Category Archives: Uncategorized

This is an hour-long conversation about southern resident killer whales involving Dave Dix, Brad Hanson, and Robin Baird on KUOW’s weekday with Steve Sher.  With luck there will be similar conversations about the state of Puget Sound as we all digest the Puget Sound Partnship’s Draft Action Agenda – 06Nov2008.

clipped from www.kuow.org Orcas Dying in Puget Sound 11/06/2008 at 10:00 a.m. Seven orcas in the Puget Sound region are missing and are presumed dead. What happened? Did food become too scarce when the flow of Chinook slowed down, or is this a much bigger problem? Also, a local agency releases a report on the state of the Sound today. What are the biggest problems in Puget Sound and what can we do to save it? KUOW does not endorse nor control the content viewed on these links as they appear now or in the future. Days/Months the Orcas Have Been Detected in Puget Sound ‘List of killer whales missing from Puget Sound,’ AP ‘Are the orcas starving?’ The Seattle P-I Puget Sound Partnership The Center for Whale Research’s 2008 ‘Orca Survey’ Encounters and Reports Killer Whale Diet Research

Live blog of a talk entitled “Managing Puget Sound’s Groundfish Resources from the Bottom Up“ by Wayne Palsson at NWFSC

11:00 Background/motivation

28 species of rockfish, but poor habitat maps (compared with spotted owls, say)

Decline of groundfish like Pacific Cod in south Puget Sound has been prominent in last 10-15 years. Walleye pollock is endangered; 18 species were covered in ESA petitions in 1999. Many PS species are vulnerable.  Copper and quillback petition was judged not warranted in 2006.  2007 petitions are pending for ~5 species.

Lingcod is an exception.  North and south populations have been increasing since about 1995.  Fisheries were restricted ~1990 after overfishing in late 70’s and early 80’s (big drop in catch/trip in 84-85).

11;17 History of habitat studies:

• Miller mid-1970s — nearshore habitat surveys
• Moulton 1977
• Cross 1991, Rocky intertidal
• Becker 1984, English sole
• Richards 86-87, depth substrate, relief (sub-based?)
• Matthews, 1990abc, rockfish, telemetry
• Murie, 1994, depth, complexity, wall

Rockfish, lingcod, greenling are associated with boulders and walls

Null hypotheses:

1. Fish are randomly distributed
2. Distributions are independent of: depth, substrate, slope, complexity, water quality, time, light, food, life stage

11:23 Showed map of continuous bathymetry map in a GIS for all PS, N to Pt. Roberts, and offshore to about outer boundary of Sanctuary

11:24 Bottom trawl surveys (since 1987, ~only in springtime) yield maps with consistent coverage that gets sparse only in SJdF and Georgia Strai [~200 trawls in San Juan Islands since 2001; about 130 are within uniform substrate areas)

• Starry flounder associated with shallower water
• Some English sole in S Haro Strait
• Three geographic groups of similar species: Western Strait of Juan de Fuca, N Puget Sound, and S Puget Sound
• Depth patterns:  Dover, Hake, Skate are deep species > 120 fathoms; Dogfish and English sole are at all depths
• Substrate patterns (based on Gary Greene’s multibeam data):
  • flathead sole characteristic of deep mud stations
• ROV surveys in San Juan Channel (58 in 2004; 70+ in 2005) reveal:
  • rockfish like rocks (especially copper and quillback), so do lingcod and greenling

11:43 Drop camera results (consistent with ROV results)

Philip Block got substrate maps out of NOAA, but still have need for better seafloor maps in the Salish Sea…

11:47 Conclusions: managing from the bottom up

200-300 ROV transects in the San Juans happening now!

11:49 Questions

1. seasonality? is a factor, but we’ve not looked for it yet
2. what are threats to sub-tidal habitats?  Not clear what really matters, but likely factors are trawling and climate change
3. Recreational fishing is a threat to rockfish populations (see recent stock assessment)
4. What’s controlling population structure?  Fishing, climate change, marine mammal predation… We can probably recover from all these… Ling cod are now dominant biomass at Edmonds.

12:01 end

Notes on a talk by Sue Moore entitled “Marine Mammals: Insight to climate change through surveys and song” at UW (16:00-16:45)

Overarching question: are grey whales a sentinel species to climate change in the Arctic and North Pacific?

Polar bears now expected to be down 30% by 2050.

Arctic ice down 3Mkm^2 from 7M.  10x increase in walrus haul-out on land in Russia in 2007.

Grey whales

• ~18-10k whales (delisted in 1992)
• 99-00 mortality event was a puzzle (post 97-98 El Nino)
• 1967 abundance estimates (3%/yr, steady until event)
• Six observations tell a story
  1. 1 week delay after ’78 NPAC shift (Rugh et al., 2001)
  2. calving increases in years after ‘early’ ice-free Chirikov Basin (Perryman et al., 2002) — due to early access to feeding in Chirikov
  3. fewer calves in lagoons after ’98 El nino (Urban et al.); more calves sighted off S CA…
  4. Surveys in 2002 vs 81-85, 17x drop in central Chirikov, but many 100s further north in Chukchi Sea (Moore et al, 2003)
  5. 10-100s of greys feeding year round offshore Kodiak Island, AK (Kate Wynne)
  6. ARPS recorded grey whale calls through the winter (Bioscience cover; Moore et al., 2006; Stafford et al., 2007)
• Acoustic tools: HARP and SeaGlider
• Kristin Laidre recorded bowhead whales song in March with sonobuoy (main period of conception)

1986: Feeding ecology of the killer whale (4.4Mb)
“Feeding ecology of the killer whale (Orcinus orca)” by Fred Felleman. A Masters thesis (177 pages) from the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington.

1988: Association patterns and social dynamics in greater Puget Sound (3.4Mb)
“Association patterns and social dynamics of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in greater Puget Sound” by Sara Heimlich-Boran. A Masters thesis (98 pages) from San Jose State University.

1999: A historical ecology of Salish Sea “resident” killer whales (2.9Mb)
“A historical ecology of Salish Sea ‘resident’ killer whales (Orcinus orca) with implications for management” by Rich Osborne. A doctoral thesis (262 pages) from the Department of Geography, University of Victoria.

2000: Northern resident noise compensation (1.5Mb)
“Analysis of the vocalizations of Orcinus orca in response to anthropogenic noise” by Carolyn Talus. A masters thesis (139 pages) from University of Alaska Fairbanks that analyzes northern resident call frequency and rates.

2005: Correlates of variability in killer whale stereotyped call repertoires (3.2Mb)
“Correlates of variability in killer whale stereotyped call repertoires” by Andrew Foote. A masters thesis (137 pages) from the University of Durham.

2006: Distribution and population of southern resident orcas and Pacific salmon (3.0Mb)
“Space Use Patterns and Population Trends of Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) in Relation to Distribution and Abundance of Pacific Salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) in the Inland Marine Waters of Washington State and British Columbia” by Shannon McCluskey. A masters thesis (184 pages) from the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington.

2006: Summer space use of southern residents (7.3Mb)
“Summer space use of Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) within Washington and British Columbia inshore waters” by Donna Hauser. A masters thesis (130 pages) from the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington.

2007: Repertoire usage of Southern Residents (12.6Mb)
“Repertoire Usage of the Southern Resident Community of Killer Whales (Orcinus orca)” by Monika Wieland. An undergraduate thesis (88 pages) from Reed College.

2008: Social behavior and ecology of southern residents (5.3Mb)
“Social behavior and ecology of southern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca)” by Jennifer Marsh.  A doctoral thesis (113 pages) from the University of Washington Department of Psychology.

Theses

Masters and PhD theses related to orcas and their ecosystem(s).

2002: Do orcas use symbols? (208K)

An online treatise by Howard Garrett positing that the theory of symbolic interactionism may help account for the divergent and complex cultural traditions found in sympatric orca populations. (October, 2002; 15 page PDF.)

2005: Proposed conservation plan for southern residents (NOAA) (1.1M)

October, 2005 draft of the “Proposed Conservation Plan for Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca)” by National Marine Fisheries Service, Northwest Regional Office (183 pages). Delineates actions that the best available science indicates are required to conserve and protect the species. Source: NOAA Conservation planning page for Puget Sound orcas.

Here’s my first attempt at live-blogging… 8:40-9:20 a.m. from the University of Washington’s Water Seminar.

8:40 Key findings of his and Lisa Stiffler’s investigation of the Duwamish estuary:

1. Pollution is historic an ongoing; diversity is down; everyone is contributing to the problem (e.g. run-off)
2. Some chemicals lethal; some not (Cu not good for young salmon; first run-off flush in fall was toxic enough to kill spawning adults)
3. Super-fund sites are not all cleaned up!  There are 900 pollution permits in the Sound; many permits are expired; PCBs are still released (e.g. by Naval Shipyard in Bremerton); State Parks and small towns are worst violators (e.g. Blake Island was dumping raw sewage — now fixed)
4. PCB contamination: Chinook with most PCBs were found in Duwamish, Nisqually, and Sinclair inlet.

8:50 aside: Storm water can be controlled.  There was a nice retrofit of a residential street in N Seattle with “rain gardens.”  Vulcan development near Seattle REI will soon demonstrate swales as a way to filter run-off before it reaches Lake Union.

8:53 Duwamish

1. Used to be agricultural area supplying Pike Place market with vegetables, etc.
2. Industrialization led to multiple super-fund sites being defined in the lower Duwamish.
3. With Colin McDonald, Robert did a series on Duwamish in preparation for the remedial study (Nov 29, 2007).  This was last opportunity for public comment on polluters’ perception of the problems — King County, City of Seattle, Boeing, etc.  Concluded they were probably underestimating impacts on some of the animals and tried to articulate it in common language — “concepts were complicated, but otter penises are easy to understand.”

9:00 Robert’s main information sources

1. Governmental reports (NOAA/NMFS, EPA)
2. Responses to his requests for information releases
3. Talking to people (Government doesn’t always listen): example of Port of Seattle and moon suit examination of a site that was subsequently taken off the market

9:03 Overall message from polluters: It’s going to be too expensive!

1. Some cleanup will happen
2. But getting clean enough for people to eat fish may not be palatable to public (extra $400 million to get further than the plateau of the curve — cost vs cleanliness.

9:05 Takes questions:

1. Is State providing non-English speaker reasonable access to the process?  Not really, though the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition (DRCC) is a possible mechanism.
2. What are cleanup methods and how will recovery be established?  Many pollutants are in sediments that need to be dug up and treated/sequestered.  Hot spots like the Duwamish Diagonal were dredged (too fast, too sloppily), but pollution was spread around…
3. Are your articles edited/censored?  Not censorship; big stories can get a lot of feedback/iterations, but editing can be very light if there is a quick deadline.  One concern is losing advertisers to stories that impact key businesses.
4. How long does it take to write these articles: hours for quick ones (e.g. today’s article on NMFS moratorium on building in flood plains), many days for big projects.
5. How did you get into journalism?  In 8th grade journalism class, Robert argued for a smoking area across from School and was encouraged by his teacher who was vehemently anti-smoking.
6. How do you settle on a subject when there are so many issues?  The blog helps us comment quickly on minor news (e.g. press releases).  We interview and investigate for stories in the paper.
7. Do you have formal environmental training?  Fellowship at U Michigan.  Before that it was highschool chemistry.  Society of Environmental Journalists is a very helpful resource; they have a great listserve that can be a very responsive source of expertise.
8. Have you felt like you had a powerful influence on public awareness or an issue?  I wrote early and often about Everglades restoration and it’s now one of the biggest efforts in the world.  I think I’ve helped catalyze local cleanup, like the creation of the Puget Sound Partnership.
9. Are scientists hard to work with?  Yeah, many journalists weren’t interested in math/science in school., but I really like hanging out with scientists.