Orcasphere

I recently learned about a new initiative that is wirelessly networking environmental sensors on buoys around the Salish Sea.  Developed by a wireless company called Intellicheck/Mobilisa in Port Townsend, most of the buoys provide real-time weather data, video, and/or surface water measurements.  The NPB-1 buoy, however, offers real-time profile data from north-central Puget Sound (temperature, [...]

Yesterday the U.S. Global Research Program announced the publication of a report that summarizes the science and the impacts of climate change on the United States. The chapter on the Pacific Northwest is ominous reading for salmon and orcas. Two disconcerting predictions are: because precipitation is shifting from snow to rain, peak river flow is [...]

Pete for Steve Rafferty, epidemiological and pathologic findings Only 10/81 confirmed SR deaths and 4/142 of NR were beach cast and available for post-mortem examination.  Infectious pneumonia is most common reported cause of mortality (60% of those necropsied).  We now have a standardized protocol for doing necropsies (available at http://seadocsociety.org)  Since 2002, Steve and Joe [...]

Just got an exciting email from Dr. Marla Holt, bioacoustician on the NOAA cruise that aims to understand how the southern residents utilize the outer coast of Washington. They departed last Monday and are scheduled to return April 9th, making for a significantly longer cruise than in past years. Since big ocean-going research boats like [...]

I usually say that 20 ships per day transit Haro Strait, but this is the first time I’ve seen a sound budget estimate from Jeff Nystuen’s data. This article quotes him as saying that ships dominate the sound budget, making noise about 60% of the time his PALs were deployed. That’s pretty consistent with 20 [...]

Not sure what this means for southern residents and funding for their researchers, but this is surely good news for beaked whales, as well as killer whales when they may transit Navy training areas in the Salish Sea or off the Washington coast. Thanks to Val Veirs for the tip on this press release. clipped [...]

This is a pretty general treatment of endangered species with a nice from-the-field synopsis of prey/fecal sampling by KUOW intern Irene Naguchi, but it didn’t deliver what I expected — new information derived from the fecal sampling. The main news I caught from Brad was that they, Ken, and Mark haven’t noted any new calves [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]