that shows the ship under construction and the radar being installed. Click on the Boeing SBX link and click again to see a large version.

The SBX is 240 feet wide and 390 feet long, larger than a football field. It towers more than 280 feet from its keel to the top of the radar dome.

The main deck houses living quarters, workspaces, storage, power generation, bridge, and control rooms, as well as the radar antenna array plus command, communication and data-analysis centers.

The video embedded on this page was produced by Erik Hyypia, a kayaker who paddled a little too close to the docks to get this shot when a patrol boat asked him to move back. The later shots were taken yesterday from Seacrest Park in West Seattle as the platform passed by.

Erik, who works as a senior engineer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, enjoys taking video in his spare time. His YouTube channel features a variety of kayaking and hiking videos.

Share on Facebook

In a report last night on KING-5 News, Gary Chittim offered a visually rich account of the studies taking place at the mouth of the Elwha River, where nearshore and delta areas are expected to receive huge loads of sediment after the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams come out.

He noted that divers from The U.S. Geological Survey and Environmental Protection Agency have been fighting strong currents as they conduct a spacial survey of the plants and animals in the nearshore area.

Gary quoted Sean Sheldrake, dive unit officer for the EPA:

“Just yesterday, we were diving on a beautiful kelp forest with a variety of fish and plant life, and the hope is through this reconnection of the Elwha to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, it will not only continue but thrive.”

And in a news release last week from the U.S. Geological Survey, Sheldrake was quoted as saying:

“Until now, we’ve focused most of our attention on the effect this project will have on the river, salmon habitat and salmon recovery. But with this survey, we will have a more complete and much clearer picture of the effects on the nearshore ocean environment.”

More than 19 million cubic meters of sediment — enough to fill 11 football fields the height of the Empire State Building — has accumulated behind the Elwha River dams, according to the news release. That sediment is expected to create turbidity for a time, but in the long run could be beneficial for a variety of plant and animal species in area.

Documents for further reading:

Proceedings of the 2011 Elwha Nearshore Consortium Meeting (PDF 1.3 mb)

Nearshore function of the central Strait of Juan de Fuca for juvenile fish… Executive Summary (PDF 906 kb)

Elwha Nearshore Update, Summer 2011 (PDF 333 kb)

Nearshore substrate and morphology offshore of the Elwha River (PDF 4.5 mb)

Nearshore restoration of the Elwha River through removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams (PDF 308 kb)

Share on Facebook

Some of the creatures you’ll see in these videos have a face that only a mother could love. Others are beautiful in their own way. You be the judge.

I got a kick out of the diversity of life represented here, the names of these creatures (which I hope are accurate), as well as the rockin’ musical production by benny118118, who I so far have been unable to reach for a comment.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

UPDATE: Thursday, Aug. 18

Our friend Happy Feet is going to hitch a ride part of the way home on Aug. 29, when he is taken aboard a research vessel operated by the New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. See the latest news release from Wellington Zoo.

Dr. Lisa Argilla, manager of veterinary science at the zoo, will accompany Happy Feet with assistance from two NIWA staff, who will be trained before departure. Rob Murdoch, NIWA’s general manager of Research, was quoted in the news release:

“The NIWA team are looking forward to having this extra special guest onboard the vessel with us for the journey. Happy Feet has captured the hearts of New Zealanders and people across the world, and we’re pleased to be able to help safely return him to the Southern Ocean.”

—–

UPDATE: Thursday, Aug. 4

Happy Feet may be headed headed home to the Antarctic later this month, Wellington Zoo officials have announced.

The date of his departure will depend on the availability of a ship, but the plan is to truck the bird to New Zealand’s South Island, then transport him by ship. He will have a microchip implanted in his leg, which may be detected at Antarctic outposts where penguins are monitored. A satellite transmitter glued to his feathers will follow his precise movements until it falls off during molting in April. See Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal.
—–

UPDATE: Thursday, July 7, 8:40 a.m.

We are now able to call Happy Feet a “he” instead of an “it,” since DNA has confirmed that he is a male.

The Wellington Zoo, which is taking donations to help pay for his eventual release, has set up a live video camera for people to watch the bird in his enclosure. There is not much to see, as Happy Feet rests most of the time, except when he is brought in fish to eat or fresh ice to keep cool. The infrared camera shows a black-and-white picture. Happy Feet is kept in the dark to simulate current seasonal conditions in the Antarctic.

A video report by The Associated Press updates the story and features some of the get-well cards that Happy Feet has been getting from children around the world.

Wellington Zoo’s Facebook page includes ongoing updates and some artwork that children have sent.

UPDATE: Wednesday, June 29, 10:01 a.m.

A group appointed to advise New Zealand authorities on the fate of Happy Feet is recommending that the penguin be released into the Southern Ocean southeast of New Zealand, but not in Antarctica.

“The reason for not returning the penguin directly to Antarctica is that emperor penguins of this age are usually found north of Antarctica on pack ice and in the open ocean,” said Peter Simpson, spokesman for the New Zealand Department of Conservation, who was quoted in a story on Forbes.com.

UPDATE: Tuesday, June 28, 7:24 a.m.

Happy Feet has perked up after veterinarians and a gastroenterologist (medical doctor) removed 6.6 pounds of sand from its stomach.

“Yesterday he actually punched me in the stomach with his flipper,” said Lisa Argilla, a veterinarian at Wellington Zoo, who was pleased with the increased activity, including vocalizations.

We still don’t know if the animal is male or female, though tests are pending.

Reuters has a good report, including video.
———-

A lot of folks around the world were fascinated last week with news that an emperor penguin was found alone on a beach in New Zealand — and more than a few people are wondering what will happen next. Well, much has happened since the first news reports, but the bird’s fate remains uncertain.

The penguin, which should have been living with its kind far to the south in Antarctica, apparently took one or more wrong turns, swam 2,500 miles and found itself on New Zealand’s Peka Peka Beach. There, the bird became a popular attraction among local residents.

“It was out of this world to see it, like someone just dropped it from the sky,” Christine Wilton was quoted as saying in an Associated Press story. Wilton was walking her dog Monday when she spotted the black-and-white bird.

According to reports, this is the first emperor penguin to visit New Zealand in 44 years. Although its sex has not been determined, this penguin was nicknamed “Happy Feet” after the movie about emperor penguins.

At first, wildlife authorities chose to leave the penguin alone. The bird seemed healthy, and they hoped that it would leave on its own. They knew that elephant seals and leopard seals from Antarctica sometimes come and go from New Zealand shores.

But by Friday morning in New Zealand (which is 19 hours ahead of Pacific Time), the bird was lethargic. Veterinarians noted that the bird was eating sand and sticks, and they were concerned about a possible infection. The bird may have been eating sand in an effort to cool down, experts speculated, since penguins often eat snow and ice when they get too hot.

Happy Feet was picked up and taken to Wellington Zoo, where it has undergone three procedures over the past few days. On Monday morning, veterinarians, assisted by a human doctor, performed an endoscopy to see what was in the bird’s stomach. They removed about half the debris, hoping the rest would pass naturally.

Happy Feet seems to be doing well, according to zoo officials, but it is listed in critical condition because of the number of sticks that remain in the animal’s stomach.

If he or she survives, experts will decide if they should prepare for a trip to Antarctica. Long travel is considered risky for the bird, and placing it with other penguins could put them at risk if it somehow picked up a disease in the warmer waters of New Zealand, according to reports.

The next trips to Antarctica are supply flights to Scott Base in August. In addition, a millionaire businessman has offered to take Happy Feet aboard a Russian icebreaker, but that would not be until February.

I’ll continue to provide updates to this entry.

Some of the best reporting:

Associated Press video, June 21

Associated Press, June 20

The Telegraph, Sydney, June 24, with video

Sydney Morning Herald, June 27

Stuff, June 27, with good videos

About New Zealand penguins: Penguin.net

Share on Facebook

If the world’s leaders were to learn that all civilizations on Earth were going to be attacked by alien beings from outer space, and if they knew they had only a few years to respond, what do you think they would do?

Would they search for evidence to show that aliens could not possibly exist, declare the idea a hoax and insist that any defense of our planet would not be worth the cost? Or would they study ALL the evidence, analyze the risks and look for the best way to address the uncertain crisis?

I keep thinking about this hypothetical alien scenario when I hear certain members of Congress ignoring climate change and essentially spitting in the face of climate scientists by calling their best research a “hoax.”

Greenhouse warming may seem like an alien concept to some people, but here’s my point: If you run and hide until the aliens have landed, you face a much greater peril than if you face the problem in a practical way.

Now I’m all for discussing the many uncertainties — such as how high ocean waters may rise under various assumptions. But please don’t tell me that some basement scientist has disproved the idea that temperatures are rising or has shown that humans could not possibly affect the Earth’s climate.

Here’s what I’m wondering: Would those who turn their backs on climate change act the same way if the entire Earth were under attack from a common enemy? Maybe our nation’s leaders would be better able to deal with a direct attack, uncomplicated by the uncertainties of science.

That’s more than I wanted to say about people who choose to ignore climate change. What I really wanted to write about is the U.S. Navy’s serious approach to the topic, which can provide an example for the rest of us.

(more…)

Share on Facebook