Off West Seattle shores, 2 more looks at what’s happening undersea

Local diver Laura James has shared two more video clips this week with a look at what’s happening underwater right off West Seattle shores. Above, another adventure in retrieving an abandoned battery offshore near Seacrest – as you can read here, the effort was complicated by the discovery of gunnels in it, so the battery was moved closer to shore, marked, and Laura writes that she’s hoping they decided to clear out on their own volition. Meantime, Laura also ventured back to a storm-drain outfall – to see what the recent stormy weather was sending into Puget Sound:

Her background story on that video – the “massive plume” in action just off Alki – is here. P.S. – Remember, you can take action to make those “plumes” less toxic to Puget Sound (which means, ultimately, to all of us).

6 Replies to "Off West Seattle shores, 2 more looks at what's happening undersea"

  • SSF January 28, 2012 (3:41 am)

    Great videos. I just loved the one with octopus. I understand that people can be unresponsible and dump stuff rather than discard an item appropriately. But sounds like there are a lot of batteries dumped off sea crest any idea why? Seems like it would be work to load them on a boat motor out into the sound then throw them overboard.

  • Jason January 28, 2012 (5:50 am)

    “the effort was complicated by the discovery of gunnels in it”
    .
    So, technically… they’re removing wildlife habitats then, right?

  • Lamont January 28, 2012 (9:49 am)

    yes, removing wildlife habitats that are leaching lead into the environment…

  • DiverLaura January 28, 2012 (12:40 pm)

    Jason,

    One of my friends and dive buddies had a very good analogy.
    He said “its like a cat and a cardboard box”.

    You know what its like when a cat finds a cardboard box and just totally digs it? Looks so comfortable that you really don’t want to bother it? Does the cat really need that cardboard box? It doesn’t. If you take is box away, it does just fine.

    There is a seafloor of natural habitat for these creatures to live in, they really do NOT need our garbage for homes.

    We leave too much trash down there with the excuse that ‘its a critter home’. There is no need for it. As divers we are basically the last line of defense for Puget Sound… If we don’t remove it, no one will. It will just continue to pile up and choke the life out of our waterways.

    I suspect these boat motors actually come from the boats themselves, as in ‘dead battery’, get a new battery, don’t bother to bring the old one in. Some of these are huge batteries, the biggest i’ve heard are out there are in the 120lb range, and so far the largest i’ve removed was 65lbs. they are heavy and awkward to handle, and instead of doing the right thing, i believe some folks do the ‘easy’ thing.

  • DiverLaura January 28, 2012 (4:44 pm)

    (oops, i meant batteries, not motors)

  • DiverLaura January 28, 2012 (10:57 pm)

    We pulled up another battery into the critter eviction phase tonight from ‘cove 2’, a surprise battery, we were headed to another one and this one was ‘on the way’. Its actually kind of crazy, now that we are looking for them they are literally littering the place :(

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