Watching Our Water Ways

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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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When it comes to science, it takes only a little confusion by young students to produce some amusing answers when test time comes around.

Making the rounds on the Internet are lists of funny answers that young students reportedly provided while trying to answer scientific questions. Maybe you’ve heard these responses before, but they are always good for a smile.

Here are my favorites:

• Water is composed of two gins, oxygin and hydrogin. Oxygin is pure gin. Hydrogin is gin and water.
• When you breathe, you inspire. When you do not breathe, you expire.
• When you smell an odorless gas, it is probably carbon monoxide.
• Nitrogen is not found in Ireland because it is not found in a free state.
• The pistol of a flower is its only protection against insects.
• A fossil is an extinct animal. The older it is, the more extinct it is.
• Germinate: to become a naturalized German.
• Rhubarb: a kind of celery gone bloodshot.
• The skeleton is what is left after the insides have been taken out and the outsides have been taken off. The purpose of the skeleton is so that there is something to hitch the meat to.
• To prevent contraception, wear a condominium.
• The body consists of three parts the brainium, the borax and the abominable cavity. The brainium contains the brain. The borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abominable cavity contains the bowls, of which there are five A, E, I, O and U.
• For fainting: Rub the person’s chest, or, if it’s a lady, rub her arm above the hand. Or put her head between the knees of the nearest medical doctor.

I was able to find a reference to the above list in an Ann Landers column published in numerous newspapers on June 9, 1996. See, for example, New York Daily News. The writer said he was enclosing the list, which was contained in an article he clipped from Popular Science, He said students actuallly said these things.

It appears that people have added to the list through the years. I cannot verify the source or validity of these other “answers,” but many are funny:

From Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis.

• “H2O is hot water, and CO2 is cold water”
• “Dew is formed on leaves when the sun shines down on them and makes them perspire.”
• “Artifical insemination is when the farmer does it to the cow instead of the bull.”
• “A super-saturated solution is one that holds more than it can hold.”
• “The tides are a fight between the Earth and moon. All water tends towards the moon, because there is no water in the moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.”
• “For asphyxiation: Apply artificial respiration until the patient is dead.”
• “For a nosebleed: Put the nose much lower then the body until the heart stops.”
• “For dog bite: put the dog away for sevral days. If he has not recovered, then kill it.”
• “To keep milk from turning sour: Keep it in the cow.”

Lots of websites provide this list in one form or another, but the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences provides some “facts” to help straighten out the answers.

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Work on the Washington State Shellfish Initiative is shifting into high gear, as I learned yesterday during a meeting of the Shellfish Initiative Advisory Group.

The initiative is being directed by a “core group,” made up of representatives from seven state and federal agencies. Advice is coming from a much larger advisory group in quarterly meeings like the first one yesterday. See “Purpose Statement” (PDF 44 kb) for details.

Manchester Research Station
NOAA photo

During the meeting, the group reviewed progress on a work plan that includes more than 30 different tasks, each assigned to a small working group. I made notes on many of the projects, which I’ll share with you in future news stories or blog entries.

I did focus on one Kitsap County project with relevance for the entire Puget Sound region: a new oyster hatchery at Manchester Research Station to produce baby Olympia oysters. It will be part of an ongoing effort to restore the native Olympias. See the story I wrote for today’s Kitsap Sun.

One anonymous person commented at the bottom of the story: “Hey, an organization that actually accomplishes something! Keep up the good work and don’t get bogged down in doing studies and producing reports that no one will read or respond to.”

I understand why people are sometimes frustrated by the planning that seems to go on and on. But without planning, I’m not sure who would grap the limited money. Without planning, the projects would have no focus and the work would be done haphazardly.

The Washington Shellfish Initiative, while going beyond Puget Sound, is integrated within the Puget Sound Action Agenda by the Puget Sound Partnership, which has been assigned by the governor to coordinate the shellfish initiative. The Action Agenda is designed as a blueprint for the full restoration of the Puget Sound ecosystem.

If you’d like to catch a glimpse of other shellfish projects in the works, you can download the work plan (PDF 120 kb).

For background on the Washington Shellfish Initiative, check out the story I wrote for the Kitsap Sun Dec. 9, when the project was announced jointly by Gov. Chris Gregoire and Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Other information and important links related to the initiative can found on a Water Ways entry I wrote a few days later on Dec. 16.

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A few quick notes on Earth Day activities this weekend.

First, if you haven’t been to Pacific Science Center in Seattle lately, you may be surprised by some of the new events and exhibits on tap for this weekend.

Of special note is “Science on a Sphere,” a new permanent exhibit that uses computers and video projectors to animate a globe, which is used to demonstrate atmospheric changes and the effects of heating and cooling across the Earth’s ocean and land masses.

Special programs on the sphere Sunday include “Chasing The Rain” at 10:50 a.m. and 2:20 p.m. along with Oceans, Earthquakes & Tsunamis. The exhibit, provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is similar to spheres installed in about 80 locations throughout the world.

“To the Arctic 3D,” being shown throughout the day in the Boeing Imax Theater, presents an up-close look at a landscape of immense glaciers, spectacular waterfalls and snow-crusted peaks while telling the story of a polar bear and her cubs. Check ahead for reservations.

Check out the Earth Day page for other events at Pacific Science Center on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Orca Network is holding its annual “Welcome the Whales Day” tomorrow on Whidbey Island. Costume-making and a critter parade are part of the fun. On the educational side, Bruce Mate, director of the Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute, will discuss gray whales and the animals he has tracked throughout the Pacific Ocean to discover their migration patterns.

For local events, I wrote a piece in the Kitsap Sun about Earth Day activities in Kitsap County.

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I can’t believe it’s been nearly four years since we’ve held a discussion on Water Ways about how commodities markets may affect the price of gasoline at the pump.

I guess I’ve been watching and waiting for something to happen. Well, a couple weeks ago, Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell began stirring the pot again.

Here’s what she said during a March 29 hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee:

“I definitely believe that we should get these asset class investors out of this market. Saying that we are going to allow a bunch of investors to treat the commodities market like they want to treat the rest of Wall Street from a securities and investment perspective I think is the wrong idea for commodities, something particularly as vital as gasoline.”

In a press release, Cantwell noted that in February various commodities index funds held positions in NYMEX crude oil contracts equivalent to 233.9 million barrels of oil. If each million barrels of speculation adds 10 cents to the price of crude, as suggested by a Goldman Sachs analysis, then recent speculation could be driving up the price of oil by $23 a barrel. That translates to about 56 cents per gallon more at the pump, according to the release.

In the latest development today, President Obama released a “fact sheet” and a five-point program for dealing with oil speculation. Here’s what he proposes:

1. Request Immediate Funding to Put More “Cops on the Beat” Overseeing Oil Markets: The President is calling on Congress to pass an immediate increase in funding to support at least a six-fold increase in the surveillance and enforcement staff for oil futures market trading at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
2. Fund Critical Technology Upgrades in the Oversight and Surveillance of Energy Market Activity: The President is also requesting that Congress provide the CFTC funding for critical IT upgrades to strengthen monitoring of energy market activity.
3. Substantially Increase Civil and Criminal Penalties for Manipulation in Key Energy Markets: The President’s proposal includes a ten-fold increase in maximum civil and criminal penalties for manipulative activity in oil futures markets. These heightened penalties will make sure that penalties reflect the seriousness of misconduct.
4. Empower the CFTC to Raise Margin Requirements in Oil Futures Markets: The President is also calling on Congress to act immediately to give the CFTC authority to direct exchanges to raise margin requirements to address increased price volatility or prevent excessive speculation or manipulation. This authority will help limit disruptions and reduce volatility in oil markets.
5. Take Immediate Steps to Expand Access to CFTC Data to Better Understand Trading Trends in Oil Markets: These executive actions will allow additional analysis of CFTC’s data to look for patterns and better understand trading activity in energy markets.

The “fact sheet” also includes a description of steps already taken to oversee energy markets, including the Wall Street Reform Bill and administrative actions.

Frankly, the reason I’m so interested in this issue is that the price of oil can drive hasty decisions about development of oil reserves and changes in the method of transport, as we have seen the past two years. These effects inevitably spill over into impacts on the environment, including potential damage to our waterways.

To be fair, various experts have weighed in on both sides of the question about how much the price of oil is related to speculation on oil futures. Some argue that the government cannot manage speculation because it is fundamentally tied to price and demand. They say that when government puts its heavy hand into the marketplace, the consequences are never good.

Here are some past Water Ways posts that have looked at this issue.

Learning the ins and outs of oil speculation, July 16, 2088

Researcher finds manipulation in oil markets, Aug. 6, 2008

Energy issues are heating up in Congress, Sept. 9, 2008

What’s all this talk about oil speculation? Sept. 16, 2008

Financial meltdowns, oil speculation and politics, Sept. 20th, 2008

The following video is from a March 29 hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. In it, you’ll see Sen. Cantwell questioning Daniel Yergin, chairman of the consulting firm IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates. But don’t look for many answers from Yergin. It appears that Cantwell’s office posted this video because it gives Cantwell a chance to outline her position.

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“No matter how you spell it or how you pronounce it, H2O is a wonder: a beautifully simple, simply beautiful element that, when all is said and done, means nothing less than life.”

Eleanor Chittenden with a prized steelhead on the Elwha River in 1907 during an expedition with The Mountaineers.
Photo by Asahel Curtis, courtesy of Washington State Historical Society

Thus begins the introduction to a collection of historical photographs titled “In Praise of Water,” which includes mostly amusing pictures from 1936 to 1968. The collection was put together by Life magazine in recognition of World Water Day last month, but I just stumbled on it last week. Please click on the link to take a look. (For the chemists among us, we’ll have to forgive the term “element,” because water is actually a compound.)

To bring the wonder of historical photos back home to Washington state, I pulled this fabulous photo of Eleanor Chittenden fishing on the Elwha River in 1907. It’s from a collection managed by the Washington State Historical Society.

Eleanor, 15 in this picture, was the daughter of famed engineer Hiram Chittenden, who worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in connection with the Port of Seattle. The photo, by Asahel Curtis, was taken during an expedition to the Olympic Peninsula with The Mountaineers. Eleanor was no doubt proud of her catch, a very nice steelhead. Of course, this was many years before a dam was built on the Elwha.

Bob Royer wrote a nice piece about “The Girl and the Fish” in the Cascadia Courier, a blog that relates history to present-day events.

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UPDATE, May 4

The “Mayor’s Challenge” is over, and Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent says she is pleased that Bremerton placed first in Washington state and third out of more than 100 medium-sized cities in the West.

Read the news release issued by the mayor.
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UPDATE, April 27

Kitsap Sun reporter Steve Gardner wrote about the “Mayor’s Challenge” for yesterday’s print edition, helping to move Bremerton from the fourth spot to the third, where the city stands today. See “Bremerton faring well in conservation pledge contest.”

Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent, who has encouraged people to take the pledge at nearly every opportunity, was quoted as saying:

“We have a little hill to climb yet if we’re No. 4. I just want that pride within our city for us to take and beat out someone just to say we can do it.”

Since pledges are recorded by Zip Code, residents are not required to live inside the city limits to support their surrounding community, incorporated or not.
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UPDATE, April 12, 2012

Bremerton didn’t last long in the top spot of the “Mayor’s Challenge.” As of this morning, the city had been pushed down to number 2 in its category, replaced by Aliso Viejo, Calif.

Maybe it’s not so easy to stay on top. I’m sure Kathleen Cahall is already looking for ways to rally the populace in and around Bremerton. Maybe if everyone sent the link to friends in Bremerton? http://www.mywaterpledge.com

To help people understand the contest, feel free to use the buttons at the bottom of the main blog section to Tweet the entry, post it on Facebook or send the link by e-mail with a personal message attached. (E-mail is right before the “response” section.) Good luck again to those in Bremerton; please pardon the hometown bias.
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UPDATE, April 11, 2012

Bremerton, Wash., has taken over the top spot in the “National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation,” among western communities with populations from 30,000 to 100,000 in population.

Sometime between yesterday morning — when I posted this blog entry — and this morning, Bremerton moved from second to first place. I suppose the challenge now is to hold onto that position. Everyone is eligible to join this challenge, which includes prizes for individuals.
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In what is being called the “National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation,” Bremerton currently ranks second behind Newport Beach, Calif., in gathering water pledges among western communities with populations from 30,000 to 100,000 in population.

“It would be wonderful for Bremerton to capture the #1 spot,” Kathleen Cahall, Bremerton’s water resources manager, wrote to me yesterday in an e-mail.

Kathleen has done her best to stir up interest in the event, which also includes potential prizes for participants. Displays have been set up at various city locations; the contest has been mentioned on BKAT community access TV; e-mails have been sent to those on the city’s mailing list; a link has been placed on the city’s website; the event has been mentioned at a city council meeting; and the mayor and city employees have been handing out info cards at events.

To take the pledge, go to www.mywaterpledge.com before April 30.

I told Kathleen I would pass on the word about this contest, sponsored by the Wyland Foundation. If you take the pledge, you may gain some attention for your community and also become personally eligible for prizes, including a Toyota Prius.

While it’s called the “Mayor’s Challenge” and appears to be focused on cities, the contest actually is judged by postal Zip Code, according to Patti Romo of the Wyland Foundation. The goal is to obtain the greatest percentage of pledges among the population represented by a city’s Zip Code.

So if your Zip Code is 98310, 98311, 98312, 98314 or 98337, you are eligible to support Bremerton’s quest to make it to the top, even if you don’t live within the city. Bremerton city officials are strong supporters of water conservation and would love to get that kind of recognition. See the city’s website about conservation.

If you live somewhere else, you’ll get credit for supporting the “city” associated with the Zip Code where you reside — including Silverdale, Seabeck, Hansville, Tahuya and many more unincorporated communities listed by the Postal Service.

In signing the pledge, you’ll be asked if you are willing to take certain actions, such as wash only full loads of laundry. You don’t need to answer “yes” to all the questions to successfully meet the challenge.

It is kind of fun and seems like a good way to get all of us thinking about the choices we make. Again, the website for the challenge is www.mywaterpledge.com.

The Wyland Foundation, founded by environmental artist Robert Wyland, supports educational efforts that help people appreciate and support healthy oceans and waterways.

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