More than 40 artists traveled to the Columbia River Gorge in
late July to participate in what was essentially a four-day
paint-off — a competition to see who could best capture the heart
and soul connected to this rare and magnificent landscape.
“Bingen Skyline” by Lilli-anne
Price, winner of the Friends of the Columbia Gorge Award in the
Pacific Northwest Plein Air competition. (Click to enlarge.)
Photo courtesy of Friends of the Columbia
Gorge
While I often feature artwork that receives recognition in
children’s art contests, I was impressed by the professional
paintings in the 14th annual Pacific Northwest Plein Air
competition that was completed a little over a week ago, and I
wanted to share them with you. The competition, sponsored by
Maryhill Museum of Art, features artists from throughout the
Northwest and a few from more distant locales.
Ross Point, the most popular fishing spot for surf smelt in
Kitsap County, will become a little more friendly to the little
fish following the removal of a concrete bulkhead along the shore
of Sinclair Inlet.
Brittany Gordon, habitat
biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife,
examines an old bulkhead about to be removed from Sinclair
Inlet.
Photo: Christopher Dunagan
The bulkhead removal, scheduled to begin Aug. 12, will create
more spawning area for surf smelt, an important food source for
salmon and other fish. Smelt also are favored eating by some
people, who typically catch them with dip nets.
In addition to increasing smelt habitat, the project will
enhance the migration of young salmon along the southern shore of
Sinclair Inlet. Like most bulkheads built in the tidal zone, this
84-foot-long structure forces juvenile salmon to swim into deeper
water out from shore, making them more vulnerable to predators.
While I have never been to Revere Beach, I look forward each
year to photos of the amazing sand sculptures from a competition
that brings people from throughout the world to this location just
north of Boston.
The winning entry in the Revere
Beach sand sculpting contest was “Nest” by Mélineige Beauregard of
Montreal, Canada. // Photo: Revere Beach
Partnership
Adding to the enjoyment of the Revere Beach International
Sand-Sculpting Festival are longtime sand-sculptors Dan Doubleday
and Meredith Corson-Doubleday, who bring the event to life,
especially for distant viewers, with their expert commentary on all
the pieces. I also appreciated the slide show created by
professional photographer Greg Cook on his
Wonderland website.
The sand sculptures are evaluated using four categories: (1)
degree of difficulty, (2) originality and creativity, (3) quality
of sculpting, and (4) overall visual impact.
In the two videos on this page, Dan and Meredith conduct their
fourth-day “walkthrough” together, as the sand sculptures take on
their final forms. At the time that Dan and Meredith recorded their
commentary, they did not know who the winners would be, so I would
like to add some help with that:
The dramatic recovery of many groundfish species along the West
Coast is a testament to the innovation, cooperation and persistence
by fisheries managers and fishermen alike under the landmark
Magnuson-Stevens Act of 1976.
Pacific whiting, sorted by
size
Photo: National Marine Fisheries
Service
One of the latest innovations, formally approved last month by
the National Marine Fisheries Service, is “electronic monitoring,”
which allows the use of video and other equipment in place of the
human observers needed to ensure the accuracy of harvest
reports.
The faster-then-expected recovery of depleted populations —
including canary rockfish, bocaccio, darkblotched rockfish, and
Pacific Ocean perch — has led to dramatically increased harvest
limits this year. NMFS estimates that increased fishing will add
900 jobs and $60 million in income this year alone. Recreational
anglers are expected to go fishing an additional 219,000 times,
mostly in California with some of those outings in Oregon and
Washington, according to a
news release.
Going from a federally declared disaster in 2000 to today’s
recovery of most stocks was the result of a monumental change in
fisheries management and fishing culture. One of the biggest
changes was a shift to “catch shares,” in which each commercial
fisherman receives a percentage of the allowable harvest each year,
an issue I first wrote about a decade ago
(Water Ways, Dec. 11, 2009).
The location of an unknown hydrothermal vent system was
predicted by researchers studying maps of the seafloor along the
Gorda Ridge off the West Coast. Following those leads, a group of
underwater explorers looked for and found the shimmering cauldron
of superheated water.
The discovery, during this year’s Nautilus Expedition, took
place about a week ago in an area about 75 miles offshore of the
border between California and Oregon.
As operators dimmed the lights from their remotely operated
vehicles, the sounds of excited scientists filled the mother ship’s
control room, where observers watched a video screen providing
glorious views of the emerging flow (first video on this page).
“It’s like an artist’s rendition of another planet,” tweeted
volcanologist Shannon Kobs Nawotniak of Idaho State University,
where her team figured out where to look for the vents using
high-resolution sonar bathymetry. Researchers named it the Apollo
Vent Field in honor of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing
this year.
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.
On the first day of June, ocean advocates around the world
celebrated the very first World Reef Day. The event got me to
thinking a little more about the role of corals in the most
productive ecosystems around the world, as well as the coral reefs
located in our own backyards here in the Pacific Northwest.
“Our goal was to stimulate a global conversation about reef
conservation and the simple things we can do in our own lives to
make huge changes,” said Theresa Van Greunen of Aqua-Aston
Hospitality, one of the sponsors of World Reef Day.
The event was launched with a special focus on Hawaii, but the
issue of conserving critical coral habitats has worldwide appeal,
with 5.5 million people pledging to use reef-friendly sunscreen and
reduce their usage of single-use plastics that can harm the marine
ecosystem, according to a news release from sponsor Raw
Elements and another from sponsor
Hawaiian Airlines. While there were elements of fun in this new
event, I guess it does not fit my normal criteria for “amusing,” so
we’ll have to settle for educational.
The issue of ocean acidification gained some traction this week
in the U.S. House of Representatives, where bipartisan support led
to the approval of four bills designed to bring new ideas into the
battle to save sea life from corrosive waters.
If passed by the Senate, the legislation would allow federal
agencies to set up competitions and offer prize money for the best
ideas for reducing ocean acidification, adapting to ongoing changes
or solving difficult research problems. The bills also foster
discussions about climate change by bringing more people to the
table while providing increased attention to the deadly conditions
that are developing along the coasts and in estuaries, such as
Puget Sound.
U.S. Rep. Derek
Kilmer
“We know that changing ocean chemistry threatens entire
livelihoods and industries in our state, said U.S. Rep. Derek
Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, in a
press release. “There are generations of folks in our coastal
communities who have worked in fishing and shellfish growing — but
that’s endangered if we don’t maintain a healthy Pacific
Ocean.”
Later in this blog post, I will reflect on other
Kilmer-related issues, including the so-called Puget Sound Day on
the Hill.
In a phone conversation, Rep. Kilmer told me that he was
encouraged with the widespread support for a bill that he sponsored
called the Ocean
Acidification Innovation Act of 2019 (HR 1921), which passed
the House on a 395-22 vote. The bill would allow federal agencies
to sponsor competitions and offer prize money for the best ideas.
Money would come out of existing funds that agencies use for
related purposes. The bill was co-sponsored by Northwest Reps.
Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, along with Rep. Suzanne
Bonamici, an Oregon Democrat, and Rep. Don Young, an Alaskan
Republican. Five representatives from coastal areas in other parts
of the country added their names to the bill.
“There is a legitimate problem, and people are beginning to see
the impacts of the changing ocean chemistry,” Derek said. “This
should a bipartisan issue.”
As more gray whales wash up dead on beaches in Puget Sound and
along the West Coast, NOAA Fisheries has declared an “unusual
mortality event” to mobilize additional research into what is
killing these massive marine mammals.
Aerial images, such as this one
off Central California, help biologists assess the condition of
gray whales as part of a declared “unusual mortality event.”
Photo: Southwest Fisheries Science Center and SR3 under
federal permits NMFS 19091 and MBNMS 2017-8.
About 70 gray whales have been found dead so far this year along
the shorelines of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, with
another 73 in Mexico and five in Canada. That’s the most since the
year 2000, when more than 100 gray whales were stranded along the
U.S. West Coast, triggering a previous unusual mortality event, or
UME.
Many of the dead whales have shown signs of emaciation,
suggesting that they failed to find enough food in the Arctic last
summer, a time when they need to build up enough energy reserves to
make it through the winter. Each year, the Eastern North Pacific
gray whales travel from their feeding grounds in Alaska to their
over-wintering areas in Mexico. As they return north at this time
of year, they could be exhausting the remainder of their fat
reserves, experts say.
Student artists are helping people understand how ocean
creatures are affected by human trash. At least that’s the goal of
the annual Marine Debris Art Contest, now in its sixth year. The
contest is sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s Marine Debris Program.
Aaron K, Grade 5,
Michigan
Hundreds of entries from all over the country were submitted by
students, from kindergarteners to eighth graders. I’ve selected a
few of my favorites for this page, but you can see all 13 winning
entries on the
contest website. The 13 winners will have their drawings
featured in an upcoming calendar, with one picture on the cover and
one for each month. After posting, the calendar can be downloaded
from NOAA’s
website. To enlarge the pictures on this page, click directly
on the image.
