ORIGINAL 12 PM “HAPPENING NOW” REPORT: On the beach right now – 157 people holding hands as part of “Hands Across the Sand.” It’s part of a nationwide demonstration against offshore oil drilling and for clean-energy development.
More info here; more photos to come. ADDED 1:52 PM: Here’s one courtesy of Cathy, as the participants gathered at Alki Statue of Liberty:
And another of ours:
ADDED 4:14 PM: Two video clips – one as the line formed, and one in which we talked with organizers:
Alki photographer David Hutchinson has contributed so many breathtaking scenes to WSB – and a few others that evoke something closer to sighs of disgust. This one’s from Thursday, but the issue is unfortunately timeless. He wrote: “It was a beautiful sunrise at Alki Beach (Thursday) morning – until I took a closer look.”
He continues:
This type of scene was repeated at many of the metal fire containers from 59th Ave east along Alki Ave for 3 blocks. There was also a good deal of litter around the picnic tables just east of the Bathhouse. I realize that the photo was taken before the Parks crew made their morning rounds, but I think it’s a shame that visitors to the beach feel free to leave it in this condition.
Taking the long way home from the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce transportation briefing, we almost stopped for the classic crowded-on-Alki shot. But after all, West Seattle has many more beaches. So we continued on west and southwestward, and found this scene at uncrowded (only one person in sight) Weather Watch Park along Beach Drive (across from La Rustica). In the foreground, the roof of a makeshift driftwood structure – in the background, a ready-for-summer condo-building patio. Should still be nice when you get home from work – but then the “forecast discussion” suggests that may be it for a while!
(Photo courtesy Greg Whittaker)
(ADDED 3:17 PM: One activity along the West Seattle shore tonight – Alki Kayak Tours is hosting another Tuesday night standup-paddleboard demo/race event presented by sister business Mountain to Sound Outfitters. 6-8 pm, at Seacrest.)
Anybody else old enough to remember Hands Across America (May 25, 1986)? Next Saturday, Hands Across the Sand is planned nationwide, to show opposition to offshore oil drilling – with on-the-beach handclasping if you are somewhere that happens to have a beach. In our case, Alki is on the list. Gather at 11 am by the bathhouse, demonstrate at noon. (Somewhat spooky to see that there were protests like these in Florida back in February – including along the Gulf of Mexico – months before the BP disaster.)
Though (as reported Tuesday) the county didn’t publicly announce the first meeting of the Citizens Advisory Group it has assembled for the review of how/where to control Combined Sewer Overflows from the Murray Pump Station at Lowman Beach Park – they promised to get out more advance info in the future, and we just received the first installment from King County Wastewater Treatment Division’s Annie Kolb-Nelson, regarding the next CAG meeting, a reminder of this Saturday’s all-day “technical information session” (with optional tours), and more:Read More
(top video added 6:39 pm – baby sunflower sea star on the move!)
Notice a lot of school buses around West Seattle today, not at the usual hours? One last low-tide field trip before school gets out for the summer. Among the volunteer beach naturalists out again today was John Smersh of Click! Design That Fits (which, like the naturalist-program-sponsoring Seattle Aquarium, is a WSB sponsor). He shared the photos and video, and reports:
A great day today with lots of kids on field trips to the beach! We will be doing another weekday beach session tomorrow from 11 am to 2 pm (low at 1:39 pm). The last photo is a Sea Lemon, which is a type of sea slug. There was one young gal from one of the schools who had picked that as “her” animal to find, and I don’t believe she ever did… by the time I found this one she had left.
You’ll find the naturalists tomorrow at Constellation Park (south of Alki Point) and Lincoln Park (near Colman Pool).
Not long after he stopped by to say hi at the West Seattle Junction Health Fair (continuing till 2; see our ongoing coverage) – Chas Redmond sent photos from Alki, right around the low point of the lowest tide of the month. The sunshine’s just been muted by some high clouds moving in, but not the rain-bearing variety, so don’t let that keep you at home! One other Alki attraction besides the tide – Chas also spotted the sign for the Alki Point Lighthouse, now open 1-4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays:
We’d just gotten that word from someone who talked with us at the Morgan Junction Community Festival yesterday, and will have it in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup from hereon out – we’re told the lighthouse has a small gift shop too!
ADDED 9:14 PM: Two more low-tide scenes – Shannon shared photos taken at Lincoln Park around noon.
Since major minus tides return to our beaches starting tomorrow (here’s the chart), that means more people on the shore, and additional importance for this heads-up just sent by Ted:
A disturbing find today – playing with 3 of my kids on the beach and found a syringe washed up with the seaweed. Picked it up and put near the garbage. Thought that was the end of it until I found another in with the driftwood about 300 feet away !! That’s 2 within 15 minutes – wonder what else is down there? I left both of them near the dumpster near one of the covered picnic areas on the waterfront.
He asked for advice on who to report it to – we suggested the Parks Department, for starters. (We also have a followup out to him, asking exactly where on the LP beach.) As for the question of what you should do if you find one – here’s some advice on the King County Public Health website – note that it is against the law to place them in a regular trash or recycling container.
If you don’t mind tidewalking in the rain, the tides today and tomorrow are almost as low as they were two weeks ago, when we shared some great photos from WSB’ers. Today it’ll be down to -2.5 just before noon, and -2.3 tomorrow just after noon. And tomorrow marks the first day of the season for the volunteer beach naturalists deployed by the Seattle Aquarium (WSB sponsor) – they’ll be on the beach at Constellation Park and Lincoln Park each of the next three days (schedule and other locations around the city are here.)
Our crews have screened the sand material three times at the Alki volleyball courts with some improvement to the overall quality. In addition to the 150 yards of sand already purchased, we have ordered an additional 80 yards of finer-grade sand materials which is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, and will be spread on Friday. The volleyball courts will be ready for use this weekend.
WSB’er “d” got the sighting of the day – sharing video of a tide-exposed rock inscribed with 2/5/10 and some words about love and healing. Over by Me-Kwa-Mooks, Lillian spotted what we swear really IS an octopus this time (unlike the misidentified one from last night’s report):
And Gene shared a photo from Alki, showing how it looked when the tide bottomed out this afternoon:
If you have the opportunity to go tidewalking tomorrow (Monday) afternoon, around 2 pm the tide’ll be almost as low as today. After that, your next chance for a minus-two-foot-plus tide will be May 26-29 (here’s the chart). We’ll have -3 tides in mid-June and July, and those’ll be the lowest of the summer.
Thanks to everyone who shared photos from this afternoon’s low tide – tomorrow it’ll be a bit lower, before the tides start edging upward again for the next few weeks. The victorious toddler is courtesy of Jim Clark, who took photos at Lincoln Park and shared a gallery link in the WSB Forums; next, Lisa‘s daughter took a close look at a moon snail at Constellation Park:
(Side note on moon snails – Beach Drive Blog has been tracking someone who gathers large quantities – see the story here.) Finally, at Lowman Beach, Amy spotted this octopus starfish (see comments):
Sunday’s low tide, lowest of the month, is just after 1 pm. (P.S. When tides start getting low again on Memorial Day weekend, it’ll be this year’s first time out for the beach naturalist program run by the Seattle Aquarium [WSB sponsor], including naturalists here in West Seattle – more info here.)
Great tidewalking conditions along Alki at midday today – and the tide will get lower still for the next four days, from a -1.4 today going down to -2.6 on Sunday (per this tide chart).
Here’s hoping Alki isn’t trashed by tomorrow morning the way it was this morning, by several accounts. First, Kristina posted it about it on the WSB Facebook wall; then we discovered Seal Sitters‘ Robin Lindsey had written about it on Blubberblog (with a call for volunteer help) – and before we could get down to Alki to check it out ourselves, David Hutchinson had sent three photos along with this writeup:
Alki Beach, as usual, is a popular destination on sunny weekends like this. It’s a great place for a picnic, a walk, or to just sit on the sand and take in the view. A reoccurring problem during these busy times is the overflow of garbage that tarnishes the experience for visitors and residents alike. Saturday was one of those days and by evening, the garbage cans were overflowing.
David continues:
Throw a few hungry gulls and crows into the mix and you end up with a less than ideal situation. The photos were taken just east of the Alki Bathhouse at about 8:45 Sunday morning. This was despite the fact that there are 2 dumpsters nearby. Unfortunately, people seem unwilling to walk the extra distance to these as both were virtually empty. Seattle Parks & Recreation has installed a number of large, new style garbage containers along the promenade between 59th Ave SW and 64th Ave SW, but these get little use. They have a small “porthole” opening with a stiff rubber hinge that discourages people from using them. Similar scenes were noted at a number of locations up and down the beach.
With the ongoing budget crisis at Parks, there is probably little hope that this situation will dramatically improve in the short term. When you go to the beach for a picnic, it would be a good idea to come prepared by bringing a plastic garbage bag from home. There are 2 green dumpsters just east of the Bathhouse for garbage and 1 blue dumpster west of the Bathhouse for recyclables.
A Parks employee arrived shortly after 9:00 to empty the cans and suggested that if anyone has concerns or suggestions, please send them to Seattle Parks & Recreation. Contact information can be found at www.seattle.gov/parks/contact/default.htm
This also happens to be a weekend between furlough days for Parks, as explained here – but that’s no excuse for people who won’t walk a few extra feet to a trash container, or pack out their own trash if they don’t find anywhere to throw it.
We got a call today from Daniel … who lives just around the corner on the beach close to the lighthouse property. He said a raft had washed up on the beach and wondered if it was ours. We checked there yesterday and didn’t see it. But it is ours. We’ll try to tow it back to our beach tomorrow, weather permitting. We can’t believe our good luck in finding this raft 3 times after the bad luck of losing it 3 times.
Three generations of the Smiths’ family collaborated a year and a half ago to build the raft, whose story you can read here.
(Scroll down for Saturday update – the seal pup didn’t survive)
Alki’s David Hutchinson shares that photo, along with this report:
A Harbor Seal pup “hauled out” before noon today at Alki Beach just east of the Bathhouse. Seal Sitters were on site along with Dan Campau of Seattle Parks & Recreation and set up a safety perimeter. Quite a number of people stopped by to observe and take photos. Robin Lindsey of Seal Sitters said she thought it probably was a late season pup from last September judging by its size. The pup is still on the beach as of 2:55 PM.
4:53 PM: Added a video clip courtesy of Eilene Hutchinson:
Thanks to the Hutchinsons for sharing that sweet sight; you can find out all about seal pups on West Seattle beaches (and what to do if you happen onto one) atsealsitters.org.
2:56 PM: Sad news in comments – David Hutchinson reports the seal pup died early this afternoon. He says more details will be forthcoming on the Seal Sitters’ site at blubberblog.org.
Low tides this time of year aren’t mega-low (here’s the chart) – but low enough to happen onto sights like that one, photographed by Eve at Lincoln Park on Friday. In the note accompanying the photo, she wondered why there’s such a wide color variation among the common sea stars, as demonstrated in these two. We did find at least one scientific paper that suggested an explanation – but perhaps someone with a little more user-friendly marine-biology knowhow has a simpler answer!
(Cameraphone added 5:23 pm, generator truck at Lowman Beach)
Just got word from King County Wastewater Treatment that, as often happens in power outage situations, this one triggered an overflow at the Murray Avenue pump station by Lowman Beach. The county estimates 40,000 gallons of wastewater overflowed for about 15 minutes before they got a portable generator going so the normal pumping could continue. They’ve posted signs on the shore, however, warning of possible contamination. (Added: We talked with Annie Kolb-Nelson at the county; she confirms Lowman still doesn’t have an emergency generator – that’s part of the CSO projects, with a meeting coming up March 29.) Read on for the full news release:Read More
Eric Shalit of Box Turtle Design shared that rather grabby shot of a “slackliner” he encountered today at Alki. So, we asked, how high off the ground was he, and what was the “slackline” tied to? In reply, Eric sent another photo; to see it, click here.
After reading the WSB followup Sunday on Neal Chism, who patrols for trash/debris part of the Duwamish shore near the West Seattle Bridge, Jenshared the photo above, explaining:
This photo shows the garbage (including a syringe/needle) picked up (Sunday) afternoon along a short stretch of West Seattle beach, a couple miles south of the Fauntleroy dock. All of this was picked up in the space of about 350 feet of shoreline. The recent super high tides seem to be bringing lots of trash. Imagine how much trash would be collected off local beaches, if all of us who walk the shoreline picked up the garbage as we walked…
I’ll be taking a bigger trash bag with me (today).
If you have the chance to get out on the beach today – the lowest daytime tide is at 12:34 pm (here’s the monthly chart).
You’ve heard of beached whales, seals, sea lions .. but you don’t see an octopus quite that often. Jana shared that photo after the discovery on a West Seattle beach. Just last weekend, as noted here, the Seattle Aquarium sponsored the Giant Pacific Octopus Census, asking divers off Seacrest and other area spots to count what they saw. The Aquarium also is bringing its volunteer beach naturalists – who are summertime fixtures on West Seattle shores – to the beach south of Alki Point for a nighttime low-tide walk next Friday (1/29), 8-10 pm. More info here, including the link to RSVP.
Judging by our early-morning inbox yield, some folks followed up on the recommendation we shared Tuesday from Lura, who sent info about late night low tides continuing the next two nights – David Rosen from SlickPix Photography saw the stars you see above, and the Alki curve you see below:
We also have a bit of video from Alki – WSB contributing reporter Mary Sheely was out with husband Dave Sheely (catch his designs at Urban Craft Uprising this weekend!) and they spotted this camouflaged crab:
Also a photographer’s delight – the full moon that’s just graced us – the prospect of seeing it come up pre-dusk led to this lineup:
Thanks to “westseattledood” for that shot of photographers staked out at the Admiral Way viewpoint last night, awaiting the moonrise over the downtown skyline. Haven’t seen any photos of it yet but we’d love to run one if you have one! Facing the other way, we received a few dusk photos of the USS John C Stennis out and about again – this one from Chris S with the Olympics’ “The Brothers” peaks in the background:
(September 2007 nighttime photo of beached jelly on Alki)
Thanks to Lura for sharing this info:
I’m not sure how many nature lovers are willing to brave the cold, but tonight and the next two nights have some extreme low tides. The rare clear sky and full moon means that you’ll be able to walk way, way out and see all sorts of nocturnal sea creatures – shrimp, starfish, crabs, clams…
Low tonight is -3.4 at 10:42 pm
Thursday night -3.5 at 11:27 pm, and
Friday night (early Saturday) -3.2 at 12:14.
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