SeaDoc Blog
Multi-year harbor seal research
Three times each summer the SeaDoc Society and Cascadia Research visit Smith Island to survey the harbor seal population. Smith Island is part of the
San Juan Islands National Wildlife Refuge and is closed to the public. The visit consists of a count of live animals followed by a count of all carcasses. Scientists also try to count placentas to track birth numbers.
According to Sara Heidelberger, the third year veterinary student who necropsied this animal, this female seal was in good condition with a thick layer of blubber. Her teeth were deeply and evenly worn, suggesting she was relatively old. She had recently given birth. The team collected the skull for further study. Photo taken July 23, 2010.
$30 Million in Grants for Puget Sound
The environmental protection agency is announcing approximately $30 million in federal grants to help protect habitat, watersheds and outreach and education efforts in Puget Sound.
Grant recipients include the state of Washington, local tribes, and local governments.
Read the press release from the EPA.
Find out if there's a project in your community by using the EPA's interactive map of grants.
July 6, 2010
Watershed Restoration bills pass Senate committee
In the United States Senate, the Environment and Public Works Committee has passed a suite of restoration bills that will authorize needed funding for seven different areas around the country, one of which is Puget Sound. The bill creates investments in ongoing restoration projects. One of the interesting points raised in an article about these watershed restoration efforts is that they can have a clear economic return on investment: a study of efforts in the Great Lakes region determined that for every dollar spent on restoration there were two dollars' worth of economic benefits. See more information at Waterworld.com or read about the Great Lakes study at The Brookings Institution.
July 1, 2010
Puget Sound Interactive Maps
Check out this great resource from the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance. They've built an interactive map of Puget Sound showing water quality concerns & water-dependent natural resources throughout the sound. It's at http://www.imrivers.org/pugetsound/.
Read a story about it at KPLU.
Science plan adopted for Puget Sound
The Puget Sound Partnership just accepted a Strategic Science Plan to help guide the restoration of Puget Sound. The plan was written by the Partnership's Science Panel. SeaDoc Chief Scientist Joe Gaydos is a member of the Partnership's Science Panel and helped produce the plan. For more information see:
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/jun/18/science-takes-center-stage-in-...
Warning: Shellfish Closure in some Washington State Counties
Shellfish harvesting has been closed in numerous Washington counties due to the presence of the marine biotoxin Alexandrium, which causes Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP). Harvesting is closed whenever naturally occurring harmful biotoxins are detected. Once called "red tides," blooms of naturally occurring biotoxins are now more commonly referred to as Harmful Algal Blooms as there are some red algal blooms that are not harmful. Naturally occurring biotoxins like PSP are not destroyed by cooking or freezing. Please check the Washington State Department of Health for more information and each time before you harvest shellfish: http://ww4.doh.wa.gov/gis/mogifs/biotoxin.htm
Also see: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/422060_tide19.html
Courtesy of SeaDoc intern Sara Heidelberger.
Puget Sound's Slow Oil Spill
As the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history unfolds in the Gulf of Mexico, it's tempting to rest comfortably on our success avoiding a similar calamity here in Puget Sound. Please click on the link to read an opinion piece co-authored by Kevin Ranker, one of the founding Board Members of SeaDoc Society.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2011906378_guest20ranker.html
Octopus Award given to Compass Wines
SeaDoc's coveted Octopus Award has been given to Compass Wines for going above and beyond to help SeaDoc Society accomplish our mission of ensuring the health of marine wildlife and the ecosystem. We are honored to have their support, which has allowed us to carry out a number of scientific studies in the region, from determining best practices for restoration of endangered northern abalone, to investigating the origins of contaminants in killer whales. Thank you Will and Eleanor Parks and Doug Charles of Compass Wines.
The Mystery of Surplus Predation
In the Salish Sea, some transient killer whales seem to be killing sea lions for no particular reason. Joe Gaydos provided background for a Kitsap Sun piece by Christopher Dunagan discussing the four sea lions apparently killed by blunt trauma from orcas in a single month.
A 2005 publication by Gaydos discussed five harbor seal pups found decapitated by killer whales, but not eaten.
The article discusses possible causes of this "surplus predation" and reinforces the importance of quick reporting of stranded and dead marine mammals, because the faster the animals can be recovered, the more we can learn from them.
Kitsap Sun: http://pugetsoundblogs.com/waterways/2010/05/14/transient-orcas-may-be-l...
Photo: Stranding Network volunteer Maria Webster standing by one of the dead Steller sea lions on North Beach of Orcas just before SeaDoc necropsied it. Credit: Joe Gaydos.
Can you tell just by looking?
Can you tell if an ecosystem is healthy just by looking?
In the case of the Salish Sea, things look good on the surface. But that doesn't mean everything is healthy. Just as blood tests can reveal underlying conditions in a person who looks perfectly fit, science can show us what's really going on.
Joe Gaydos and Northwest Straits Commision chair Jonathan White have written about this issue in the May 12 edition of the Islands Sounder. Read it here: http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/sanjuans/isj/opinion/93596144.html