For the past 12 years, I have been writing “Watching Our Water
Ways” for the Kitsap Sun. The focus has been primarily on Puget
Sound issues, with special attention paid to local matters in and
around Kitsap County. My blog posts are frequently published in the
newspaper’s printed edition.
As many of you know, I retired as the Sun’s full-time
environmental reporter back in 2014. The following year, I started
writing in-depth stories about Puget Sound for the organization
Puget Sound
Institute, which is affiliated with the University of
Washington. They call me the “senior writer” in that half-time
position.
One reason for the change is to bring my blog to the website
where most of my work is now being published. I frequently spend
several weeks on a story, interviewing top scientists and
policymakers and reading their latest reports before beginning my
writing. The new blog will allow more frequent coverage of what I’m
learning along the way, including inside stories from researchers,
political leaders, environmental advocates and so on.
One of my retirement goals was to keep working while slowing the
pace over time. At first, I was writing three or four blog posts a
week, in addition to my half-time job for PSI. I’ve slowed that
pace already and expect to be writing one or two posts a week in
the new location. I plan to retire the weekly “Amusing Monday”
feature, but I will continue to report on humorous and creative
issues in the Puget Sound region.
My focus will shift somewhat more to Puget Sound as a whole,
meaning you may read less detailed coverage of Kitsap County per
se. But Kitsap will remain in my writing, because I know this area
better than most and I truly believe that the work going on in here
represents some of the best efforts to protect and restore Puget
Sound. Thanks to my ongoing relationship with Kitsap Sun reporters
and editors, I will continue to share things that I hear about.
It would take too long for me to list the key players fighting
for a healthy environment in our county, but I would like to point
out that local leaders are tackling major issues of environmental
protection and restoration: salmon and sea life, water quality,
streams and shorelines, and forest ecology. Some folks in Kitsap
are working hard to reduce the toxic chemicals and bacterial
pollution going into our waterways by improving the management of
stormwater, sewage and water supplies.
I’ve always said that the western side of Puget Sound, including
Hood Canal, is perhaps the best place in the world to work as an
environmental reporter. (Check out the profile that former Seattle
Times reporters Eric Sorensen wrote about me in Washington State Magazine in 2012.) The
support I have received from the Kitsap Sun — including editor
David Nelson and local news editor Kim Rubenstein, as well as
fellow reporters and other staffers — have made the job a pleasure,
whether I was working as a full-time employee or as a blogger and
part-time freelancer.
I hope current email subscribers to this blog will sign up for
the new one, and maybe I can attract some new blog subscribers
along the way. For those who use Twitter, I will continue to post
new items under @waterwatching.
As far as I can tell, my 12 years of blogs on “Watching Our
Water Ways” will remain as a resource, and I’m proud to see that
the blog pops up frequently on internet searches related to
environmental issues.
As always, I look forward to comments and suggestions as I move
forward with the new blog (email: dunagc@uw.edu), and thank you for
reading.
Puget Sound’s shoreline habitat is slowly being restored to a
more natural state, thanks to the ongoing removal of old bulkheads
from private property, one after another.
The latest “State
of the Sound” report from the Puget Sound Partnership reports
that the amount of bulkhead removed from important “feeder bluffs”
has nearly reached the 2020 goal established by the
partnership.
For shorelines in general, it appears that the tide has turned
in a positive way, with removal of old bulkheads outpacing new
bulkhead construction. At the same time, efforts to protect
shorelines from erosion have become more focused on natural “soft
shore” techniques, as opposed to concrete, wood or rock walls.
The overall effort at removing shoreline armoring from Puget
Sound has fallen somewhat short of the Puget Sound Partnership’s
nine-year goal to remove more miles of bulkheads than what gets
constructed between 2011 and 2020. A major reason for the shortfall
is the amount of bulkhead constructed during the early years of the
effort — 2011 to 2013 — as shown on a graph in the State of the Sound report.
Things might be a bit better than the graph indicates, because
the data do not adequately reflect improvements in shoreline
habitat from replacing old-fashioned bulkheads with natural
structures — such as carefully placed logs. Man-made installations,
even when natural, are still counted as armoring.
The trouble with hard bulkheads below the high-tide line is that
they reduce spawning habitat for forage fish, such as surf smelt.
Bulkheads also increase the risk that juvenile salmon will be eaten
by predators as they migrate through deeper water. And shoreline
armor also can block the movement of sand needed to maintain
healthy beaches, as described by coastal geologist Hugh Shipman in
the video on this page.
In Kitsap and Clallam counties, nearly two miles of shoreline
armor have been removed starting in 2011, according to the report.
That accounts for 43 percent of the total armor removed in Puget
Sound during that time.
Thanks to grants from the Environmental Protection Agency, most
Puget Sound counties have joined the state’s Shore Friendly program, which
provides incentives for private property owners to remove their
bulkheads. Each of Puget Sound’s 12 counties have developed
individual programs to suit the needs of their residents. One can
locate specific county programs on the Shore
Friendly page managed by the Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
One of the latest ideas for encouraging shoreline restoration is
to create a program that can offer low-interest loans to shoreline
property owners who wish to remove bulkheads, install soft-shore
stabilization or move their houses back from shore as the sea level
rises. The feasibility of the program is being studied by research
scientist Aimee Kinney of Puget Sound Institute.
As proposed, the program would establish a revolving loan fund,
which would be replenished as shoreline property owners pay back
the loans, as Jeff Rice of PSI describes in a
blog post. The program might operate like Washington’s
low-interest
loan program for septic system repairs and replacements.
Meanwhile, many of the 12 Puget Sound counties still provide
assistance through the Shore Friendly program as funding becomes
available. Shore Friendly
Kitsap, for example, offers free site assessments to determine
the risk of erosion, along with $5,000 to help with design,
permitting and construction of a shoreline project.
Over the past three years, Shore Friendly Kitsap has helped with
15 shoreline projects. Bulkhead removals range from 15 feet of
armoring in Liberty Bay to 222 feet in Dyes Inlet. In all, 1,177
feet of armor have been removed, according to statistics provided
by Christina Kereki, environmental planner for the Kitsap County
Department of Community Development.
A recent
shoreline success story (1.6 mb) — including trials and
tribulations along the way — is told in writing by property owners
Sheri and Michael Flynn, who live on 200 feet of waterfront on
Miller Bay in North Kitsap. As they say, their project was “a
lesson in patience, persistence and perseverance,” but the outcome
will be favorable both to them and the environment.
Mason County shoreline owners also have restoration stories, and
I was pleased to help them tell their stories in a project for the
Mason Conservation District. See Living Along
the Waterfront.
Attracting more than 48,000 photo entries from 100 countries,
the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition remains one of
the most prestigious photo contests in the world.
“Night Glow,” contest entry by
Cruz Erdmann, named Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year/2019
Wildlife Photographer of the Year
– Click on images to enlarge photos
The competition reflects a diversity of “wildlife” in its
various entry categories, focusing on the “behavior” of various
groups of animals while making room for stunning landscapes and
photos of plants and fungi.
The first photo on this page, “Night Glow” provides a rare image
of a bigfin reef squid showing off a variety of iridescent colors.
Contest judges, impressed with the quality and clarity of the
image, honored photographer Cruz Erdmann of New Zealand with the
Young Photographer of the Year Award. The photo also was declared
the best in the category for young photographers in the 11-to-14
age group.
The photo was taken during an organized night dive off North
Sulawesi, Indonesia, where Cruz noticed a pair of squid engaged in
a mating ritual. One of the squid jetted away, but the other —
probably a male — stayed just long enough for the young
photographer to capture this image of the creature in its colorful
sexual display. Cruz understood the rarity of the moment as well as
the technical challenge he faced.
“Land of the Eagle,” winner in
the Bird Behavior category, by Audun Rikardsen/2019 Wildlife
Photographer of the Year
“You have to be careful not to stir up the silt when you dive or
you’ll get a lot of backscatter from the strobe light,” he told
BBC
News. “I wasn’t kicking with my legs so that’s why the photo
seems very clear.”
Theo Bosboom, a nature photographer who served on this year’s
judging panel, commented: “To dive in the pitch dark, find this
beautiful squid and be able to photograph it so elegantly, to
reveal its wonderful shapes and colors, takes so much skill. What a
resounding achievement for such a young photographer.” (Check out
the
story by Josh Davis on the Natural History Museum website.)
Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by
the Natural History Museum, London. Images are selected by a panel
of professionals for their originality, artistry and technical
complexity.
“The Garden of Eels,” winner in
the Under Water category, by David Doubilet/2019 Wildlife
Photographer of the Year
Judges included chairwoman Rosamund ‘Roz’ Kidman Cox, writer and
editor from Great Britain; Shekar Dattatri, wildlife and
conservation filmmaker from India; Jamie Rojo, naturalist
conservation photographer from Mexico; and Tim Littlewood, director
of science for the Natural History Museum.
“There has never been a more crucial time to move hearts and
minds with beautiful, truthful and impactful nature photography, so
judging the competition is both a privilege and a huge
responsibility,” Littlewood said in a
news release. “We hope the images we select will inspire not
only the next generation of photographers, but the next generation
of scientists, conservationists and advocates for the natural
world.”
“Touching Trust,” Highly
Commended by judges in the Wildlife Photojournalism category. By
Thomas P. Peschak/2019 Wildlife Photographer of the
Year
The second photo on this page by Audun Rikardsen of Norway was
the winner in the Birds Behavior category. Titled “Land of the
Eagle,” the picture was the result of a three-year effort to
attract eagles to a tree branch where Audun had mounted a camera.
Over time, with occasional treats of road kill for the birds, this
golden eagle became accustomed to the camera, allowing its picture
to be taken with a flash via motion sensor. Audun watched from a
blind he had built nearby on the Norwegian coast.
The third photo, by David Doubilet of the United States, shows a
colony of garden eels on a steep slope off Dauin, The Philippines.
The slope, at least two-thirds the size of a football field, was
home to the largest such colony he had ever encountered, David
said. It was the winner in the Under Water category.
“The Huddle,” part of the best
“portfolio” of wildlife images by Stefan Christmann/2019 Wildlife
Photographer of the Year
The fourth photo, by Thomas P Peschak of Germany and South
Africa, captures a young gray whale approaching a pair of human
hands that are reaching down into the water. The photo was taken in
San Ignacio Lagoon, a gray whale nursery and sanctuary off the
coast of Mexico’s Baja California. Since the 1970s, trust of humans
has developed to the point that gray whale mothers sometimes allow
their young to get close to the limited number of whale-watching
boats.
The picture of the two penguins by Stefan Christmann of Germany
is part of a collection of photos deemed to be the best “portfolio”
of wildlife photography in the contest. Other photos show up to
5,000 emperor penguins huddling on the sea ice of Antarctica’s Atka
Bay. Females entrust their eggs to their closely bonded mates, who
incubate a single egg while the females head to sea to feed for up
to three months before returning to take over care of the chicks.
For more of his work from this portfolio, visit Stefan’s website
Nature in
Focus.
Not shown on this page is an image by Yongqing Bao of China,
named the overall Wildlife Photographer of the Year and winner in
the Mammals Behavior category. The photo is a freeze-frame image of
a startled marmot in its final moments of life as a Tibetan fox
prepares to pounce. This image, along with other winners and
“Highly Commended” photos in 17 categories can be viewed on the
following pages of the Natural History Museum website:
In addition,
The Guardian newspaper and
The Atlantic magazine are showing the winning photos in nice
presentations on their websites.
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest was started in
1965 by “BBC Wildlife Magazine,” called “Animals” at the time. The
Natural History Museum came on board in 1984 and later took over
the full contest operations.
London’s Natural History
Museum is a place to explore the natural world and confront the
most important issues facing humanity and the planet, according to
museum officials. The museum welcomes about 5 million visitors each
year, and the website receives more than 850,000 unique visitors
each month.
A major bridge-replacement project over Hood Canal’s Duckabush
River is advancing toward a final design, and a growing number of
people are thrilled with the ecological benefits expected from the
estuary restoration. Construction could begin within four
years.
Bridge over Duckabush River
Photo: Jayedgerton, Wikimedia Commons
The project, estimated to cost roughly $90 million, is being
designed to improve the migration and survival of salmon and trout
native to the Duckabush River, which flows out of the Olympic
Mountains. Special attention is being given to Hood Canal summer
chum, Puget Sound Chinook and Puget Sound steelhead — all listed as
threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The project
also will aid coho salmon, a federal species of concern, and pink
salmon.
Washington’s Salmon Recovery Funding Board last week approved
$2.8 million toward design of the bridge and purchase of needed
properties. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will take the lead in
designing a renewed 38-acre estuary, including excavation to
restore historic stream and tide channels. In all, $14 million has
been approved for design, including $8 million authorized by
Congress.
The funding supports completion of the preliminary design, which
will be subject to public review, as well as final detailed
drawings needed for construction, according to Mendy Harlow,
executive director of the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group,
which applied for the state funding.
The new bridge, about 2,100 feet long, will replace two aging
bridges totaling about 970 feet. Likely to be higher than the old
bridges, the new one is expected to benefit wildlife, such as elk,
in their approach to the estuary.
Major selling points among area residents are a decreased risk
of flooding and an increased assurance of earthquake safety. Unlike
the old bridges, the new bridge is likely to survive a major
earthquake that would otherwise halt traffic on the most important
thoroughfare on the Olympic Peninsula.
About 120 people attended a meeting on the project last July,
Mendy told me. While a few expressed reservations about the cost,
“a lot of people are really excited about the project.”
The restoration effort is gaining increasing support from state
and federal agencies and Indian tribes who keep pushing it forward,
said Theresa Mitchell, environmental planner for the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife.
While the cost is significant and there are no guarantees of
final approval, it appears that the project remains on track for
both congressional and legislative appropriations in the coming
years, she said.
While the Corps will pay 65 percent of the bridge removal and
estuary restoration, the state must pick up the cost for the new
bridge and related roadway costs. Transportation infrastructure is
not covered by the Corps’ aquatic restoration program.
Design of the Duckabush bridge is the second-largest out of 96
salmon-improvement grants approved across the state by the Salmon
Recovery Funding Board. The total expenditure by the board in this
round will be $26 million. After last week’s approvals, the board,
now in its 20th year, has surpassed $1 billion in total investments
— including matching funds from grant recipients.
“The work being done across the state on salmon recovery is
critical,” Gov. Jay Inslee said in a
news release. “These grants for on-the-ground projects will
help us restore salmon to healthy levels that allow for both
protection and a robust fishery. We must do everything we can to
restore this beloved Washington icon and help orcas, which are
starving due to lack of salmon, before it is too late.”
“These grants,” added Phil Rockefeller, chairman of the SRF
Board, “create many other benefits for local communities, such as
better water quality, less flooding, more resiliency to climate
change and a boost to our statewide economy.”
Other funding approved in the Hood Canal region includes a
$289,000 grant for purchase of 30 acres of historic floodplain in
Moon Valley along the Big Qulicene River and $191,000 for removing
invasive knotweed and restoring native vegetation along the Union,
Tahuya, Dewatto, Dosewallips, and Big and Little Quilcene rivers as
well as Big Anderson and Big Beef creeks. Both projects are under
management of the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group.
Another project in Hood Canal involves the purchase of two acres
of land on the Big Quilcene River followed by the removal of
structures and the planting of native vegetation along the river.
Jefferson County government will receive the $139,000 grant and
oversee the project.
And in Mason County, Great Peninsula Conservancy will receive
$511,000 to purchase about 100 acres of lowland forest and
shoreline near Dewatto Bay on Hood Canal. The land includes about
0.6 mile of saltwater shoreline, 1.2 miles of streams and 8.45
acres of tidelands. The land includes habitat for salmon and surf
smelt, as well as eelgrass beds, feeder bluffs, streams and forest.
GPC will contribute $721,000 from a federal grant and donations of
cash.
Among other major projects approved in the Puget Sound
region:
Chico Creek: Kitsap County will receive
$266,000 to improve habitat along Chico Creek following culvert
removal and bridge construction on Golf Club Hill Road off Chico
Way.
Cedar River: King County will receive $817,000
to reconnect portions of the 52-acre Riverbend floodplain along the
Cedar River by removing a half-mile of levee, excavating 180,000
cubic yards of fill, rebuilding side channels and planting native
vegetation. The county will add more than $1 million to the project
from other grants.
Cedar River: Seattle Public Utilities will
receive $424,000 to reconnect and enhance floodplain habitat by
removing a berm, fill and riprap and adding large logs along the
bank of the Cedar River in Maple Valley.
Skagit River: Skagit Land Trust will receive
$748,000 to buy at least 62 acres of high-quality salmon habitat in
the upper Skagit River near Marblemount. A portion of the funding
will be used for evaluating other properties for potential
purchase. The grant is actually the repayment of a loan issued from
a new Rapid Response Fund, which was used to set up the purchase
when the property became available. It is the first loan in the new
program.
Skagit River: Skagit River System Cooperative
will receive $750,000 for final design and construction of the
long-awaited first phase of the Barnaby Slough restoration project,
which includes removing man-made barriers to juvenile salmon and
opening up nearly a mile of off-channel rearing habitat.
Skagit River: Skagit Fisheries Enhancement
Group will receive $286,056 to reconnect Britt Slough with 7.8
acres of forested floodplain wetlands. The project will improve
rearing habitat for Chinook salmon and create an exit from the
wetland to the South Fork of the Skagit River. The enhancement
group will contribute $125,000 from a federal grant, and the Skagit
Conservation District will provide engineering support.
Stillaguamish River: The Stillaguamish Tribe
was granted $159,000 to help purchase 248 acres of former wetlands
at the mouth of the Stillaguamish River in Snohomish County. The
land had been diked and drained for farming in the late 1800s. The
tribe’s goal is to move the levees back to restore wetland habitat.
The tribe will contribute $1.3 million in other state and federal
grants to the purchase.
Nooksack River: The Nooksack Tribe will
receive $579,000 to build 27 log structures to restore side-channel
habitat in the North Fork of the Nooksack River near Maple Falls.
Native trees and shrubs will be planted on the structures. The
tribe will contribute $102,000 from a federal grant.
Deschutes River: South Puget Sound Salmon
Enhancement Group will receive $595,000 to add root wads and logs
along 0.3 mile of the Deschutes River in Thurston County.
Vegetation will be planted along a side channel. The group will
contribute $105,000 from another grant.
South Prairie Creek: Forterra will receive
$393,000 to buy 34 acres along South Prairie Creek in Pierce County
and design a restoration project. Forterra will contribute $568,000
from a conservation futures grant.
Climatologist Adam Levy, better known as ClimateAdam, uses humor
and examples from everyday life to explain the science of climate
change and to dispel mistaken beliefs and misinformation.
Take, for example, the first video on this page, which addresses
a common statement I’ve heard from climate-change skeptics: If
carbon dioxide is essential to life on the planet, how can it be
considered dangerous?
I love Adam’s example, which shows an alternative Adam getting
drenched in a shower with his clothes on. Yes, water is essential
to the planet, but it’s not always beneficial, as I discuss
constantly in this blog.
“The greenhouse effect from carbon dioxide is actually a good
thing,” Adam acknowledges. “We should all be super-grateful for it.
Without it, there would be no protective warming blanket around the
Earth, and things would get way too cold for comfort.”
But he points out that too much CO2 can mean too much of a good
thing — that is, too much warmth. In another video, titled “Why the
Greenhouse Effect is like a Hot Sweater,” Adam says when a
person gets too warm, he needs to take off a sweater — or at least
stop putting on more clothing.
Adam holds a doctorate degree in atmospheric physics from the
University of Oxford, where he began his YouTube channel. He later
worked for Nature publications, where he co-hosted the
award-winning Nature Podcast. He currently works as a freelancer,
producing scientific podcasts and videos for a variety of
organizations while continuing his podcast.
The second video is a new trailer for his YouTube channel,
showing clips from the videos he produced over the past five
years.
“While I was doing my doctorate, I was constantly having
conversations about climate change,” he told Mikaela Joyce in an
interview for
MIT’s “Climate” publication. “I realized just how different
those conversations were when I had them with my colleagues versus
when they were with friends, family and strangers. But I loved
these discussions, because it felt like I was able to share the
knowledge I was accumulating and help other people see through some
of the disinformation they had come across. So I thought, why not
start talking to even more strangers?
“I was aiming to make a YouTube channel that was first and
foremost entertaining and engaging,” he added. “I wanted my videos
to be funny enough that you’d want to watch to the end even if you
didn’t care about climate change. The hope was that if I could do
this, I could trick people into learning. And maybe even trick them
into caring.”
While most of his videos are based on humorous situations, Adam
took on a serious tone a year ago when he became frustrated with
the international climate-change negotiations known as Conference
of the Parties to the United Nations, or COPP 24. His video
“Climate negotiations made me terrified for our future” is the
third on this page, but I only feature that video as a lead-in to
the latest video that Adam produced last week during COPP 25.
In the fourth video, Adam expresses a heartfelt appreciation for
Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish activist who has become
famous for her emotional and even taunting speeches directed to
political leaders and international assemblies. Greta was named
last week as Time
magazine’s Person of the Year. If you want to know why some
people find her so inspirational, I would urge you to watch Adam’s
entire video on this page.
In a similar fashion, Adam posted a video last month that
reflects the frustration that must be felt by every climate
scientist in the world when they consider the climate views of our
current U.S. president, Donald Trump. I must say that I did smile
at times while listening to ClimateAdam’s responses to Trump’s
outlandish viewpoints. See “Climate Scientist
reacts to Donald Trump’s climate comments.”
I was surprised to see the sudden surge of news coverage
explaining the important role that orca grandmothers play in our
Northwest resident pods.
A new research paper adds statistical support to our
understanding of why female orcas live long beyond their
reproductive years. The new findings are certainly worthy of
coverage — although I have never seen a news story about orca
research snapped up all at once by the New York Times, Washington
Post, Science magazine, National Geographic, London Daily Mail and
South China Morning Post, as well as CNN, BBC and Seattle
broadcasters.
Most news outlets broke the story within hours of Monday’s
publication in the journal “Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences.” The sudden news blast
resulted from a coordinated effort to keep the story under wraps
until the right moment, noted Ken Balcomb, the dean of orca
research in Puget Sound who provided data and observations for the
analysis.
Ken told me that he has rarely seen such widespread interest in
killer whale research. A news release promoting the new findings
about orca grandmothers was coordinated by the universities where
the leading researchers are employed, namely the universities of
Exeter and York, both in the United Kingdom. A timed embargo was
imposed on the release to make sure no news reporter got the jump
on anyone else.
The new findings are especially interesting, as they support the
idea that orca grandmothers have much in common with human
grandmothers, playing a nurturing and leadership role within their
family groups. Also, the endangered Southern Resident orcas have
been gaining worldwide attention as they teeter on the brink of
extinction. For example, many people have not forgotten the image
of Tahlequah (J-35), the 20-year-old orca mom who carried her dead
calf around for 17 days last year.
The pronounced role of grandmothers in caring for their
grandcalves has long been understood by orca researchers, but the
statistical analysis in the new study clearly shows that “the death
of a grandmother reduces the survival of her male and female
grandoffspring in the two years following her death,” the research
paper states.
A calf whose maternal grandmother dies is 4.5 times more likely
to die within the next two years when compared to an individual
with a living grandmother, the report says. Furthermore, an
individual who loses a post-reproductive grandmother is 1.5 times
more likely to die than one who loses a grandmother who is still
producing offspring.
In the vast majority of species, females lose their ability to
reproduce as they approach the end of their lives. But orcas and a
few other toothed whales, as with humans, go through menopause and
stick around for many years after they can no longer produce
offspring. Grandmothers who do not have to care for their own
calves seem to provide extra benefits, including an important
leadership role, the new research suggests.
“We suspect when breeding grandmothers are supporting their own
calves, their movement and activity patterns are constrained and
they are not able to provide support and leadership in the same way
as post-menopausal females,” states the paper’s lead author, Stuart
Nattrass of the University of York, in the joint
news release issued by Exeter as well as from
York University. “Also, grandmothers with their own calves will
be busy caring for their own calves, and be able to invest less in
their grand-offspring, compared to post-menopausal
grandmothers.”
It has long been known that killer whales generally stay with
their mothers from the time of birth until they die, so that
multiple generations of related orcas travel and forage together.
Mothers tend to share food with their offspring into adulthood,
especially their sons who need more food to survive.
Ongoing studies with unmanned aircraft, or drones, are designed
to identify patterns of food sharing and socializing that can
contribute to long-term survival.
“A lot of our information is based on historical surface data,”
Ken noted. “The new drone work has shown a lot more detail,
including underwater contacts that we could not see before. Food is
important, but so is socializing.”
Grandmothers have been seen to support their grandcalves,
sometimes staying with a calf while its mother is gone for a while.
Elder females, often post-menopausal, are known to be the leaders
of the matriarchal groups. Their knowledge of where to find fish to
eat may be the key to success for the pod — especially in this time
of food shortage, as the orcas range over wider areas to find new
hunting grounds.
The new study explains for the first time in quantitative terms
how older grandmothers can enhance the survival of the young
members in the family group, thus providing an evolutionary benefit
to pods containing post-reproductive females. The data show why the
pattern persists over time.
In fact, the study even looked at survival rates when food was
more or less available. It turns out that the loss of a grandmother
carries even more risk to a youngster when food is scarce, as we
are seeing under current conditions in the Salish Sea, according to
Dan Franks, of the Department of Biology at the University of York
and senior author on the paper.
“The death of a post-menopausal grandmother can have important
repercussions for her family group, and this could prove to be an
important consideration when assessing the future of these
populations,” he said in the
news release. “As salmon populations continue to decline,
grandmothers are likely to become even more important in these
killer whale populations.”
As food grows more scarce, the pods have been splintering into
smaller groups, according to Ken Balcomb. That leads to less
socializing with other pods and presumably less opportunities for
mating. The need for new calves to replenish the population seems
paramount, but survival of the existing orcas during a food
shortage is no small consideration. Some studies suggest that a
high rate of miscarriage occurs among pregnant females when food is
scarce, and we know that pregnancy requires increased caloric
intake.
The new analysis was based on 36 years of data about the
southern resident and northern resident killer whales collected by
Balcomb’s Center for Whale Research along with Canada’s Department
of Fisheries and Oceans.
Ken’s overall message has remained the same when it comes to the
future of the southern resident orcas. It all has to do with
getting more salmon, especially chinook salmon, their primary prey
species.
“Unless we do something about the prey resource, we will be
seeing problems for the next 20 years,” he said. “There is never
going to be a big population even if nobody dies. We are not
solving the problem now, and we will be damned if we will be able
to solve it 10 years from now.”
Headlines about grandmother orcas in stories this week:
The latest collection of “Earth as Art” satellite images shows
stunning depictions of land, water and ice in both natural and
unnatural colors.
Enhanced drone image of algae
bloom in Milford Lake, Kansas. // Image: USGS/NASA
Landsat
“Earth as Art #6,” produced by the U.S. Geological Survey, is
the latest in a series of Landsat images released since 2001. This
new series includes for the first time high-altitude photos taken
by unmanned aircraft, or drones, as well as satellite
depictions.
The satellites are designed to capture both visible and
invisible light. The photos are often enhanced with color to
provide extra contrast for scientists studying various aspects of
the landscape. USGS officials post some of the more interesting
images online, allowing the rest of us to see dynamic changes
underway in river deltas, wetlands, ice fields, mountain ranges,
deserts and more.
Some people choose to display these images in their homes, as
they would works of art — and in some ways the true-life stories
behind the pictures make them worthy of discussion beyond the
beauty of the Earth itself.
Enhanced satellite image of
Bangweulu Wetlands in Zambia. // Image: USGS/NASA
Landsat
The first image on this page, titled “A Study in Algae,” reveals
the annual algae bloom in Milford Lake, the largest man-made lake
in Kansas at 15,700 acres. Because the algae can be harmful to
fragile wetland ecosystems, the USGS Kansas Water Science Center
uses drones with multispectral sensors to monitor changes in the
blooms and report their effects on humans and animals.
In the second image, called “Wondrous Wetlands,” we are viewing
the Bangweulu Wetlands in Zambia, where 17 rivers flow in but only
one drains out. The entire wetlands, which are about the size of
Connecticut, include areas dominated by grasslands as well as open
water with shorelines featuring dense patches of aquatic
vegetation.
All 20 of the newly featured images and their descriptions can
be linked from the “Earth as Art
#6” webpage. This series also can be downloaded in
high-resolution format for framing or purchased as a print for $25
from the USGS
Store.
Enhanced satellite image of
Solway Firth between Scotland and England. // Image:
USGS/NASA Landsat
Previous collections can be found on the “Earth as
Art” webpage hosted by the USGS Earth Resources Observation and
Science (EROS) Center. Near the bottom of this page, I’ve posted a
new video, which adds music to a slideshow that features this
latest collection.
If you don’t wish to wait for the next “Earth as Art”
collection, you might like to peruse the “Image of
the Week Gallery” sponsored by EROS. Beyond that is the
“Landsat Image
Gallery,” which includes the latest up-to-date images as well
as many others posted since 1972.
The third and fourth images on this page, posted by EROS on
Friday, show the Solway Firth along the coast of Dumfries and
Galloway, Scotland, and Cumbria, England. The images, captured in
October, provide a spectacular example of a drama that plays out in
many estuaries during tidal changes.
Zooming out from above image to
view surrounding landscape. // Image: USGS/NASA
Landsat
“This sloshing of water into and out of basins can produce
visible surges of sediment and floating debris, turbulent mixing of
fresh and salty waters, and sometimes distinct lines between
different water masses,” states the description on the image
page. “The water changes color abruptly offshore where the
shallower bay meets deeper waters of the Irish Sea.”
Blending art and science, Norman Kuring of NASA’s Ocean Biology
group used software programs with color-filtering aspects to draw
out the fine details in the water. The swirls and streamers are
real, but the tones are enhanced to better show the sediments and
dissolved organic matter. To see the natural colors, go to
this lower-resolution image.
Also shown in these images captured by Landsat 8 is the Robin
Rigg wind farm, located on a sandy shoal and revealed as a
symmetrical pattern of white dots and shadows. Robin Rigg is
Scotland’s first offshore wind farm, coming online in 2010. It can
generate up to 174 megawatts of power, enough to supply 117,000
homes, according to the USGS summary.
In November, the USGS released
a new report placing the economic value of the Landsat archive
at about $3.45 billion in 2017, compared to $2.19 billion in
2011.
“The analysis is based on the number of scenes downloaded from
the USGS and the price that users would be willing to pay per
scene,” according to a summary of the report. “It does not include
scenes downloaded by cloud vendors or other downstream economic
benefits for things such as value-added products and environmental
monitoring.”
The report also concludes that much of the value of the Landsat
images comes from the open-data policy of allowing users to access
as much or as little of the imagery they need. Despite the reported
value to users, charging fees per image would likely result in a
major decrease in their use, the report says.
Salmon managers are reporting dismal returns of chum and coho
salmon to Puget Sound streams this fall, and a sparsity of rainfall
during November could result in low salmon survival during the next
generation.
Low streamflows in November
made it difficult for chum salmon to make it past obstacles, such
as this log weir at the mouth of Chico Creek.
Photo: Meegan M. Reid, Kitsap Sun
“The run (of chum) was pretty darn small,” said Jon Oleyar,
salmon biologist for the Suquamish Tribe who walks many streams on
the Kitsap Peninsula. His surveys of living and dead salmon are
used to estimate escapement — the number of migrating salmon that
return to their home streams.
“Some of the streams had no fish at all in them,” Jon told me,
“and many of the fish did not get very far up into the system.”
Low rainfall in November led to low streamflows in the upper
portions of many streams, where the water levels were often too low
to allow passage of chum and coho. The fish were forced to lay
their eggs in the larger channels, where heavy rains this winter
could wash the eggs out of the gravel before they hatch.
Low flows disrupted the normal run timing of the chum salmon,
according to Aaron Default of the Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife. The final in-season estimate of run size for Central and
South Puget Sound was 240,000 chum — barely half of the preseason
forecast of 444,000. The 10-year average is about 527,000, as I
reported in Water
Ways in October. Final estimates for the year will come
later.
Chum returns to Hood Canal also were low this year, Aaron
reported in an email.
For the Kitsap Peninsula, average rainfall in November is second
only to December in the longterm records, but this year more
rainfall was seen in October and even September. The graphs on this
page include nearly flat lines (blue), representing very low
rainfall through most of October and November this year. Click on
the images to enlarge them.
In Hansville, at the extreme north end of the peninsula, total
rainfall for November was 1.14 inches. That was the lowest
precipitation recorded in 30 years of records maintained by
Kitsap
Public Utilities District. The median average rainfall for
November is 4.37 inches in Hansville.
In Silverdale,
only 1.03 inches of precipitation was recorded during November.
That’s just a fraction of the median average of 9.96 inches seen
over the past 29 years. It was also the lowest rainfall ever seen
for November except for 1994, when 0.90 inches established the
current low record.
Holly, one of the wettest parts of the Kitsap Peninsula,
received 2.47 inches of rain in November, compared to a median
average of 12.41 inches. This November’s rainfall in Holly,
as in Hansville, is the lowest amount going back 29 years. The
previous record low was 3.29 inches set in 1994.
The shifts in rainfall from one year to the next are hard to
explain. Just two years ago, Holly received 22.89 inches of rain in
November, followed by 12.41 last year — which just happens to match
the median average.
Overall, the low rainfall was detrimental to the salmon, which
ended up spawning in the lower portion of streams where flows are
higher. But Jon Oleyar observed a few positive features this year,
such as beaver dams on Chico Creek — the largest producer of chum
salmon on the Kitsap Peninsula.
Although beaver dams can impede the movement of chum during low
flows, they also can hold back water during high flows, reducing
the risk of extreme currents that can scour salmon eggs out of the
gravel.
“In the Chico system, we had about 10,000 fish total, and 95
percent of them spawned below river mile 1.5,” Jon said.
That means most chum and even coho spawned this year in the
mainstem of Chico Creek, with very few fish getting to Lost or
Wildcat creeks. Those tributaries of Chico Creek normally support
large numbers of juvenile chum and coho.
“The only saving grace that I can point to is the beaver dams,”
Jon said. “In bad weather, the dams can hold back the water instead
of having it shoot downstream like a fire hose.”
Jon spotted only handfuls of chum in some important salmon
streams, including Scandia Creek in North Kitsap, Steele Creek in
Central Kitsap and Blackjack Creek in South Kitsap.
“This might be the smallest run I’ve ever seen,” said Jon, who
has been surveying salmon streams for years, “and some streams
didn’t get any fish at all.”
The three-month precipitation
forecast calls for above-average rainfall from now into
February.
Map: NOAA Climate Prediction Center
Hatcheries in the region may not have enough returning salmon
for full production next year, and the coho that did make it back
were much smaller than normal. Jon said. Conditions leading to
fewer and smaller salmon probably relate to temperatures in the
open ocean and upwelling currents off the Washington coast. I’ll
have more to say about those conditions along with some
observations about chinook salmon in a future blog post.
For now, we can hope for adequate rains — but not enough to
cause serious flooding — over the next few months, as the baby
salmon emerge from the gravel and begin their fight for
survival.
In the latest video in SeaDoc Society’s series called “Salish
Sea Wild,” veterinarian and all-around marine life expert Joe
Gaydos goes on a quest to observe herring during their annual
spawning ritual — an event Joe calls the Salish Sea’s “most awesome
spectacle.”
In this drama, there is a role for nearly all the players in the
Salish Sea food web — from plankton that feed tiny fish to killer
whales that eat marine mammals. As the story plays out in the
Strait of Georgia, commercial fishers harvest herring at the peak
of the spawn. These herring are sold overseas, often becoming sushi
in Japan.
“This is the only major industrial herring fishery left in the
Salish Sea,” Joe says in the video. “Our other herring populations
are already too depleted.”
Canadian herring fishers are allowed to take up to 20 percent of
the estimated herring run, which has triggered a debate over
whether to reduce the quota, change the management system or cease
fishing for herring altogether, as outlined in a story by Jolene
Rudisuela of the
Vancouver Island Free Daily.
A recent story by Randy Shore of the
Vancouver Sun describes an ongoing effort by environmentalists
to end the herring fishery. Randy raises the prospect of at least
setting aside a protected herring reserve, as suggested by Andrew
Trites, a marine mammal researcher at the University of British
Columbia.
In another “Salish Sea Wild” video, released in October, Joe
Gaydos goes out on Puget Sound with Brad Hanson, a federal marine
mammal biologist with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center to
collect scat and fish scales left behind by our southern resident
orcas. These samples can provide clues about what the killer whales
are eating at various times of the year as well other aspects of
their well-being.
Some of my favorite people are reflected in the new book “We Are
Puget Sound,” which offers an overview of the geography, history
and natural environment of our inland waterway.
Lead author David Workman does a wonderful job pulling together
facts from the far-flung corners of Puget Sound, providing a
realistic sense of the place where we live. But I was most
captivated by the stories of the local people who have made a
difference in protecting, restoring or otherwise improving our
region.
The book provides only a sampling of the people doing good
things, of course, but I enjoyed reading about people who I have
long admired. Through the years, I’ve written about many of them,
but not in such detail.
The people of Puget Sound were always a part of the writing
project, said Mindy Roberts, who helped coordinate the “We are
Puget Sound” project.
“We realized from the start that there are a lot of people doing
inspiring things,” Mindy said. “We wanted to talk about the people
who are doing things that everyone should know about.”
Mindy Roberts
Folks recognized for their work in special sections of the book
include Betsy Peabody, who is leading a group that restores Olympia
oysters and other native species; scuba diver Laura James, who has
documented the effects of pollution on sea life; former Secretary
of State Ralph Munro, who played a key role in ending the
commercial capture of killer whales in the 1970s; and former U.S.
Rep Norm Dicks, who secured federal funding for many Puget Sound
projects, including the removal of two dams on the Elwha River.
Also featured are Native American leaders, including Joseph
Pavel of the Skokomish Tribe, Sally Brownfield of the Squaxin
Island Tribe, and Ron Charles and Jeromy Sullivan of the Port
Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, all involved in protecting Puget Sound’s
natural resources — including salmon and shellfish, guaranteed to
the tribes by the federal government.
“My biggest takeaway (from the book project) is how much good is
happening out there,” said Mindy, who leads the People for Puget
Sound program for Washington Environmental Council. “There are a
lot of amazing people doing a lot of amazing things.”
I’m going to keep this new book alongside my copy of “The Salish
Sea: Jewel of the Pacific Northwest” by Audrey DeLella Benedict and
Joseph Gaydos. Both books are filled with high-quality photographs
of people, places and sea life. But where Workman profiles people,
Benedict-Gaydos offers intimate portraits of sea creatures and
their habitats.
David Workman
The book “We Are Puget Sound” also includes a chapter that
describes more than 30 usual and unusual places around Puget Sound
that are worthy of exploration. The chapter, written by former
Seattle Times travel writer Brian Cantwell, has inspired me to
visit several places I have never been and to take a fresh look at
places that I have not seen in recent years.
Release of the book last week in Seattle marked the start of the
“We are Puget Sound” campaign, which calls on people to go beyond
their daily routines to think about what they can do to help
recover Puget Sound. As part of the project, Mindy interviewed at
least 20 people (including me) to come up with ideas for a section
of the book called “Ten things you can do.”
Sea kayaks waiting to go out,
Henry Island in the San Juan Islands // Photo: Brian
Walsh
“The book is the foot in the door for a lot of people,” Mindy
said. “We have an Instagram account called “I Am Puget
Sound” in which people can take a picture of themselves maybe
in their favorite place or perhaps with a ballot in hand.”
Voting in local, state and federal elections is actually the
first item on the list of things that people can do to help Puget
Sound. Other items include supporting businesses that protect Puget
Sound, eating locally grown foods, reducing impacts in your home
and sharing your delights of the outdoors with others. See the full
list on the website.
