July 2011 SeaDoc Monthly Update
July 2011 SeaDoc Society Update
Last Chance! Our Annual Auction is Saturday Night
Image: Western grebes doing their mating dance. Created by Dwight Duke using his controlled gunpowder process and part of our our live auction.
SeaDoc's annual Wine 'n' Sea Auction is this Saturday at 5pm on Orcas Island.
The RSVP deadline was Saturday, but if for some reason you've just now heard about it or you haven't gotten around to reserving a spot, you're in luck. We've still got a handful of spots left.
Tickets are $150 per person. The food is going to be wonderful, and as you know the money goes towards making the Salish Sea a better place.
We have over 100 items up for auction, including a trip for two to the Galapagos and our usual selection of special and hard-to-find wines, one of which is a 2007 Clos St Jean Chateauneuf du Pape Deus Ex Machina, which wine reviewer Robert Parker says is the single greatest red wine he has ever had (100 point score and extremely rare stuff).
Get in touch right away to reserve your spot. Call 360-376-3910 or send an email to Jean at jmspalti@ucdavis.edu.
Can't attend but want to help us make this our best year ever? Make a donation in lieu of attending and we'll count it in our auction total. Click here to donate.
Rockfish Recovery Workshop Recap
Last week, SeaDoc co-hosted a Rockfish Recovery Workshop in Seattle with the State Department of Wildlife and NOAA Fisheries.
Nearly 100 scientists, fisheries managers, fishers and SCUBA divers attended the 2-day workshop to discuss the current state of knowledge on rockfish and to identify future needs related to recovering depleted rockfish populations in the Salish Sea.
Two of the highlights were SeaDoc researcher Gary Greene presenting his seafloor habitat maps of the San Juan Islands region that help identify the location of rockfish habitat and SeaDoc board member Kit Rawson's presentation on the history of coequal management of Puget Sound fisheries by Washington State and the Treaty Tribes of Washington.
There are 28 species of rockfish in the Salish Sea. Thirteen are listed as species of concern and recently 3 species were listed under the US Endangered Species Act.
In addition to helping organize the workshop, SeaDoc also helped bring in Canadians to share their perspective on what has and has not worked with rockfish recovery on the other side of the border.
A lot of the research SeaDoc funded over the last 10 years was presented and plans were laid for moving rockfish recovery forward. The meeting proceedings will be published soon and will be available on the SeaDoc website.
For a more in-depth recap, click through to the SeaDoc blog.
Fluff, Flight & Fancy: Thor Hansen's New Book
For the last 6 months Dr. Thor Hansen has been working for SeaDoc to write a status review for Tufted Puffins in Washington State. He's also been busy on other fronts and has recently published a new book, Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle.
It's been getting rave reviews. Our in-house book expert, Jean Spalti, says, "I highly recommend it. An engaging and often hilarious read."
The Economist writes,
"Thor Hanson's new book takes on the intriguing subject of feathers. With infectious enthusiasm, he describes them, from their earliest known incarnations to their place in the modern world.
"He starts at their beginning with a weighty introduction that looks at fossils dating back to the dinosaurs, the structure of feathers and the evolution of birds. From there on, the remaining chapters are captivating natural history, arranged in neatly named sections: "fluff", how feathers keep birds warm and dry; "flight", how they take to the sky; "fancy", the myriad beauty of feathers for sexual selection in birds and decoration for humans; and "function", how feather structure can inform new technologies.
"Thor ends with a plea to protect endangered species and threatened ecosystems. Though he accepts that all feather fanatics and readers will not be "die-hard birders" like himself, he urges them at least to be bird advocates so that future generations can admire and learn from the species. It is difficult to disagree."
2011 Summer Interns
Ashley Briese and Greg Bishop, both 3rd year veterinary students are SeaDoc's summer interns for 2011. Ashley is at Oregon State University and Greg is at UC Davis.
Their primary responsibility is to help SeaDoc and the Whale Museum coordinate response to marine mammal strandings in San Juan County, but they've also got their hands in a lot of other projects. Ashley is analyzing years of marine mammal parasite data collected from years of stranded marine mammals, and Greg is working to try to tag 100% of the harbor seal pups that strand.
And in the department of hidden talents, we've recently discovered that Greg has starred in spoof music videos as part of the UC Davis VetMed hip hop group, "Wet Lab." We've put Greg in charge of the Summer 2011 SeaDoc office rap video. Watch for it...
SeaDoc in the News
Joe Gaydos was quoted in the June issue of Canadian Geographic magazine.
The issue was devoted to "Protecting Our Water." Joe provided background information on the naming of the Salish Sea and the importance of cross-border collaboration.
From the article: "Having one name makes people feel united," says Joe Gaydos, chief scientist for the SeaDoc Society, a non-profit marine science group that has used the name for several years and facilitates scientific collaborations and information sharing in the region.
Read the article here.
On this side of the border, the Seattle Times picked up our recent Wildlife Post on the comprehensive list of birds and mammals that use the Salish Sea for their Field Notes northwest nature blog.
"If you want to restore an ecosystem, it's really important to know what is there, or what has been there historically," said Joe Gaydos, SeaDoc's Orcas Island-based regional director.
Science writer Sandi Doughton brought in great examples like the connection between intertidal beavers and juvenile salmon, and she gave SeaDoc a great plug at the end of the article.
Read the post here.
Upcoming Events
The Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (formerly the Puget Sound/Georgia Basin Research Conference) is on October 25-27 in Vancouver. It's the largest and most comprehensive scientific research and policy conference in the region. SeaDoc has frequently presented at the conference, and we are a Bronze Sponsor this year. More information.
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