Author Archives: scottveirs

Ocean conditions promising future orca food

Posted on December 23, 2008 | Leave a comment
Some good news re offshore productivity in 2008, though the southern residents may not see the benefits for a couple years…
clipped from www.oregonlive.com

http://www.oregonlive.com

Oregon ocean conditions best for fish in 50 years
After several years of poor ocean conditions that left birds starving and fish dwindling, this year brought a healthy influx of cold, nutrient-rich water along the Oregon Coast that likely represent the best year for fish in decades, scientists say.
Surveys along the coast from Newport north to LaPush, Wash., found more juvenile chinook salmon than they’ve seen in the 11 years the surveys have been done, researchers said.
That suggests that the Northwest could see a salmon boom once those fish mature and migrate back to their home rivers in the next few years.
The key to ocean productivity off the Oregon Coast is upwelling of deep, cold water that is rich in nutrients. The water typically nurtures rich marine ecosystems, but last year and in the few years before the upwelling has happened erratically and hasn’t provided the nutrients essential to fish and other coastal life.
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Lubchenco could save NW salmon and orcas

Posted on December 19, 2008 | Leave a comment
Wonderful news that one of the pioneers of sustainability science will head NOAA in the Obama administration! This could really turn around the pitiful funding of the recovery plans for Northwest salmon and killer whales. Jane is an exceptional marine ecologist has long been working out practical solutions to saving our marine food supplies (and she’s married to Bruce Menge, another top marine ecologist).
clipped from voices.washingtonpost.com

The Washington Post

Lubchenco Will Helm National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
By Juliet Eilperin
President-elect Barack Obama has tapped Oregon State University professor Jane Lubchenco, one of the nation’s most prominent marine biologists, to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Lubchenco, a conservationist who has devoted much of her career to encouraging scientists to become more engaged in public policy debates, is also a vocal proponent of curbing greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
“When has NOAA been headed by a member of the National Academy and a fellow of the Royal Society?” he said, referring to America and Britain’s most prestigious scientific societies. “That’s exactly the right signal. It establishes NOAA as one of those key scientific agencies.”
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Could leader change at BPA help orcas?

Posted on December 17, 2008 | 1 Comment
This editorial gives a glimpse into the uppercrust of the BPA and ponders whether President Obama and Energy Secretary Chu will alter the BPA leadership. Could this be an opportunity for a dramatic acceleration in the re-balancing of the Northwest’s priorities: renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, thriving salmon, and healthy killer whales? First and foremost, we should watch during this potential transition for a chance to gain political momentum for removing the dams on the lower Snake River!
clipped from www.oregonlive.com

by The Editorial Board

Thursday December 11, 2008, 4:20 PM

Dams, wind, power and politics
Who should lead the Bonneville Power Administration into a bold new era of green energy?
Obama and his strong choice for Energy Secretary, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu, will set a very different course on national energy policy, and by extension, will put different demands and expectations on Bonneville and its executives.
But we’d caution against any rush to change the leadership at the BPA. Wright, a careeer BPA official appointed administrator by former President Clinton, and kept by President George W. Bush, is a talented executive who’s done a fine job under difficult circumstances.
He’s forged an agreement on salmon recovery with Native American tribes

COMMENTS (4)Post a comment
Posted by sonicyouth
Sure, Wright is effective at making sure the dams produce ‘affordable’ electricity
We are also paying through the nose for salmon programs that aren’t working and will never lead to recovery.
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Killer whales call louder as vessel noise increases

Posted on December 11, 2008 | 1 Comment
This clipping from the NOAA/NWFSC Marine Mammal Program shows that southern residents are increasing the source level of their S1 calls by about 1dB for every decibel increase of the ambient noise level. Counts of vessels within 1km of the hydrophone correlate with the ambient noise levels.

While the ecological consequences of this behavioral change are up for debate and further study, these results could motivate owners of vessels that operate near the whales to reduce their underwater noise production. They could also lead to the development of new regulations regarding how vessels interact with the endangered killer whales.

The peer-reviewed article is expected to be published in the next couple months. Similar results have been acquired by a Beam Reach student in fall 2007 (Elise Chapman, http://beamreach.org/071 ) and by Val Veirs in spring 2005 ( http://beamreach.org/research/projects/orca_call_sl/ValVeirs_ASA_May05_talk.ppt ).

clipped from www.nwfsc.noaa.gov

NOAA logo: go to NOAA web site

NWFSC home

Marine Mammal Program

Speaking up: killer whales compensate for vessel noise

A photograph of a woman looking at a group of killer whale from a boat.
NWFSC postdoctoral researcher Marla Holt measuring the sound levels of killer whale
calls near San Juan Island.

A study by NRC postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Marla Holt, and collaborators including NWFSC, Colorado College and Beamreach researchers have found that Southern Residents compensate for the masking effects of vessel noise by calling louder. In a new article (in press) in JASA Express Letters, “Speaking up: killer whales compensate for vessel noise,” these researchers show that whales increase their call level by one decibel for every decibel increase in background noise levels.
The researchers also report that noise levels increase as the number of motorized vessels around the whales increases, illustrating the contribution vessel traffic has to background noise levels in the whales’ underwater environment.
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Blackmouth and blackfish in Seattle

Posted on December 11, 2008 | Leave a comment

J, K, and members of L pod have been down in central and south Puget Sound quite a bit thus far this November and December.  The nice sighting maps at Orca Network show they’ve been sighted as far south as Seattle and Vashon on 12/2 and 12/7.  In comparison, here are the days in past Decembers when SRKWs were detected near Vashon Island: 0 days 2007,  2006;  12/15, 12/17, & 12/20 in 2006; 12/2 &12/16 in 2005;  11 days in 2004 (as late as 12/31); and 7 days in 2003.  They came into northern Puget Sound 8 times in November (Admiralty Inlet down to about the southern end of Whidbey Island), which is about normal compared with November ’06 and ’07.

Will they keep hanging around this fall?  And what are they eating?  It will be fascinating to learn what is revealed by the fecal and prey sampling that NOAA has accomplished in Puget Sound recently…

The following note from WDFW suggests they could be picking off some of the blackmouth Chinook that human fishers are catching.  Does anyone have handy some near-real-time escapement numbers for Chum in the southern Puget Sound rivers?

Excerpt from the WDFW Weekender Report: December 10, 2008 – January 6, 2009:

On Puget Sound, the blackmouth  fishery is under way, and the catch rate could increase as additional marine areas open for salmon.

“We’ve seen a drop in effort in the marine areas since the holiday season began,” said Steve Thiesfeld, WDFW fish biologist. “But those anglers who did get out on the water have found some fish in the last several days.” Creel checks in the region show fair fishing for blackmouth – resident chinook – in Marine Area 10 (Seattle/Bremerton). At Shilshole Ramp, 26 anglers were checked with two chinook Dec. 5, while 48 anglers took home eight chinook the following day.

Those fishing Marine Area 10 can keep two hatchery chinook as part of their two-salmon daily limit. They must, however, release wild chinook, which have an intact adipose fin.

Beginning Jan. 1, options will increase for blackmouth fishing, when marine areas 8-1 (Deception Pass, Hope Island and Skagit Bay) and 8-2 (Port Susan and Port Gardner) open for salmon. Anglers in those two marine areas will be allowed to keep two hatchery chinook as part of their two-salmon daily limit.

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Chinook swim bladder smaller than sockeye & coho?

Posted on December 9, 2008 | Leave a comment
clipped from sciencenow.sciencemag.org

Sounds Like My Favorite Fish

By Phil Berardelli
ScienceNOW Daily News
12 November 2008
Some of the killer whales off the coast of Washington state are picky eaters, preferring Chinook salmon even though the coho and sockeye varieties are much more plentiful. Researchers report that the whales seem to be able to tell the three species apart by the sonar echoes bouncing off their swim bladders
Their analysis showed that one characteristic–the structure of the echoing sound waves–differed among the coho, sockeye, and Chinook salmon. As bioacoustician and team member Whitlow Au of the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, reported Tuesday at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Miami, Florida, further study showed that the salmon swim bladders vary considerably in size. The Chinook’s bladder is only half as large as those of the other two species.
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BC salmon worse off than DFO says

Posted on December 3, 2008 | Leave a comment
We’ll need to examine the actual publication, but at first glance this new study demolishes what trust I had that DFO was doing a reasonable job of measuring escapement and managing the catch of B.C. salmon. It seems we should radically adjust how we monitor and manage salmon… perhaps some combination of a coherent, timely test catch program and real-time telemetry of returning adults could enable us to adjust quotas and time openings so that enough salmon are able to make it into the rivers and the stomachs of endangered orcas.

Or maybe we should just stop fishing for Pacific salmon for a decade?! Then at least we could discern whether there is any need to keep suggesting that declines are caused by climate change or ocean conditions, rather than harvest.
clipped from www.theglobeandmail.com

Overfishing pushing salmon stocks near collapse, study warns


MARK HUME

December 3, 2008 at 5:13 AM EST

VANCOUVER — Salmon stocks in British Columbia are on the brink of collapse largely because the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has consistently allowed too many fish to be killed in commercial and recreational fisheries, according to a new research paper.

The researchers said that based on the monitoring of 137 streams between 2000 and 2005, DFO found 35 per cent of salmon runs in northern B.C. were classified as depressed. But an assessment based on 215 streams that included weak stocks rated 75 per cent of runs as depressed.

“The lack of information [fisheries managers have] is troubling,” said Misty MacDuffee, one of three biologists on the research team.

And during the 2000-2005 period, chum, sockeye and chinook runs failed to hit escapement targets up to 85 per cent of the time.
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OR salmon threatened by increased logging

Posted on December 3, 2008 | Leave a comment
The tough balance between logging and fishing continues along the Oregon coast. Killer whales aren’t even on the distant radar in this article…
clipped from www.oregonlive.com
Coastal salmon at center of forest debate

by Michael Milstein, The Oregonian
Tuesday December 02, 2008, 8:32 PM

TILLAMOOK — Five rivers pour into Tillamook Bay, and together they are among Oregon’s most important coastal rivers for salmon and steelhead. This is one of a few places where six different fish stocks return each year from the sea.

But the same rivers pour off state forestland that may soon face accelerated logging to provide struggling coastal counties with more timber revenue.

Although Tillamook’s salmon and steelhead have declined since early in the century from factors ranging from commercial fishing to land development, they remain some of the strongest on the coast. The fish are pushing their way up rivers to spawn now.

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Interim WDFW Director heads North of Falcon process

Posted on December 2, 2008 | 1 Comment
I’ve been wondering who herds the cats during the North of Falcon process. We orca advocates should start understanding and interacting with the process, ultimately so that the southern residents have a place at the table!
clipped from wdfw.wa.gov
December 01, 2008

Fish and Wildlife Commission
appoints interim WDFW director
OLYMPIA—In a special meeting today, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to accept the resignation of Jeffrey P. Koenings, Ph.D., from his position as director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), effective Dec. 11, and appointed Phil Anderson as interim department director.
Anderson has been the department’s deputy director for resource policy since July 2007. Anderson also serves as the department’s representative to the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC). In that role, Anderson heads up the North of Falcon process, which sets annual salmon-fishing seasons for marine waters including Puget Sound and the coast. Anderson is a resident of Westport who joined the WDFW staff in 1994.
The commission, a citizen body appointed by the governor, will begin a nation-wide search for a permanent WDFW director in 2009, according to Jerry Gutzwiler, commission chair.
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Out-going WDFW Director helped WA Chinook

Posted on December 2, 2008 | Leave a comment
While the new Treaty will almost surely be good for the southern residents, I remain uncertain about whether releasing wild salmon really works when they’re caught during openings that target hatchery fish.

“Under Koenings’ leadership, WDFW established many new sustainable fisheries that allow harvest of hatchery-produced fish while sparing wild salmon listed for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. He also led the department’s participation in a broad effort to reform state hatchery operations to support wild-fish recovery.”
clipped from wdfw.wa.gov
December 01, 2008

WDFW director resigns to pursue new challenges
OLYMPIA— After a decade of leadership in fostering scientific and collaborative management of state natural resources, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Director Jeff Koenings, Ph.D., has announced his resignation, effective Dec. 11.
Most recently, Koenings chaired negotiations on a new, 10-year chinook-harvest agreement under the Pacific Salmon Treaty, requiring British Columbia and Alaska to reduce harvest of Washington chinook by a million fish over the next 10 years. When implemented in 2009, the agreement will return many more wild salmon to state spawning grounds to take advantage of numerous estuary and freshwater habitat-restoration projects throughout the state.
Koenings’ 10-year career as WDFW director was the longest in the department’s history.
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