With the weather warming up and opening day of boating season
just around the corner, I would like to take a moment to mourn for
those who have lost their lives in boating accidents.
A kayak adrift near Vashon
Island raised alarms for the Coast Guard on March 31.
Photo: Coast Guard, 13th District
More importantly, I would like to share some information about
boating safety, because I keep thinking about Turner Jenkins, the
31-year-old visitor from Bathesda, Md., who lost his life in
January when his kayak tipped over at the south end of Bainbridge
Island. (See
Kitsap Sun and
Bathesda Magazine.)
Every year, it seems, one or more people lose their lives in the
frigid waters of Puget Sound — often because they failed to account
for the temperature of the water; the winds, waves and currents; or
their own skills under such conditions. An Internet search reveals
a long list of tragedies in our region and throughout the
country.
This warning is not to scare people away from the water. I will
even tell you how to enjoy Opening Day events at the end of this
blog post. I can assure you that my own life would be much poorer
if I chose to never be on, near or under the water. But for those
who venture forth in boats, you must do so with your eyes wide open
to the dangers — especially if your craft is a paddleboard, kayak,
canoe or raft.
State Rep. Debra Lekanoff, D-Bow, grew up in the small town of
Yakutat, Alaska, where her entire family and most of her friends
hunted and fished, following Native American traditions passed down
from their ancestors.
Rep. Lekanoff carries with her that indelible perspective, as
she goes about the business of law-making. Like all of us, her
personal history has shaped the forces that drive her today. Now,
as sponsor of
House Bill 1578, she is pushing hard for a law to help protect
Puget Sound from a catastrophic oil spill.
KTVA, the CBS affiliate in
Anchorage, presented a program Sunday on the 30th anniversary of
the Exxon Valdez oil spill. // Video:
KTVA-TV
In 1989, Debra, a member of the Tlinget Tribe, was about to
graduate from high school when the Exxon Valdez ran aground in
Prince William Sound, some 220 miles northwest of her hometown. The
spill of 11 million gallons of crude oil ultimately killed an
estimated 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250
bald eagles and up to 22 killer whales, along with untold numbers
of fish and crabs, according to the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (PDF 11.5 mb).
That was 30 years ago this past Sunday.
The Maritime Washington National Heritage Area — which now
encompasses about 3,000 miles of saltwater shoreline in Western
Washington — was created yesterday within a wide-ranging lands bill
signed into law by President Trump.
Maritime Washington National
Heritage Area encompasses most of the saltwater shoreline
throughout Western Washington.
Map: Maritime Washington NHA feasibility
study
Created to celebrate the maritime history and culture of Puget
Sound and Coastal Washington, the Maritime Washington NHA is the
first designated area of its kind in the United States to focus
entirely on maritime matters.
The designation is expected to provide funding to promote and
coordinate maritime museums, historic ships, boatbuilding, and
education, including discussions of early marine transportation and
commerce in Washington state.
“We are thrilled about this,” said Chris Moore, executive
director of the nonprofit Washington Trust for Historic
Preservation. “The stories we want to convey are important to so
many people.
Frustrated by international condemnation over its whaling
activities, the Japanese government has decided to allow commercial
whaling outright within its territorial waters and exclusive
economic zone.
Japanese officials announced this week that the country would
withdraw from the International Whaling Commission, which oversees
international agreements for managing whales — including a
worldwide ban against killing nearly all whales.
As a result, the Japanese whaling fleet will no longer travel to
the Antarctic to kill whales, which the government justified for
years under an exemption for “scientific” whaling. That whaling
program, which killed 333 minke whales last year, failed to meet
the requirements of scientific studies, according to a ruling by
the International Court of Justice and findings by a scientific
panel for the International Whaling Commission. See
Water Ways, March 31, 2014.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the move was
a necessary consequence of the IWC’s failure to recognize its dual
mandate of protecting whales and allowing an “orderly development
of the whaling industry.” For 30 years, the Japanese government has
been collecting information to show that whales can be sustainably
harvested, Suga said in a statement,
but it has become clear that the IWC is now focused only on
conservation.
Most environmental groups condemned Japan’s pullout from the
IWC.
“By leaving the IWC but continuing to kill whales in the North
Pacific, Japan now becomes a pirate whaling nation, killing these
ocean leviathans completely outside the bounds of international
law,” said Kitty Block, president of Humane Society International
and acting president of the Humane Society of the U.S.
“For decades Japan has aggressively pursued a well-funded
whaling campaign to upend the global ban on commercial whaling,”
she said in a
news release. “It has consistently failed, but instead of
accepting that most nations no longer want to hunt whales, it has
now simply walked out.”
In Australia, Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Environment
Minister Melissa Price said the government was “extremely
disappointed” with Japan’s action.
“Their decision to withdraw is regrettable, and Australia urges
Japan to return to the Convention and Commission as a matter of
priority,” they said in a
joint statement. “Australia remains resolutely opposed to all
forms of commercial and so-called ‘scientific’ whaling. We will
continue to work within the Commission to uphold the global
moratorium on commercial whaling.”
Concerns with Japan’s withdrawal include the possibility that
Japan will no longer report the number of whales killed and the
potential of other countries following suit and starting whale
hunting without consultation with the IWC.
“We are very worried that it might set a precedent and that
other countries might follow Japan’s lead and leave the commission
… especially South Korea where there is an interest in consuming
whale meat in South Korea,” Astrid Fuchs of Whale and Dolphin
Conservation told BBC News and reported in
The Guardian.
“The oversight that the IWC was having over Japan’s whaling will
now be lost,” she added. “We won’t know how many whales they are
catching, we won’t know how they will report it. It might spell
doom for some populations. There is an endangered population of
Minke whales off Japan, which is already under threat.”
Most groups acknowledged that ending whaling in the Antarctic
would be a good thing, and Capt. Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd took a
celebratory posture about the prospect.
“I’m not quite sure why so many whale conservationists are upset
by today’s announcement by Japan that they will be leaving the
IWC,” Paul said in a
Facebook post Wednesday. “After 16 years of intervening against
Japan in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, I see this as a very
positive development. It means that the whale war in the Southern
Ocean is over and we and the whales have won. What we have fought
for has been achieved — an end to whaling in the Southern
Ocean.
“Japan leaving the IWC will allow the IWC to vote and pass the
establishment of the South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary,” he added.
“This means that the entire Southern Hemisphere will be free of
whalers for the first time in history.”
Whaling remains illegal, Paul said, and Sea Shepherd will
continue to oppose whaling with a variety of tactics. Now, it will
be easier to build opposition, because Japan can no longer pretend
that it is advancing scientific knowledge with its whaling
operations. The only whaling nations left on Earth, he said, are
Japan, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, and “they have been driven back
to their own shores; the whalers of the world are in retreat.”
Sea Shepherd has not engaged the whaling fleet in “whale wars” —
direct ship-to-ship confrontations — for the past two years, but
the group claims to have driven up costs for the whalers, who have
relied on government security boats and high-tech equipment to
elude the anti-whaling activists. Those extra costs may have
contributed to Japan’s decision to withdraw from the IWC. Also on
the line was a discussion about whether the Japanese government
should build a massive new ship for processing whale meat, a ship
that won’t be needed in Japanese waters.
I’ve been reading about this situation in all kinds of
publications, including English-language newspapers based in Japan.
I would like to know if Japan intends to allow whalers to take the
full self-imposed allotment of 333 minke whales during the current
whaling season. The whaling fleet reportedly left for the Antarctic
in early November and may be hunting for whales now. I have not yet
learned whether the whaling fleet will come back early or take 333
whales before Japan pulls out of the IWC on July 1.
“With the Japanese whaling fleet hunting whales in our Southern
Ocean, the Australian Government must demand they bring their fleet
home immediately and take legal action if they don’t,” said Darren
Kindleysides, CEO of the Australian Marine Conservation Society. In
a
written statement, he called it a “bittersweet victory” to get
whaling out of the Southern Ocean but with “unchecked” commercial
whaling to take place in Japan’s waters.
The IWC called a halt to commercial whaling in 1982. Japan
complied with the moratorium at first but then developed scientific
criteria to promote whaling under a special exemption. Scientists
associated with the IWC, as well as the International Court of
Justice, found that the criteria failed to meet true scientific
standards and should not be allowed.
In September, Japan tried to persuade the IWC to relax its
voting rules to allow changes to international rules on a simple
majority vote, rather than three-fourths. That would have allowed
Japan to rally a lot of non-whaling countries to support a
resumption of commercial whaling, but the proposal was rejected
along with a direct plan to allow commercial whaling.
In October, Japan agreed to stop the hunting of endangered sei
whales in the North Pacific until its research program could be
revised to comply with CITES — the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species. A standing committee of CITES found
that Japanese “research” whaling on sei whales actually contributed
to an illegal sale of endangered species, according to a
news release and report on the
findings (PDF 1.2 mb). Sei whales are killed outside of Japan’s
home waters, so the market is considered international.
The Japanese government contended that the sales were not a
violation of CITES’ conventions, because all the proceeds were put
back into research. Still, those officials said a new plan will be
submitted for approval.
The issue is scheduled for review at the committee’s next
meeting in May to determine if Japan has carried through on its
commitment to stop commercial trade in sei whale meat. Japan had
been planning to allow a harvest quota of 134 sei whales per
year.
As for whaling off the coast of Japan, an offshore operation
will be based at Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture, while coastal
operations will be based at Abashiri and Kushiro on the island of
Hokkaido and four other seaports.
Although whale meat was an important staple for Japan following
World War II, few Japanese people eat whale meat today. In some
ways, however, whaling is still a matter of tradition for many
Japanese people. Some have speculated that Japan’s withdrawal from
the IWC is a face-saving way for the government to reduce its
expenses for whale hunting while asserting its traditional right to
take whales in its own waters.
A 2014 survey by the national Asahi Shimbun newspaper found that
60 percent of those questioned supported the “scientific” whaling
program, yet only 10 percent eat whale meat “fairly frequently.”
Another 4 percent said they eat whale meat “sometimes.” Nearly half
(48 percent) said they have not eaten whale meat for “a long time,”
while 37 percent said they never eat it. The survey was reported by
the news portal Phys
Org.
In a recent article, Asahi
Shimbun reported that companies involved in the fishing
industry are not eager to resume whaling.
“We have no plans to resume the whaling business,” a public
relations official of Maruha Nichiro Corp. told the newspaper. The
company, previously named Taiyo Gyogyo K.K., had been engaged in
commercial whaling in the Antarctic Ocean. Retailers also expressed
apprehension about selling more whale meat.
In 1962, about 233,000 tons of whale meat were consumed in
Japan, according to the article. Today, annual consumption ranges
between 3,000 tons and 5,000 tons.
BBC reporter Rupert Wingfield-Hayes tackled the issue two years
ago and found that many Japanese were smoothly transitioning to
beef. His story and video
report show him sampling a chunk of whale meat, which he finds
chewy with a gamey flavor. For older folks in Japan, Rupert
discovers that whale meat is simply a taste of nostalia.
Listening to the sound of whales in Puget Sound from your
computer at home is becoming easier than ever, thanks to a new
hydrophone on Whidbey Island and its connection to a more
sophisticated computer network.
Organizers anticipate that thousands of human listeners could
add a new dimension to scientific studies, raise awareness about
the noise that orcas endure and perhaps alert authorities when
sounds are loud enough to harm marine mammals in the vicinity.
The new hydrophone (underwater microphone) at Whidbey’s Bush
Point was installed last summer, but it stopped working soon after
it was announced to the world in early November, when news stories
appeared in print and on radio and television. The timing couldn’t
have been worse, said Howard Garrett of Orca Network, a partner in
the venture.
“We finally got the word out just as it crashed and just as J
pod came into Puget Sound,” Howie told me. “We got it working after
J pod had left.”
It appears that there was a problem with both the hydrophone
itself and the power supply that runs a critical computer, experts
say. I decided to wait and write about the new hydrophone when
readers could go right to the Orcasound webpage and listen to
the live sounds of underwater activity. With Whidbey’s hydrophone
back in operation, one can now listen to sounds from two hydrophone
locations using a web browser:
Orcasound Lab: This location on the west side
of San Juan Island is a major thoroughfare for the endangered
Southern Resident killer whales as they come east through the
Strait of Juan de Fuca or south from the Strait of Georgia.
Bush Point: This location on the west side of
Whidbey Island picks up the orcas as the enter or leave Puget Sound
through Admiralty Inlet, their primary route to and from Central
and South Puget Sound.
Sounds from hydrophones in several areas of Puget Sound have
been available for years, thanks to the efforts of Val Veirs and
his son Scott, affiliated with Beam Reach Marine Science, along
with a host of other volunteers and organizations who have helped
maintain the hydrophones. In the past, network users would need to
launch a media player, such as iTunes, on their computer to receive
the live audio stream. The new browser-based system requires no
additional software.
Photo courtesy of
Beamreach.org
One can also listen to a hydrophone at Lime Kiln Lighthouse, a
favorite spot of the orcas on the west side of San Juan Island. The
Lime Kiln live stream, a project of SMRU Consulting and The Whale
Museum, can be heard on
SMRU’s website. I’m hoping that Scott can add the hydrophone to
his list. Orcasound, which is managed by Scott, still has a
link to Lime Kiln that
requires iTunes or another player.
At the moment, hydrophones that had been in operation at Port
Townsend Marine Science Center, Seattle Aquarium and Neah Bay are
out of operation for various reasons, Scott said, but he is working
with folks at each location to see if the hydrophones could be
brought back online using his new browser-based software. He would
also like to expand the network with more hydrophones to pick up
whale movements.
Scott’s vision of this hydrophone network involves using the
technology to organize people to improve our understanding of orcas
and other marine mammals while building a community concerned about
the effects of underwater noise.
Scott said he has been surprised at the number of average people
who have caught on to specific calls made by the whales. By
identifying the calls, one can learn to tell the difference between
fish-eating residents and marine-mammal-eating transients. More
advanced listeners can distinguish between J, K and L pods. Check
out Orcasound’s
“Listen” page for information about sharing observations,
learning about orca calls, and listening to archived recordings of
calls.
One story I’ve never told goes back to 1997, when 19 orcas from
L pod were in Dyes Inlet. It involves a phone call I received from
my wife Sue. I was working at the Kitsap Sun office and away from
my desk when the call came in. When I checked my voicemail, I heard
what I thought was the mewing of tiny kittens. That made sense, I
thought, because we had recently adopted two one-day-old kittens
whose mother had abandoned them at birth. But the sound on my phone
was not kittens after all but killer whales. My wife was in a boat
on Dyes Inlet helping researchers who had lowered a hydrophone to
listen to the orcas. Sue was holding up her cellphone and leaving
me a voicemail from the whales.
The sound I heard on my phone was something like the following
call, although multiplied by many voices:
1. K-pod-S16-stereo
–
Scott told me that he would like to come up with names instead
of numbers for the various calls. The one above is already being
called “kitten’s mew,” although it is better known as “S16” among
the scientific community. See the website
“Listening for orcas” or the longer
“Southern Resident Call Vocabulary.”
Orca Network is well known for collecting information about
whale sightings, but now people are also reporting in when they
hear the sounds of whales. That is especially helpful when
visibility is poor. Both the sighting and sounding information can
at times be useful to researchers who follow the whales at a
distance and collect fecal samples to check out their health
conditions. Observers can send notes via Orca Network’s
Facebook page or via email.
Photo courtesy of
Beamreach.org
Howard Garrett of Orca Network mentioned that many people are
tuning in to the underwater sounds even when whales are not around.
They may listen for hours with an expectation of hearing something
interesting, but listeners also come to understand the world
occupied by the whales.
“You get to experience what the orcas’ lives are like,” Howie
told me. “It’s a noisy world for the killer whales.”
Scott agreed. “The most powerful thing that these live streams
do is inspire people to listen. What they come to understand is
what quiet is and that ships are the dominant source of noise out
there.”
Knowing where a hydrophone is located, one can go to
MarineTraffic.com and identify one or more ships that may be
making the noise. “I do want people to call out outlier noise
polluters,” Scott said.
Because federal funds for running the hydrophones has mostly
dried up, Scott launched a Kickstarter campaign to design and get
the new system up and running. It was great to learn who the
supporters are, he said, noting that he knew only about a third of
the people who are regular listeners. One woman in Romania became
an expert in listening to the whales and wrote a paper about how to
improve the hydrophone network.
“We are poised to become a much better organizer of people,”
Scott said. “One option is for notifications. We can send out
notifications using a new app that allows people to tune in when
the whales can be heard.”
Notifications are not yet an option, but I told Scott that I
would let people know when this option becomes available.
Computer programs have been developed to recognize the sounds of
orcas, record various data and send out an alert, but the human
brain has unique capabilities for understanding sound. Together,
computers and human listeners can capture more information than
either one alone. Scott said.
“I think we might have a friendly competition between humans and
machines,” he noted.
Most hydrophones are designed for listening in the human range
of hearing, but Scott would like to install more advanced devices
capable of capturing the full vocal range of an orca. Such sounds
could then be more completely analyzed. Perhaps someone will
discover the still-hidden meanings of the orca vocalizations.
Last week was National Sea Otter Awareness Week, recognized by
many aquariums, marine educators and environmental groups across
the country. Although I was on vacation last week, I thought I
could still bring up some interesting facts about these amusing and
ecologically important creatures.
I guess I should mention first that sea otters are rarely
spotted in Puget Sound. If you do see an otter — whether in
saltwater or freshwater — it is most likely a river otter. I’ll
outline some differences between the two further on in this blog
post.
Occasionally, sea otters have been sighted in Puget Sound as far
south as Olympia, but their historical range is described as the
outer coast from Alaska to California — including the Strait of
Juan de Fuca west of Port Angeles, according to a new report
(PDF 1.4 mb) by the Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
A tenacious young orca named Scarlet, gravely emaciated for
several weeks, has gone missing and is presumed dead.
Scarlet and her mother Slick
head toward San Juan Island on Aug. 18. Scarlet is now missing.
Photo: Katy Foster, NOAA Fisheries, under federal
permit
Scarlet, designated J-50, was last seen on Friday with her
mother and other family members. Since then, observers have
encountered her close relatives several times. Yet Scarlet, who was
nearly 4 years old, has been nowhere to be found.
Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research, who maintains the
official census of the Southern Resident killer whales, announced
her death late yesterday.
“J-50 is missing and now presumed dead,” Ken wrote in a
press release. “Her last known sighting was Friday, September
7, by our colleagues at NOAA, SeaDoc, and others. The Center for
Whale Research has had a vessel on the water looking for J-50 for
the past three days. We have seen all the other members of her
family (i.e., J-16s) during these outings.”
State health officials have reduced shellfish-closure areas
around 20 marinas in Puget Sound, allowing more commercial
shellfish harvesting while inching toward a goal of upgrading
10,800 acres of shellfish beds by 2020.
In all, 661 acres of shellfish beds were removed from a
long-standing “prohibited” classification that has been applied
around marinas, based on assumptions about the dumping of sewage
from boats confined to small areas.
Poulsbo Marina // Photo:
Nick Hoke via Wikimedia
“We have seen pretty significant changes in boat-waste
management,” said Scott Berbells, shellfish growing area manager
for the Washington Department of Health, explaining how the
upgrades came about.
New calculations of discharges from boats in marinas and the
resulting risks of eating nearby shellfish have allowed health
authorities to reduce, but not eliminate, the closure zones around
the marinas.
When a man rides a bicycle across the River Thames in London,
people stop and stare — and that’s exactly what 35-year-old Dhruv
Boruah wants them to do, as he picks up trash floating on the
river.
His message is about plastic pollution. He wants people to know
that when plastic gets into the environment, it tends to stay
there, breaking into tiny pieces that contaminate the food web.
“I like to be on the water for the adventure,” he said in an
interview this month in the
London Evening Standard, “and the bike is so unique that it’s a
good conversation starter to talk to people and raise awareness
about the dangers of plastics, micro-plastics and toxic chemicals
to stop these ending up in the ocean.”
Given the heat wave of the past few days, I realize that I
should have been floating down a river. I’m envisioning cool water
splashing people on a boat as the sun beats down from above. I
recall feelings of calm while traveling across flat water, followed
by the invigoration of roiling rapids.
To get you started,
Seattle Magazine offers a few suggestions, and there are
numerous rafting companies advertising online to help you tackle
more challenging waters.
This year happens to be the 50th anniversary of the Wild and
Scenic Rivers Act, and I’ve been watching some videos that I would
like to share. The law was designed to preserve the free-flowing
nature of rivers that contain outstanding natural, cultural and
recreational values.