West Seattle, Washington
29 Friday
Almost two years after we first heard the Joy D. Smith Wildlife Raft‘s story from its namesake’s husband, Guy Smith, he sent this update last night (the “today” references mean Tuesday):
Bird and seal watchers may be interested to know that after a 7-month absence, the Joy D. Smith Wildlife Raft is back on its anchor by the Alki Lighthouse. After its initial launch in November 2008, the little 24-square-foot refuge has been a lot like the cat with 9 lives. Four times it broke loose and 4 times it was found and retrieved through people finding it, reading the ID tag and then calling with the location. The 4th time it broke loose was caused by the big February storm this year when the anchor line, buoy, and raft all ended up on a rocky stretch of beach about half way to Lincoln Park. Unfortunately, rough water precluded retrieval by sea and steep banks precluded retrieval by land. The frame was cut up and abandoned, but the buoy and flotation were salvaged.
After what seems like too long a delay, the raft was reframed yesterday and launched today. The anchor line was rebuilt with stainless steel cable and hopefully will better withstand the forces of Mother Nature. But we know from experience that something will break loose again; the question is not “if” but “when”. The thing about a raft is that while it’s unmistakably a raft on the water, when it breaks loose and ends up on a rocky beach, it blends in and is not easy to spot. We really appreciate the efforts of those who have spotted our wayward raft in the past and have phoned us with its location.
Today our neighbors helped with the re-launch and now we are all awaiting sea life visitors. A seagull was quick to check it out, but we’re looking for more interesting visitors; visitors like seals with pups, the rare otter during daylight but probably more at night, cormorants that always fish alone but which rest in groups, and the harlequin ducks which always appear in pairs. It’s noteworthy that other diving ducks that winter at Alki Point, like buffleheads, goldeneyes, grebes, guillemots, mergansers and surf scoters, always fish together in groups, diving together and surfacing together, but they never get on the raft.
The wildlife protectors at West Seattle-founded Seal Sitters have said they wish more people would set up rafts like this one – as they are the least-dangerous resting places for seal pups and other marine mammals.
(Click for larger image)
Monday happened to be the Port of Seattle‘s 100th birthday. With port operations along eastern West Seattle, from the Duwamish to Elliott Bay, it’s easy to get to the point where you seldom give cargo ships a second look. But this view of an outbound ship, the dry-bulk carrier Diamond Harbour, caught West Seattle photographer Bill Bacon‘s eye:
I was on my way home yesterday evening, Labor Day – 2011, and had to stop at the swing bridge to witness this container ship coming down the river near the entrance to Elliott Bay. I think this is the tightest squeeze I’ve seen here as the ship is maneuvered through and between the BNSF railroad’s river crossing bridge. Of course there were tugs fore and aft ferrying the ship along downstream. Of course these ships go up and down the Duwamish River all the time. It’s the 1st time I’ve seen one, though, so close. I had to take the photo.
According to MarineTraffic.com – with ship info here, including its current track – it’s headed for Longview, on the Columbia River.
Following up on the amazing morning of whale-watching during “transient” orcas’ travels off West Seattle shores (here’s our previous report with photos from multiple sources), we have more photos tonight. The orca pictures are courtesy of Jeff Hogan from Killer Whale Tales, who says, “I followed them from Alki to Lincoln Park, to Brace Point and left them heading south at 3 Tree Point. Last I heard they had headed south through the [Tacoma] Narrows, with a pair possibly northbound around 6 pm today.”
Be on the lookout again tomorrow! By the way, if you’re new to orca-watching, the ones with the taller dorsal fins – as in this next photo – are the males:
Jeff also posted one additional photo on the Orca Network‘s Facebook wall – with an orca making a higher-than-usual “spyhop.” P.S. One bonus photo here – featuring the West Seattle Water Taxi and sea lions, not orcas, though Trileigh Tucker photographed them while out watching the orcas (she sent in the very first photo we received this morning!):
She explains that ” when there was a pause in orca viewing, during which I finally noticed these gorgeous sea lions (given their size, I believe they’re sea lions and not seals) resting on a float near a ship off the WS shore. We don’t want to overlook all of our “normal” West Seattle marine life just because those transient orcas came through! And I thought those folks in the Water Taxi were sure having one beautiful morning. (And I also want to say a “public” thank you to my Good Samaritan of the morning, a Beacon Hill resident named Ray, who was taking photos next to me along Harbor Avenue, and then spent much of his morning rescuing me from a dead car battery!)”
(ADDED FRIDAY NIGHT: Three more photos here!)
(Top photo added 1:44 pm, taken by Craig Savey from Pier 17 on Harbor Island; photo below added 9:40 am – WSB photo by Patrick Sand, from Me-Kwa-Mooks)
8:15 AM: First sighting of the season – just got a text (thanks!) that orcas were seen from the West Seattle Water Taxi this morning. Checking Twitter and the Orca Network Facebook page, it doesn’t seem to be an isolated sighting. (Added: We’re getting LOTS of notes now – definitely something many are seeing, including from downtown!) Keep an eye out and please share if you get them on camera.
(iPad photo courtesy Trileigh Tucker – orca off the downtown docks)
8:56 AM UPDATE: Reported off the Alki business district as of minutes ago. (Moved on by the time we got there, though. Not sure if headed south or north from Alki Point, but Beach Drive, keep an eye out!)
9:20 AM UPDATE: Multiple reports indicate they are headed south – BD, Fauntleroy, Arroyos, be on the lookout. And thanks again to the MANY people who have texted, e-mailed, called, Tweeted, posted/commented on the WSB Facebook wall.
9:40 AM UPDATE: WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand caught up with West Seattle’s resident whale-watching experts, Donna Sandstrom from The Whale Trail and Jeff Hogan from Killer Whale Tales, at Me-Kwa-Mooks. With their guidance, he caught some on camera – we’ve added one photo atop this story and one atop this paragraph. Donna is sharing binoculars from the new Whale Trail whale-watching kits.
She says they’re “transients” – not the orcas that live year-round in the Puget Sound/San Juans area.
10:03 AM UPDATE: Talked to Jeff by phone a few minutes ago. He says they’ve moved out of range, south of Brace Point, and confirms that the Center for Whale Research says they’re transients (this explains how orcas are ID’d), more than 20 of them. (But what heads south, must come north, so more sightings are possible later!)
ADDED 11 AM: Video clip above this line is from the Water Taxi this morning (thanks to Patrick P!) – watch the top left for spouts. And KIRO TV’s chopper video is here.
ADDED 1:48 PM: KIRO’s video is not embeddable, so we can’t show you the player here, but KING 5 now has video and theirs is:
KING reports that was shot off Maury Island.
(UPDATED Saturday night, as we keep getting photos, including one night shot from Port Townsend)
(Added 12:42 pm)
11:51 AM: The Missile Defense Agency would only say, when confirming Friday that its SBX (“big white ball” Sea-Based X-Band Radar dome that’s been on Harbor Island for three months) would leave Seattle today, that its movement would be “in daylight hours.” We’ve been watching MarineTraffic.com in lieu of staking out Harbor Island all day – and the tracking on that site suggests SBX and accompanying tugboats are now under way. Off to check. Let us know if you’re seeing it.
12:21 PM: Commenters confirmed it, and now we can too – it’s definitely moving out, albeit very slowly, so it’ll likely be visible from West Seattle shores for a few hours; it hasn’t even rounded Duwamish Head yet.
3:51 PM: It’s close to being out of Elliott Bay – off Magnolia at last report. Bob A. sends this view from North Admiral:
Thanks to everyone who’s sent photos – just going through them now!
MORE PICTURES ADDED SATURDAY EVENING – click ahead!Read More
(WSB photo from July)
The Missile Defense Agency just sent word that the SBX is leaving Harbor Island tomorrow, 3 months and 10 days after its late-night arrival drew crowds to West Seattle shores. We’re checking on an estimated time – meantime, here’s the announcement:
The Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) will depart August 20th from Seattle, Washington where it has been undergoing scheduled maintenance and planned upgrades at Vigor Shipyards since May. The work has taken about three months to complete and was consistent with the normal work accomplished at Vigor for other government and commercial vessels.
The SBX is one of the sensors for our nation’s Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). Its mission is to identify ballistic missile threats to our nation and to relay that information to the command and control center for missile defense.
A Naval Vessel Protection Zone, applicable to government vessels in transit and undergoing maintenance at Vigor Shipyards, will be applied to SBX as it departs. The US Coast Guard will be assisting with the NVPZ.
One month ago today, the seagoing radar dome drew crowds again as it left Vigor for a few hours so an oil-drilling ship could be moved in:
(July photo by Debra Herbst)
The SBX has been based in Alaska, though there’s no official word if it’s headed there next.
(Video added 7:45 pm, shot downtown as the ship started moving away)
You might be able to see it from West Seattle shores as it transits Elliott Bay – the Pallada, the Russian tall ship that’s been docked at Pier 66 the past few days (as previously reported here), has just sailed away, headed out of Seattle. Lots of horn-sounding and cheers that you might have heard all the way over to the Salty’s/Seacrest side! (7:45 pm note – It’s San Francisco-bound, per its track at MarineTraffic.com.)
Thanks to Shelley for sharing that photo from Lincoln Park early this morning – the second day in a row that she reported seeing dozens and dozens of people fishing on the beach. We asked our fellow neighborhood-news publisher and Lincoln Park fishing aficionado Justin from CapitolHillSeattle.com what’s hot right now; he explained it’s the every-two-year pink-salmon run. Turns out our partners at the Seattle Times previewed it recently.
After getting a question about the tall ship docked downtown at Pier 66 – our friends at KING 5 mentioned it last night – we checked with the Port of Seattle to see how long it’ll be around, and they said they’ve just gotten a schedule for public tours. It’s the Russian ship Pallada, said to have at least at one time held a record as the “fastest sailing ship” in the world, owned by the Far Eastern State Technical Fishing University. It’s on a goodwill tour, carrying what this report from Russia describes as “an exhibition featuring the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s space flight and the 270th anniversary of the discovery of Russian America by Russian seafarers.” According to port spokesperson Charla Skaggs, the Pallada is open for tours till 6 pm today, 10:30 am-4 pm tomorrow, and 10:30 am-3 pm on Friday. She says it’s scheduled to leave later Friday – no exact time yet; the Russian report says it’ll be bound for Japan, after having stopped here, in B.C., and in Alaska. Via the WSB Facebook page, Rob pointed out his photos of the Pallada visiting Puget Sound in 2005 for the Tall Ships Tacoma festival.
More Web research yielded another bit of local history with this ship: It was stuck in Seattle for a while almost exactly 20 years ago because of money troubles. Here’s a story from August 1991.
1:50 PM: The Seafair Fleet Parade of Ships show actually started off west-facing West Seattle – as they staged between Beach Drive and Bainbridge Island before turning to head toward Elliott Bay. The ship that looks like an aircraft carrier is the amphibious-assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard. It led the way, and along with the other parading ships is now headed toward the downtown waterfront. (added) Here’s video featuring a stand-up paddleboarder watching seemingly close-up while it headed that way:
Hope you caught the early alerts via Facebook or Twitter if you weren’t already out on the shore – as LOTS of people were, and still are; we’re by Duwamish Head but have been tracking the ships since Emma Schmitz Viewpoint on Beach Drive. (photo added) Madge Bloom caught this view of the BR’s stern, and the U.S. Coast Guard alongside:
ADDED 2:15 PM: One of the flybys – so far they’ve all been along the downtown waterfront, but visible from here (particularly with zoom):
Not sure yet which aircraft that was. More video to be added. The biggest ship in the parade, meantime, the Bonhomme Richard, is headed west out of the bay right now but will have to come back this way since it’s moored at Terminal 25 by the bridge for Seafair – so you have another chance to see it if you haven’t yet.
3:11 PM UPDATE: Now the show – from West Seattle shores, anyway – is just about over. We’ll be adding even more video and photos – starting with another one of the flybys, ahead (NOTE: also adding yet more this evening – thanks to everyone who’s shared pix – and thanks also to Seafair for sharing photos taken on board the Bonhomme Richard as it sailed by!):
(Photo by Glenn Gauthier)
One more Blue Angels note, besides today’s team arrival: South Seattle Community College math instructor Heidi Lyman has taken that Blue Angels ridealong we previewed here last week – and SSCC’s Candace Oehler says Heidi reported shouting at 17,000 feet, “START HERE, GO ANYWHERE!” (That would be the SSCC motto.) She also reported pulling 7.4 g’s in one maneuver with U.S. Navy Lt. Dave Tickle in #7, says Candace, who accompanied Heidi to Boeing Field/Museum of Flight.
And as also previewed here, we’ve had the first Seafair Navy fleet sightings off West Seattle shores:
Via the WSB Facebook page, Russ Walker shared that photo of the USS Bonhomme Richard arriving in Elliott Bay this afternoon. No, it’s not an aircraft carrier, as some have called it – it’s an amphibious-assault ship. The guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson is here too. You’ll see them, and the other visiting ships – plus aircraft flyovers – in the Parade of Ships tomorrow afternoon, starting around 1:45; tours are Thursday-Sunday.
Another incredible West Seattle aerial view from Gatewood pilot/photographer Long B. Nguyen – this time, over the Seattle Outrigger Canoe Club‘s “Da Grind” racing event during the low-tide Saturday on Alki (our earlier ground coverage is here). Here’s another view – another low tide today, by the way, -2.0 just before noon.
For the next week-plus, the biggest events of Seafair are in the spotlight around our city. Here are a few notes of special West Seattle-and-environs interest:
TORCHLIGHT PARADE TONIGHT: You can get a sneak peek at the floats by going to Seattle Center 2-6 pm this afternoon for the “Taste of Torchlight.” Look for West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival‘s “Sparkling Seattle” float (seen above in last Saturday’s WS Grand Parade). Every year Hi-Yu comes up with a new theme for its float and button, builds it, and takes it to parades around the region – the last neighborhood-specific organization in Seattle to carry on the tradition. In the parade lineup (which you can see here), they’re scheduled to be #70 out of 106 entries. Other entries of local interest: King County Executive Dow Constantine (#10), South Park’s “Legacy of Innovation” float (#93), All-City Band directed by West Seattle’s Marcus Pimpleton (#95). Know a West Seattleite in one of tonight’s group entries? Let us know! Also, Veronica Pupava represents Hi-Yu in the Miss Seafair program – right before the parade, we’ll see if she’s chosen queen or princess. Meantime, some parade logistics: If you have to go downtown, here’s the road-closure plan; if you are staking out a spot, the parade officially starts from Seattle Center at 7:30 pm and proceeds along 4th Avenue southward to the International District, preceded by the Torchlight Run (which is what’s closing the northbound Alaskan Way Viaduct at 5:30 pm) – go ASAP! The front line along the curb fills up fast along the entire route.
After tonight, the U.S. Navy takes centerstage in the air (here’s our earlier report about the Blue Angels’ arrival) and at sea:
(Seafair Fleet Week Parade of Ships 2010 photo by David Hutchinson – that’s the USS Port Royal)
FLEET WEEK AND PARADE OF SHIPS: We got our first look at the U.S. Navy Seafair lineup hereon the website of a participating ship. While the Parade of Ships in Elliott Bay – visible from most of West Seattle’s north- and northeast-facing shore – is scheduled for 1:45 pm Wednesday, most will arrive sooner. That Navy page says the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) and guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson (DDG 102) will arrive Tuesday before 2 pm, mooring at Terminal 25 (just north of the West Seattle Bridge) and Pier 66, while guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) will arrive at Terminal 46 at 8 am Wednesday. Also participating, according to references here and here, US Coast Guard cutter Mellon (WHEC 717) and, from the Canadian Navy, HMCS Whitehorse (NCSM 705) and HMCS Nanaimo (NCSM 702). Public tours of ships participating in that part of the program are set for Thursday through Sunday; more on the Seafair site, here.
As previewed in this morning’s “West Seattle Saturday” lineup – the Seattle Outrigger Canoe Club is on (and off!) Alki Beach today for its annual “Da Grind” race day. They’re running two courses, a 12-mile and a 4-mile; the third wave of racing is scheduled to head out around 2:30 pm.
The first wave had already headed out when we stopped by, but we did get a good view of today’s low tide (-2.1 at about quarter past 11):
No outriggers tomorrow, but the tide will be almost as low, -2.0 just before noon tomorrow.
ADDED: April Long shared more photos (thank you!):
1:59 PM: This afternoon on Alki (thanks to Dan for the tip!), the Blue Heron Canoe landed ahead of other tribal canoes that are expected as part of this year’s Tribal Journey, in which Native Americans from all over the Northwest are canoeing to a rendezvous hosted by the Swinomish in the La Conner area of Skagit County. Michael (didahalqid) Evans of the Snohomish skippers the Blue Heron (and can be heard, according to tradition, asking for permission to land). The rest of the Blue Heron’s itinerary is listed on its website. Other canoes are expected at Alki — as reported here, Linda Blackinton shared news of the Samish‘s plans to launch from here tomorrow morning — so if you’d like to see them, keep an eye on the beach (we will too).
5:17 PM UPDATE: Just went back to Alki, and as of around an hour ago, we counted 15 canoes:
Journey participants are all expected to join the Swinomish next Monday.
7:08 PM UPDATE: Alki photographer David Hutchinson shared photos from the canoes’ arrival:
ADDED THURSDAY MORNING: While at Alki for a different story early today, we asked the security officer guarding the canoes when they were scheduled to take off. “Between 9 and 10” was his reply.
(10:22 PM – 2 more photos, including SBX and stand-up paddleboarders!)
(Photo added 1:46 pm, courtesy of Toni)
As first reported here Monday morning, the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) that’s been so prominently visible from Harbor Island’s Vigor Shipyard for the past two months is making a short trip today. As scheduled, around 1 pm it headed out into Elliott Bay. It’s scheduled to be out for about six hours of testing while the floating offshore-drilling ship Kulluk is maneuvered into Vigor at the end of its long tow from Dutch Harbor, Alaska.
ADDED 2:29 PM: Kathy Olson shared this photo from Seacrest:
Our friends at MyBallard.com have photos of the Kulluk as it was under tow earlier. (added 3:11 pm) Here’s CL’s photo as the Kulluk rounded West Point into the bay:
We don’t have formal word on this, but one report we encountered while researching all this yesterday indicated that the work on the Kulluk is scheduled to take at least seven months. Meantime, SBX was expected to be out for at least six hours today, so if you want to see it out and about, you might get to see it moving back toward the shipyard before dark.
ADDED 6:22 PM: Thanks again to everyone who has been sharing photos of the sights at sea – again, SBX is NOT leaving permanently, it’s been here two months and was expected to be at Vigor at least three. First photo, WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand got a view of the Water Taxi with the SBX behind:
This one’s courtesy of Rebecca Nelson (editor of RavennaBlog.com but passing through via ferry):
Our original tip about these marine moves came from her. She also spotted a sailboat near a Coast Guard vessel enforcing the 500-yard keep-away-from-SBX zone:
Might add a few more later.
9:52 PM UPDATE: The SBX was still out in the bay when we passed by after the Hi-Yu concert, a little more than an hour ago. And we have this photo courtesy of Debra Herbst:
We believe those would be the Tuesday night stand-up paddleboarders from Alki Kayak Tours, with extra sights this evening.
ADDED 10:22 PM: David Hutchinson shares the view of the Kulluk in one of the late afternoon/early evening sunbreaks:
As Shell told WSB in a statement yesterday, they hope to use the Kulluk to drill in the Beaufort Sea next year, off Alaska’s northeasternmost coast.
(June 24 WSB photo of SBX, taken from Jack Block Park)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
It’s dominated the Harbor Island view for two months, and while it’s not scheduled to leave Vigor (formerly Todd) Shipyard for another month or so, you will see the SBX (military Sea-Based X-Band missile-detecting radar, aka “that thing that looks like a giant golf/ping-pong ball”) move around a bit this week.
That’s because, according to a marine-industry advisory obtained by WSB, a floating offshore-oil-drilling platform is coming into the shipyard, so SBX must move temporarily while the drilling rig is maneuvered into place. That rig is a story unto itself:
(2010 photo of Kulluk by Flickr member Anyaku2419)
It’s “an Arctic-class drill ship” called the Kulluk, owned by Shell, which is getting it into shape in hopes of obtaining Arctic offshore-drilling permits that, according to reports like this, it’s been trying to get for six years.
The 1983-built Kulluk had been idle for more than a decade, after years of Arctic drilling, before being reactivated; it has most recently been based in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and left there July 1st for the journey here.
According to the advisory about Kulluk’s arrival and SBX’s temporary move, Shell is expected to issue a news release about the Kulluk sometime today. As of very early this morning, marinetraffic.com showed its accompanying tugs – Kulluk itself was not providing a signal – in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and it’s expected in Elliott Bay by Tuesday morning.
Meantime, SBX is expected to move to an anchorage area in west Elliott Bay by early afternoon Tuesday, and to conduct various tests before returning to Vigor sometime Tuesday evening, once the Kulluk is in place. The advisory says the 500-yard security zone around SBX will be maintained wherever it is, so that could make for some varied ferry/Water Taxi routing on Tuesday.
ADDED 11:32 AM: Shell’s statement, received by e-mail:
In anticipation of a 2012 offshore Alaska drilling season, Shell will move the Kulluk drilling unit from Dutch Harbor, Alaska to the shipyard in Seattle, Washington for ongoing maintenance and planned, technical upgrades. The Kulluk is identified as a primary drilling unit in Shell’s 2012 Beaufort Sea Plan of Exploration. Once the upgrades are complete, Dutch Harbor will remain a staging ground for the Kulluk and other Shell vessels as we pursue exploration drilling on our leases in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.
Thanks to Gary Jones for sharing his photo of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Shoup passing West Seattle shores this morning. It’s homeported in Everett, so it’s not far from home. Gary offers a little more of DDG 86’s local history: “Commissioned in 2002 at Seattle’s Port Terminal 37, she was part of the Seafair fleet in 2009.”
These past few brilliantly sunny/warm afternoons, if you visited Lowman Beach north of Lincoln Park, you might have seen Tom hard at work on his canoe. We heard about him from Karl Sutter, who has been watching Tom’s progress. Karl shared the first two photos, explaining that Tom had already been out in his carved canoe – but was adding an outrigger:
Then we stopped by on the 4th of July afternoon, for a firsthand look:
The original canoe even works with a 4-to-6-horsepower motor, and at last report, he was looking for an additional one.
(Photos by Rebecca Orton)
Before the next round of serious news rushes in, anybody up for a wildlife break? Rebecca Orton shared photos of a river otter (yes, the ones in Puget Sound are “river otters,” not “sea otters”) catching and enjoying its dinner:
Sunday evening, Mr. Otter was visiting our backyard and lounging under and on the deck. I rarely get to see the otters in the day time so I quickly ran for my camera and zoom lens.
Leaving his lounge area, he made his way to the water, so I followed him down to the beach where he quickly found himself a flounder. He devoured it at the water’s edge, heartily crunching through fish bones he had his flounder finished in 4 minutes flat. Then off he went for another one. His fishing skills proved expert as he came up in no time with another juicy flounder. This one, he apparently intended to gorge on in the back yard and began making his way up toward the house. Though I hadn’t moved a muscle, he finally caught sight or wind of me and stopped dead in his tracks, did a quick double take, then turned tail and ran to the water swimming away with his dinner. We both had a treat, dinner for him and wildlife-watching for me!
This reminds us of a note received recently reminding people to drive carefully near the water – including Fauntleroy, as well as Beach Drive and Harbor and Alki Avenues – otters like these spend time inland, and have to cross busy streets to get there.
Often, we only find out about passing ships – particularly US Navy sightings to/from Bremerton – after the fact. For those who keep an eye on the water, here’s advance word of something heading this way: Via Puget Sound Maritime, we learn that the decommissioned frigate USS Jarrett will be towed to Bremerton within the next week or so. According to its Wikipedia page, the Jarrett made history as the first US Navy warship commanded by a woman (Captain Kathleen McGrath).
The water and newly opened beach at Jack Block Park are alive with activity as the first day of the first-ever Northwest Paddling Festival continues. Both veteran paddlers and beginners are taking the chance for a closeup look at what’s new:
And if you’re just curious – not sure if you’re ready to try it out – you can wander the booths on the boardwalk:
KING 5 was live at the festival during their newscast this morning, with Alki Kayak Tours/Mountain to Sound Outfitters‘ Greg Whittaker (and others) – here’s one of their reports:
Today’s events continue till 6 pm – and then 9 am to 5 pm again tomorrow; the full schedule is here.
(Monday photo courtesy GW)
The state Ecology Department is talking today about the reddish “bloom” seen in some Puget Sound waters, including ours (here’s yesterday’s WSB report/photos). From their news release (we’ve added an aerial photo they posted to Flickr):
Scientists from the Department of Ecology’s marine monitoring program in a routine overflight of Puget Sound have spotted an extensive reddish bloom in Puget Sound that they suspect is harmless.
It is not the so-called “red tide” that refers to paralytic shellfish poisoning.
The bloom extends from Kingston to Des Moines, and across the Central Basin from Seattle to Bainbridge Island.
Today, they collected water samples they predict will confirm that the bloom is Noctiluca (pronounced “nock-ti-lukah”), a harmless single-celled micro-organism that bioluminesces and occurs normally at this time of year. This kind of plankton does not photosynthesize, but gets its red color from the phytoplankton it eats, a type of nutrition called heterotrophy.
This type of bloom shows up as large, red-brown, even orange “tomato-soup-like” streaks along current and tidal convergence lines, according to Dr. Christopher Krembs of Ecology’s marine monitoring program.
Krembs said the bloom is also accumulating along shores and beaches.
“We are reasonably certain this is Noctiluca, so there is no public health threat,” Krembs said. “As the sun warms the water, the water stratifies, holding the tiny plankton near the surface where they flourish.” …
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