The ongoing story of the European green crab invasion offers us
scientific, social and even psychological drama, which I would like
to update by mentioning four new developments:
The somewhat mysterious finding of a partially eaten green crab
on the Bellingham waterfront,
A “story map” that spells out much of what we know about
European green crabs in Puget Sound, including maps, photos and
videos.
Information about Harper Estuary in South Kitsap and other
areas where groups of citizen scientists are on the lookout for
green crabs, and
Reports of a new breed of European green crab in Maine that
attacks people and may prove to be more destructive than the green
crabs that have lived in the area for a very long time.
The war against the invasive European green crab continues in
Puget Sound, as this year’s Legislature offers financial support,
while the Puget Sound Crab Team responds to crabs being caught for
the first time in Samish Bay in North Puget Sound and at Kala Point
near Port Townsend.
In other parts of the country where green crabs have become
established, the invaders have destroyed native shoreline habitat,
diminished native species and cost shellfish growers millions of
dollars in damages. See
Environmental Protection Agency report (PDF 1.3 mb).
European green crab trapping
sites in Puget Sound.
Map: Washington Sea Grant
In Puget Sound, it’s hard to know whether the crabs are being
trapped and removed rapidly enough to defeat the invasion, but so
far humans seem to be holding their own, according to Emily Grason,
who manages the Crab Team volunteer trapping effort for Washington
Sea Grant.
“The numbers are still in line with what we saw the past two
years,” Emily told me. “Since the numbers have not exploded, to me
that is quite a victory. In other parts of the world, they have
been known to increase exponentially.”
The largely volunteer Crab Team program is focused on placing
baited traps at 56 sites in Puget Sound, as shown in the first map
on this page. About 220 trained volunteers are involved in that
work, with various federal, state and tribal agencies adding about
40 additional people.
I heard some legitimate questions about how to identify European
green crabs and what to do if you find one. The main thing is to
get a photograph and send it to the Washington Sea Grant Crab Team,
which is leading the war on green crabs. I’m reminded that it is
illegal to possess a green crab without a permit.
Here are some links from the Crab Team website that could be
helpful:
I’m also pleased to see the announcement of a free online
webinar on July 10 to help people identify European green crabs.
The two-hour “First Detector
Training Webinar” is co-sponsored by the Crab Team and
Washington Invasive Species Council. Register ahead of time to get
information about the event.
Dungeness Spit on the Strait of Juan de Fuca near Sequim remains
a hot spot for the invasive European green crab, which first showed
up in Puget Sound during the fall of 2016.
This small male crab is one of
the European green crabs caught last year in traps at Dungeness
Spit.
Photo: Allen Pleus
The green crab, one of the most dreaded invasive species in the
world, brings with it the potential to destroy shellfish beds and
disrupt key habitats essential to native species in Puget
Sound.
Thankfully, except for the Dungeness Spit, new findings of green
crabs have been almost zero since a massive volunteer trapping
effort resumed in April throughout most of Puget Sound.
I do have some additional news about green crabs to share, so
please read on for a discussion of these topics:
Nearly 100 invasive European green crabs were trapped along
Dungeness Spit near Sequim this past spring and summer — far more
than anywhere else in Puget Sound since the dangerous invaders
first showed up last year.
European green crabs started
showing up in traps on Dungeness Spit in April.
Photo: Allen Pleus, WDFW
Despite the large number of crabs found in this one location,
green crab experts remain undeterred in their effort to trap as
many of the crabs as they can. And they still believe it is
possible to keep the invasion under control.
“In a lot of ways, this program is functioning much as we had
hoped,” said Emily Grason of Washington Sea Grant, who is
coordinating volunteers who placed hundreds of traps in more than
50 locations throughout Puget Sound. “We look in places where we
think the crabs are most detectable and try to keep the populations
from getting too large, so that they are still possible to
control.”
After the first green crabs were found on Dungeness Spit in
April, the numbers appeared to be tapering off by June, as I
described using a graph in
Water Ways on June 24. The numbers stayed relatively low, with
three caught in July, two in August, three in September and two in
October. But they never stopped coming.
The total so far at Dungeness Spit is 96 crabs, and more can be
expected when trapping resumes next spring. The good news is that
all the crabs caught so far appear to be just one or two years old
— suggesting that they likely arrived as free-floating larvae. That
doesn’t mean the crabs aren’t mating at Dungeness Spit, but the
trapping effort has reduced the population to the point that males
and females are probably having a tough time finding each
other.
Officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has
taken charge of trapping at Dungeness Spit, will need to decide
whether to attempt a complete eradication of the local green crab
population, according to Allen Pleus, coordinator of Washington
State’s Aquatic Invasive Species Program. That would involve
managing a large number of traps until no more crabs are seen. The
alternative, he said, would be to manage the crab population with
fewer traps and make further decisions down the line.
During one three-day stretch last year, 126 traps were deployed
in areas on and near Dungeness Spit, part of the Dungeness National
Wildlife Refuge managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Even with the most exhaustive trapping program, there is no
guarantee that green crabs won’t be found again, Allen said. The
likely source of the crab larvae is an established population of
green crabs in Sooke Inlet on Vancouver Island, just across the
Strait of Juan de Fuca from Dungeness Spit.
Allen said he is disappointed that crabs continued to be caught
on or near Dungeness Spit — mainly in one small area near the
connected Graveyard Spit. “But I am very impressed with the
dedication of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which continued
to trap throughout the summer,” he said.
While there is no evidence so far that the invading crabs have
reproduced at Dungeness Spit, it is possible that mating took
place. If so, everyone involved in the green crab effort could face
a whole new group of young crabs next year.
I have to admit that I was worried last spring that funding for
the essential volunteer effort would run out as officials scrambled
to finance the start of trapping season. But the Environmental
Protection Agency agreed to fund the project through next year
under the Marine and Nearshore Grant Program.
Meanwhile, Allen said he is working with Canadian officials to
see what can be done about reducing the population of green crabs
in Sooke Inlet, which is likely to remain a source of the invasive
crabs coming into Washington state. The Canadians have their own
concerns about green crabs, which can severely damage commercial
shellfish operations and disrupt critical eelgrass habitats.
“Sooke Inlet is the only known population established in the
Salish Sea,” Allen said. “We are working with Canada and setting up
meetings this winter to continue our discussions.”
Canadian officials are monitoring for green crabs on their side
of the border, but the effort is much less than in Puget Sound. It
appears that only limited efforts have been made so far to control
the Sooke Inlet population and reduce the amount of invasive crab
larvae heading to other areas in the Salish Sea.
Researchers are still investigating the conditions that allow
green crab larvae to survive long enough to grow into adult crabs.
It appears that larvae move up the coast from California during
warm years and particularly during El Niño periods, Emily told me.
That may explain why the Puget Sound traps began catching so many
crabs the past two summers.
“The signal we are seeing does point to 2015 and ‘16 as being
the first arrivals,” she said. “Our working hypothesis is that warm
years are spreading larvae.”
That could offer renewed hope for the immediate future, since El
Niño is over and we may be going into cooler La Niña conditions
next year.
No new crabs have shown up in the San Juan Islands, where Puget
Sound’s first green crab was discovered last year. But two more
were found about 30 miles away in Padilla Bay, where four crabs
were caught last fall.
New areas with green crabs this year are Lagoon Point on Whidbey
Island, where two crabs were caught, and Sequim Bay, not far from
Dungeness Spit, where one crab was caught.
The latest concern over green crabs is Makah Bay on the outer
coast of Washington near the northwest tip of the Olympic
Peninsula. In August, a beach walker spotted a single green crab on
the Makah Tribe’s reservation and sent a picture to the Puget Sound
Crab Team, which confirmed the finding. Tribal officials launched a
three-day trapping effort last month and caught 34 crabs — 22 males
and 12 females — in 79 traps.
An aggressive trapping effort is being planned by tribal
officials for the coming spring. Interested volunteers should
contact Adrianne Akmajian, marine ecologist for the Makah Tribe, at
marine.ecologist@makah.com
The Makah effort is separate from the Puget Sound Crab Team,
which encourages beach goers to learn to identify green crabs by
looking at photos on its website. Anyone who
believes he or she has found a green crab should leave it in place
but send photographs to the crab team at crabteam@uw.edu
Emily said she is most proud of all the people and organizations
that have come together as partners to quickly locate the invasive
crabs and advance the science around the issue. Such cooperation,
she said, makes the impact of the program much greater than it
would be otherwise.
“I have just watched the moon set in all her glory, and
looked at those lesser moons, the beautiful Pyrosoma, shining like
white-hot cylinders in the water.” — English biologist
Thomas H. Huxley, 1849
Warmer-than-normal waters off the coast of Oregon, Washington
and British Columbia may be responsible for an invasion of all
sorts of creatures normally found to the south in more tropical
waters. None of these animals has attracted more attention than the
bright bioluminescent pyrosomes, which showed up last spring as the
waters of the Pacific Ocean were returning to normal
temperatures.
Pyrosomes — which comes from the Greek word “pyro,” meaning
fire, and “soma,” meaning body —are large colonies of small
tunicates. These are invertebrates that feed by filtering sea
water. The individual tunicates, called zooids, hook together to
form tubes. The intake siphon of each zooid is aligned to the
outside of the tube, while each discharge siphon is aligned to the
inside.
The pyrosomes seen in Northwest waters so far are relatively
small, thus fitting their nickname “sea pickles.” Nevertheless,
they have impressed scientists who have observed them. The first
video, above, was made in late July during the 2017 Nautilus
Expedition along the West Coast (Water
Ways, Sept. 4).
Hilarie Sorensen, a University of Oregon graduate student,
participated in a research cruise in May, traveling from San
Francisco to Newport in search of jellyfish that had invaded
Northwest waters over the previous two years. She didn’t find the
jellies she hoped to see, but she was blown away by the pyrosomes,
some more than two feet long, and she wondered what they were up
to.
“I am interested in how short- and long-term physical changes in
the ocean impact biology,” Hilary was quoted as saying in a
UO news release. “With all of these pyrosomes this year, I
would like to further explore the relationship between their
distribution, size and abundance with local environmental
conditions.”
Reporter Craig Welch wrote about the recent findings for
National Geographic. He quoted Laurie Weitkamp, a biologist
with NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center: “For something
that’s never really been here before, the densities are just
mind-boggling,” she said. “We’re just scratching our heads.”
Even more impressive are the giant pyrosomes that have not shown
up in Northwest waters, at least so far. They are rare even in
tropical locales. Check out the second video, which shows a
pyrosome found in the Canary Islands in North Africa and estimated
to be about 12 feet long.
The third video was filmed in Tasmania south of Australia by
Michael Baron of Eaglehawk Dive Centre. It shows both a giant
pyrosome and a salp, another colonial creature formed of larger
individuals. For the full story on the pyrosome, go to the BBC Two
program, “Unidentified glowing
object: nature’s weirdest events.”
Oddly enough, pyrosomes seem to light up in response to light,
according to information posted on an
invertebrate zoology blog at the University of California at
Davis. The colonies may also light up in response to electrical
stimulation or physical prodding.
When an individual zooid has activated its luminescence, it will
trigger a chain reaction throughout the colony with nearby zooids
lighting up in turn.
“When many pyrosomes are present in the same general area it’s
possible to observe a vivid array of bright, pale lights produced
by the many animals,” said Ian Streiter in the blog post.
“It was just this sort of observation that led the great Thomas
Huxley (‘Darwin’s Bulldog’) to remark in 1849: ‘I have just watched
the moon set in all her glory, and looked at those lesser moons,
the beautiful Pyrosoma, shining like white-hot cylinders in the
water.’
Ian concluded, “For those lucky enough to be at sea when they’re
around, I imagine there are few sights as pleasant as that of the
‘moonlight’ produced by the fire bodies.”
Finally, there is this audio report, “Millions of tropical sea
creatures invade waters off B.C. coast,” with commentary from
Washington state fisherman Dobie Lyons and zooplankton taxonomist
Moira Galbraith of the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, B.C.
They appeared on
All Points West, CBC Radio, with Jason D’Souza of Victoria.
Puget Sound Partnership may take a stand on whether fish farms
should be allowed to remain in Puget Sound waters.
The partnership is charged by the Legislature to oversee the
restoration of the Puget Sound ecosystem. On Wednesday, the
partnership’s governing body, the Puget Sound Leadership Council,
received an update on last month’s collapse of a net pen containing
305,000 Atlantic salmon near Cypress Island in northern Puget
Sound.
About two-thirds of the escaped fish have been accounted for so
far, with about 146,000 found dead or alive in the damaged net pen
and about 55,000 caught by fishermen. (All but about 5,000 of those
were caught by tribal fishers in Puget Sound.)
This video, taken by a private
party and released by state agencies, shows the collapse of the
Cypress Island net pens on Aug. 19
About 100,000 Atlantic salmon apparently escaped and have not
been caught by people, although most of those probably were eaten
by predators, experts say. Officials continue their efforts to
figure out where any remaining fish have gone, specifically any
that swam up into the streams, according to Amy Windrope of the
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The Atlantic salmon, an exotic species in Puget Sound, don’t
appear to be eating anything, let alone young native salmon,
Windrope said, and there is not much concern that they will breed
with native fish. The greatest concern is that they might somehow
disrupt the spawning behavior of native salmon, whose populations
are already stressed by adverse conditions in both marine and fresh
water.
The Atlantic salmon appeared to be healthy and free of parasites
at the time of the release, she said, but they became less and less
healthy as starvation set in.
In addition to Windrope, the presentation to the Leadership
Council included reports from representatives of the state
Department of Natural Resources, which leases the seabed where the
pens are located, and the Department of Ecology, which issues
permits under water-quality laws.
Puget Sound tribes are about to release a position statement
opposing salmon farms in Puget Sound, said Russell Hepfer, a member
of the Leadership Council and vice chairman of the Lower Elwha
Klallam Tribal Council. He did not elaborate, except to say that
the non-native fish don’t belong here.
According to Windrope, the tribes see Atlantic salmon as weeds
in the garden of Puget Sound. Such cultural viewpoints should be
taken into account in the overall discussion, she added.
Soon after the Cypress Island net pen collapse, Washington Gov.
Jay Inslee and Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz issued a
moratorium blocking further net pen approvals until an
investigation is complete.
Maradel Gale, a resident of Bainbridge Island, addressed the
Leadership Council at Wednesday’s meeting near Port Gamble, saying
the Bainbridge Island City Council has effectively limited the
expansion of net pens at the south end of the island and would like
to get rid of net pens altogether.
She said Cooke Aquaculture, which owns all the net pens at four
locations in Puget Sound, receives the benefits of using the public
waterways and placing the ecosystem in peril while taking very
little risk upon itself.
Dennis McLerran, a member of the Leadership Council who has
worked for various environmental agencies, said Washington state
law has long provided a preference for aquaculture over many other
shoreline uses. Like it or not, he said, those preference are
“baked into state policies” that direct state agencies to support
aquaculture, including salmon farms.
“That is where the Leadership Council should have some
discussion,” McLerran said. “Are those preferences in state law
appropriate?”
The state of Alaska prohibits salmon farms, while California’s
complex regulations allow them only under specific conditions
related to water supplies, said Kessina Lee of Ecology.
Jay Manning, chairman of the Leadership Council and former
director of the Washington Department of Ecology, said the
Legislature will no doubt want to hear a complete report on the
Cypress Island net-pen collapse, and he urged the agency officials
to be fully prepared to answer questions from lawmakers.
“You will be asked, when the Legislature comes back, ‘How big a
deal is this?’” Manning said, noting that he has heard from some
people that it is a very big deal, while others say it is nothing
at all.
Windrope noted that native salmon populations are already
struggling, “and this is one more injury to the salmon.” But since
the escaped Atlantic salmon don’t appear to be competing for food,
the question comes down to whether they are affecting native fish
in other ways. That question is not fully answered, she said.
“For DNR, this is a very big concern,” said Dennis Clark, who
helps manage aquatic leases for the agency. “We have a contract
with a multinational company, and they failed to adhere to it.”
DNR serves as the landlord for the Puget Sound net pen
operations, he said. The aquatic leases run out at various times,
from 2022 to 2025, and the agency is taking a closer look at the
net pen structures to see what should be done from both a
scientific and landlord perspective. Commissioner Franz is taking a
special interest, he added.
“We are trying very hard to learn from this (incident),” Clark
said, “and we understand that we may need to devote more
resources.”
Rich Doenges of Ecology said the Atlantic salmon that got away
are considered a “pollutant” under Washington state law. While no
long-term effects have been seen following previous escapes of
Atlantic salmon, there is some risk to native salmon. The key is to
quantify that risk and determine if it is low enough to make the
operations worthwhile. If necessary, he said, compliance orders can
be issued and state water-quality permits can be amended to require
additional safety measures.
Seattle attorney Doug Steding, representing Cooke Aquaculture,
said he wanted to convey “sorrow and regret” from the company over
the potential impacts of the escape.
“We want to make right with respect to this terrible accident,”
he said, adding that the company is committed to working with
investigators into the cause of the escape and finding ways to make
sure that it never happens again.
Steding noted that Cooke recently acquired the Puget Sound
facilities and did not own the Cypress Island net pens when the
fish were placed in them. The company should have shared more
information with the public about plans to upgrade the facilities,
he said.
“You have an important task sorting through the difficult
science and integrating with the values of the people of
Washington,” Steding told the Leadership Council, adding that Cooke
hopes to remain a part of the discussion.
Democratic members of Washington state’s congressional
delegation are calling on federal agencies to take immediate steps
to minimize damage from the net pen collapse and release of
Atlantic salmon near Cypress Island. Read the
news release.
“Pacific salmon are central to our economy, our culture, and our
environment in the Pacific Northwest and are a critical part of
marine and estuarine ecosystems in Washington state,” the letter
states. “Most concerning is the threat farmed Atlantic salmon pose
to the wild Pacific salmon populations stocks in Puget Sound.
Farmed salmon tend to be larger and could outcompete wild salmon
for critical resources, such as prey and preferred habitat, which
is important for spawning. Tribes, fishermen, and state agencies
are working to respond to the escapement, but the scale of the
release calls for immediate and direct federal response….”
Meanwhile, a public hearing about the expansion of the Port
Angeles net pen operation has been cancelled at the request of the
owner, Cooke Aquaculture. Read the
letter from Steve Gray (PDF 155 kb), Clallam County’s deputy
planning director.
—–
The recent collapse of salmon pens near the San Juan Islands
could become a turning point in the war against salmon farming that
is being waged by environmental groups in Puget Sound.
Yesterday, Gov. Jay Inslee and Commissioner of Public Lands
Hillary Franz announced a moratorium on new state leases or permits
for any fish farms using Atlantic salmon. The moratorium will
remain in place until state officials can fully review the escape
of more than 300,000 Atlantic salmon from net pens near Cypress
Island, according to a
joint announcement (PDF 107 kb).
The video, by Glenn Farley and Travis Pittman of KING 5
News, was posted Friday.
The owner of the pens, Cooke Aquaculture, has applications
pending to move and expand its net pen operation near Port Angeles
to an area 1.8 miles offshore in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Cooke, a family-owned company, acquired all of the salmon farms
in Puget Sound from Icycle Seafoods last year. The deal was touted
as a way to infuse capital and modernize operations on the West
Coast.
“The deal will enhance the family’s investments in both the wild
fishery and the aquaculture sectors, making them leaders in the
U.S. salmon farming sector and a major player in the Alaskan salmon
fishery,” said a news release about the acquisition. See the story
by Cliff White in
“SeafoodSource.”
Perhaps the company did not have time to upgrade its facilities
to reduce the risk of the net pens collapsing at Cypress Island and
other farming operations. In a
news release (PDF 251 kb), Cooke said it had applied for
permits to update its Cypress Island site. Still, this latest
incident cannot instill confidence in the company nor the salmon
farming industry as a whole.
In fact, one could argue that that the company’s extensive
“Fish Escape Prevention Plan” (PDF 1.4 mb) and
Operations Plan (2.4 mb) should have raised red flags for the
company. Cooke cited unusual tides and currents as contributing
factors in the pens’ collapse, despite the fact that these tide
levels are seen several times each year and stronger currents can
be anticipated at times.
Cooke proudly proclaims its commitment to the environment on the
company’s home page. But
shooting itself in the foot on Cypress Island will leave a bad
feeling for many Puget Sound residents. For environmental groups,
this event will provide ammunition in their effort to stop the
expansion of net pens in Puget Sound and phase out their use
entirely.
It is often pointed out that Washington is the only state on the
West Coast that allows salmon farming. (See “Our Sound, Our
Salmon.” Meanwhile, a serious debate over the pros and cons of
industrial-scale aquaculture goes on and on in British Columbia,
where more than 100 salmon farms are well established. Take a look
at reporter Gordon Hoekstra’s story in the
Vancouver Sun.
The war on salmon farms has been waging for years on both sides
of the border. While battles ought to be won or lost based on
credible information, I’ve seen facts distorted to fit political
goals on both sides of the argument.
Now the Cypress Island incident will raise the profile of the
debate in Washington state. Let’s hope that the investigation
called for by Gov. Inslee and Commissioner Franz will lead to
findings that go beyond the question of why the net pens collapsed
and look at the overall risks and benefits of keeping these salmon
farms around.
Kurt Beardslee, executive director of Wild Fish Conservancy,
told me in an email that he is working today to sample 50,000
pounds of Atlantic salmon that escaped from the Cypress Island net
pens. Experts will be looking for viruses, parasites and stomach
contents.
I believe the information about stomach contents will be
particularly valuable, because of concerns that the escaped fish
could be consuming wild salmonids — including young chinook and
steelhead, both of which are listed as threatened species.
Obviously, we don’t have enough out-migrating chinook and steelhead
as it is. (You may wish to review my recent story about salmon
recovery in the Encyclopedia
of Puget Sound.)
Meanwhile, Wild Fish Conservancy, a staunch opponent of salmon
farming, has filed notice that it intends to sue Cooke Aquaculture
for violations of the Clean Water Act.
“The Conservancy is deeply disheartened by Cooke Aquaculture’s
glaring negligence, negligence which has led to an environmental
disaster of epic proportion,” states a
news release (PDF 115 kb) from the organization. “The needless
escape of up to 305,000 Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound represents
a dire threat to already imperiled wild fish populations, beloved
marine mammal species, and the fragile Puget Sound ecosystem at
large, and Wild Fish Conservancy fears impacts to these critical
aspects of our region will be felt for years to come.”
The 60-day
“letter of intent” (PDF 1.9 mb) from Wild Fish Conservancy
outlines a number of alleged violations of federal law resulting
from the release of Atlantic salmon and the management of debris.
The group says it will seek monetary penalties of up to $52,000 a
day, as provided by law, and “injunctive relief to prevent further
violations.”
When I asked Kurt what he thought the lawsuit could accomplish,
he wrote, “Simply speaking, I believe It’s in the best interest of
our sound, our salmon and future generations to pursue all legal
avenues to quickly remove Atlantic salmon net pens from
Washington’s waters.”
In response to the Cypress Island incident, an “incident
command” structure has been set up by the Washington state
departments of Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife, and Ecology,
along with the Office of the Governor and Emergency Management
Division. The idea is to share information and make joint decisions
about the cleanup operation.
“The release of net pen-raised Atlantic salmon into Washington’s
waters has created an emergency situation that has state agencies
working together to protect the health of our salmon…,” Gov. Inslee
said in a
statement. “Tribes and others who fish Washington waters
deserve a comprehensive response to this incident, including
answers to what happened and assurances that it won’t happen
again.
“I believe the company must do everything it can to stop any
additional escapes and to recover as many fish as possible,
including adequate compensation for those working to remove
Atlantic salmon from our waters,” he added.
A new website called
“Cypress Island Atlantic Salmon Pen Break” will be the
distribution point for public information — including “situation
updates” from Cook Aquaculture, “Next steps” from DNR, minutes from
agency conferences, news releases and other documents.
The Clallam County Hearing Examiner will hold a hearing on Sept.
7 regarding the proposed relocation and expansion of the Port
Angeles net pens. Many documents related to that application and
Cooke Aquaculture operations can be found on the website titled
Clallam County Online Permit System. Click on the permit number
for American Gold Seafoods.
Bright lights that affect the behavior of birds, fish and other
wildlife are emerging as a significant environmental concern.
Endangered Hawaiian Petrel
Photo: B. Zaun, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service
Yesterday, for example, two environmental groups filed a lawsuit
against the Hawai’i Department of Transportation for bright lights
the agency controls at piers and airports. The groups say three
species of seabirds on the Endangered Species List have been
circling the lights until the birds drop from exhaustion, and some
birds have died.
Meanwhile, in Lake Washington and the nearby Cedar River in King
County, there is evidence that threatened chinook salmon are at
greater risk from predators because of lights on the two floating
bridges as well as industrial facilities in Renton.
In Florida, researchers have discovered that female turtles
avoid coming ashore to lay their eggs where bright lights are
present, and in Virginia salamanders have delayed their feeding
efforts in the glare of lights.
The lawsuit in Hawaii was filed by lawyers for Earthjustice out
of concern for three species of seabirds: Newell’s shearwater, a
threatened species, and Hawaiian petrels and band-rumped storm
petrels, both endangered species.
The Hawai’I Department of Transportation has failed to protect
the birds, as required by the Endangered Species Act, according to
the lawsuit filed on behalf of the Hui Ho‘omalu i Ka ‘Āina,
Conservation Council and the Center for Biodiversity. Because the
lighting is injuring and killing listed species, the state agency
must obtain an incidental take permit and initiate actions to
minimize harm, the lawsuit says. For details, see the
complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief (PDF 1.4
mb).
Lights at airports and harbor facilities have been documented as
the greatest source of injury and death to the seabirds, which
migrate at night and become disoriented by the artificial lights,
the complaint asserts. Some birds crash into buildings, while
others end up on the ground where they may be struck by vehicles or
eaten by predators.
Since the 1990s, the Newell’s shearwaters have declined by 94
percent and the Hawaiian petrels on the island of Kauai have
dropped by 78 percent.
“Our ancestors depended on the ‘a‘o (Newell’s shearwater), ‘ua‘u
(Hawaiian petrel) and ‘akē‘akē (band-rumped storm-petrel) to help
locate schools of fish, to navigate from island to island and to
know when the weather is changing,” Kauai fisherman Jeff Chandler
was quoted as saying in a
news release from Earthjustice.
According to the news release, the Department of Transportation
dropped out of talks with state and federal wildlife agencies that
are developing a habitat conservation plan to protect the seabirds.
After Earthjustice filed a notice of intent to sue, the agency
rejoined the talks.
“That’s a good start, but talk alone will do nothing to save
these rare and important animals from extinction,” said
Earthjustice attorney David Henkin. “It’s long past time for the
department to take action, not only on Kauai, but everywhere in the
state that its operations illegally kill seabirds.”
Lake Washington chinook
As for the lights on and around Lake Washington, I have not
heard of any proposed lawsuits to protect the threatened Puget
Sound chinook, but concerns continue to simmer.
Lights on the Highway 520
bridge
Photo: Washington Dept. of
Transportation
Jason Mulvihill-Kuntz, salmon recovery manager for the Lake
Washington/Cedar/Sammamish Watershed, told me that the next
regional chapter of the chinook recovery plan will call for further
study into the effects of lights on juvenile chinook migrating down
the Cedar River and through Lake Washington.
“The technical folks have identified light as a potential
emerging issue,” Jason said. “We don’t have a good handle on what
the impacts are.”
Lights on Lake Washington may be creating a double whammy for
young chinook, Jason said. First, the lights attract the fish,
which slow down their migration to Puget Sound. Second, the lights
keep them visible to predators at night, so the fish may be eaten
24 hours a day.
“Juvenile salmon don’t have a nighttime respite,” Jason said.
“At least that’s the hypothesis.”
Nonnative predatory fish include bass, walleye and northern
pike. Native predators include cutthroat trout and pike minnow.
Predatory birds include the western grebe and great blue heron.
An updated chinook recovery plan for the Lake Washington region
is under review and could be finalized this fall. Predation is
getting some additional attention this time around, Jason said, and
the issue of lights is something that needs more study.
Experts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have identified
potential concerns with lighting along Lake Washington in a series
of studies going back more than 10 years. It still isn’t clear,
however, how much the known problems with predators are exacerbated
by bright lights. That’s why more studies are needed.
Following complaints from residents of Laurelhurst near the
Highway 520 bridge, the Washington Department of Transportation
reduced the amount of illumination coming off that bridge, and
further investigation is underway. Check out the King-5 News report
below.
Other species
With regard to other species, lights are known to have a variety
of effects. Reporter Sharon Guynup outlined the problems for birds,
turtles, amphibians, mammals and even insects in a revealing story
in
National Geographic News, April 17, 2003.
Washington state property owners and people with swimming pools
are being urged to become part of a defensive initiative to protect
trees from invasive beetles.
August is National Tree Check Month, and at least four state
agencies are asking tree owners this month to take a 10-minute walk
around their property to look for insects that don’t belong in our
region.
Nationwide, more than a third of all insect invasions are first
detected by average people, according to Justin Bush, executive
coordinator of the Washington Invasive Species Council. Heading off
an invasion before it gets started could save untold millions of
dollars worth of trees, as well as the costs of battling a
spreading insect invasion.
This is the second year that Washington state agencies are
bringing the message home from other states where many longtime
tree populations have been decimated by insects, including the
citrus longhorned beetle and the emerald ash borer.
“While we don’t have these two invasive insects right now, we
could get them at any moment,” Justin told me. “We want people to
help us look for them.”
This year, state officials also are asking people who own
swimming pools and ponds to join in the defensive effort, as some
of invasive insects end up in the water and die. A swimming pool
owner or maintenance person should take note of any unusual insects
found in pool filters or among debris skimmed off the surface of
the water, he said. On the East Coast, swimming pool owners are
often able to spot invasive beetles even before they show up in
traps designed to attract them.
According to experts at Responsive Pest Control, it
would be helpful if people would look for invasive insects all year
long, but if that is not a feasible task, August is a good time to
place a special emphasis on the effort, because this is the time
that most wood-boring insects emerge as adults.
Emerald ash borer
Photo: Debbie Miller, U.S. Forest Service,
Bugwood.org
Identifying specific species of beetles is often difficult,
Justin acknowledged. The best advice is to take pictures of the
insect from several angles and send the photos to the Invasive
Species Council, InvasiveSpecies@rco.wa.gov,
which will find an expert to identify the bug.
People shouldn’t hesitate to send photos, Justin said. “If it
comes to us, we can figure it out.”
Another reporting method is to download the “WA Invasives” app
to send photos and location data straight from your smart phone.
See WISC
download page. The app also includes photos and information for
identifying invasive species.
When emailing, one should include contact information, including
a phone number, along with the location of the insect sighting. (An
address or cross-street description would be helpful.) Details
about the tree species should be included as well.
If you obtain one of the beetles, you should keep it in case an
expert wants to inspect the specimen. Another option is to take the
beetle to a local office of WSU Extension, which can forward it to
appropriate experts.
The citrus longhorned beetle, a close relative of the disastrous
Asian longhorned beetle, is a major concern on the West Coast. The
beetle can feed on a variety of hardwood trees, including apple,
maple, oak, willow, alder and popular. When they emerge, they leave
an exit hole about 5/8-inch in diameter in the tree.
In 2001, the citrus longhorned beetle was found in Tukwila,
where it arrived in a shipment of bonsai trees. Three beetles were
recovered from the bonsai trees but five others were seen flying
away. Nearly 1,000 trees were cut and chipped within one-eighth
mile from the location site, and another 1,500 trees farther away
were treated with insecticide. The last beetle was seen in the fall
of 2002, and a quarantine remained in effect until 2006. See
U.S. Department of Agriculture website.
Because of heavy shipping from Asian ports, concerns remain high
that damaging beetles will be imported to the West Coast, Justin
said. Insects could also arrive from infested areas back East,
which is the primary route for European gypsy moths brought into
Washington state in moving vans. This state’s gypsy moth
eradication program — including nearly
100 local battles since 1979 (PDF 307 kb) — has kept the
damaging moths from establishing a permanent foothold in this
state.
Besides the citrus longhorned beetle, officials are concerned
that the emerald ash borer could devastate ash trees in this state.
The exit holes in ash trees are about a quarter-inch in diameter
and have a distinctive “D” shape. Ash trees are common in urban
areas, and the beetles apparently have been moving westward as
campers bring firewood from eastern areas. The beetle was recently
discovered in Boulder, Colo.
State agencies involved in the effort to track down the invasive
beetles are the Invasive Species Council, Department of
Agriculture, Department of Natural Resources and Washington State
University Extension.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture offers information on these
and other invasive insects:
