Featured News Item

Reauthorization of the Northwest Straits Commission

On July 31, a bill to reauthorize the Northwest Straits Commission was introduced in the US Senate and House of Representative by sponsors Senator Patty Murray and Congressman Rick Larsen. The bill recognizes the existing structure of the Commission and seven Marine Resources Committees and would provide rationale and authorization for future funding of the Commission. Congress is currently on August recess and is not expected to act on the bill until sometime after elections. Click here to see the press release.

Other News

Abalone Outreach Project Gets a Boost!

The Commission has been working with WDFW, the University of Washington and other partners on a project to educate divers about declining pinto abalone populations. We have developed an informational website, pintoabalone.org, and paid the cost of printing educational posters that are up in dive shops and aboard Washington State Ferries. Jordan Watson, who designed the abalone poster, was recently hired by the Puget Sound Restoration Fund to expand abalone outreach activities. This is great news for the Commission; we’re working closely with Jordan to update web materials on pintoabalone.org and plan future projects. If you’d like to reach Jordan to hear more about his activities, shoot him an email at Jordan.t.watson@gmail.com.

“Straits” vs. “Straights”

Would you have thought that every month someone searches online for “northwest straights”? Each month Northwest Straits Commission staff pulls a report on the usage of our web site, and sure enough – there it is under search terms every month! The tools for tracking site usage have improved greatly over the years. Some interesting trends emerge over time: our site has an almost even split between new users and returning visitors; traffic to our site is now balanced almost equally between links from other sites (referrals), direct traffic (bookmarks) and search engine traffic. We use the information gathered from these statistics to update our site to meet the needs of our users. Check out our recent page on the difference between “straits” and “straights”.

Member Spotlight

Kirby Johnson, Snohomish MRC

Kirby Johnson is a charter member of the Snohomish MRC. An avid diver, he was stopping in at a dive shop on his way home from the Edmonds Underwater Park one Saturday when the flyer looking for members caught his eye.

Snohomish was the last of the seven MRCs to get started, and Kirby remembers feeling both impressed and discouraged at some of the early meetings. He could see it would take a while for the MRC to be a cohesive group that could get things done, but the other MRCs were already providing amazing examples of what could be done.

In his day job, Kirby is an engineer at Boeing who takes a day every few weeks to volunteer at the Seattle Aquarium, where he enjoys teaching the next generation about the marine world. His engineering mindset gives him a collaborative approach to problem solving that he has found useful as a Marine Resources Committee member.

As a representative of recreational interests, Kirby has watched over the years as access to shoreline areas has decreased and high quality dive sites are lost. He sees opportunities to bring in engineering expertise to solve some of the problems of the railroad along the shoreline, and wants to work on keeping a good balance between protecting marine areas while still making sure that people are able to use and enjoy them.

Over the years, Snohomish MRC and the Northwest Straits Commission have benefited from Kirby’s insightful nature. Kirby’s time on the MRC will come to an end this December, when his final term expires. He’s still got a lot of ideas and passion for the work of the MRC and Commission, so it is likely we will continue to cross paths with him.

Marine Resources Committee Happenings

Island County up and Running with Beach Watcher Eelgrass Surveys

Earlier this year, Island MRC and Island Beach Watchers partnered on a project to purchase equipment and train volunteers to conduct state-of-the-art eelgrass video surveys. Jan Holmes, Don Meehan, Ken Urstad, and Neil Clark presented the early results of their work to the Commission during July’s meeting in Coupeville.

The project so far has been a complete success—with the University of Washington and Department of Natural Resources working closely with the Beach Watchers team to provide technical support. The eelgrass survey equipment consists of a camera enclosed in a water-tight case hooked into a GPS transponder. Video is encoded with GPS data so that imagery can be geo-referenced using GIS software. This system, called “Red Hen” is also being used by Clallam MRC to conduct a vessel-based video survey of key reaches of the Clallam County shoreline.

The success of this project depends on highly dedicated Beach Watcher volunteers. Vessel time, survey time, and data processing are all accomplished by volunteers, with guidance from Department of Natural Resources and the University of Washington. With this new capability, Island MRC can now plan and execute eel grass and other benthic surveys with minimal operational costs. Large-scale projects will still require the work of skilled contractors, but the MRC and Beach Watchers can now complete work on those projects that might fall through the cracks, and on their own schedule.

For more information on this project, contact Sarah Martin at Island County Beach Watchers.

Northwest Straits Commission Highlights

Northwest Straits Strategic Plan is Approved

The Commission adopted the strategic plan at the July meeting in Coupeville. The strategic plan is a living document and will be reviewed at a Commission meeting every six months.

Committee Happenings

Taking the Next Step with Forage Fish

Marine Resource Committees have been instrumental in helping to identify and protect beaches where there is evidence of spawning by Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes hexapterus) and surf smelt (Hypomesus pretiosus), key forage fish for some Puget Sound fish, birds and mammals. In this effort, many beaches were sampled where no evidence of spawning was found, with the result that the beach could not be protected under current Washington Hydraulic Code Rules. Furthermore, there are potential spawning beaches that have never been surveyed.

Identifying forage fish spawning beaches by searching for eggs can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, current law requires documentation that fish are spawning on a beach before the beach can be protected under Washington Hydraulic Code Rules. Therefore, it is highly likely that only a fraction of the actual spawning beaches are eligible for protection under the HCRs. Changes in habitat availability that will accompany sea level rise have not been considered.

The Northwest Straits Commission will build on existing MRC survey data and other data to 1) identify the full set of habitats currently suitable for forage fish spawning in the seven-county Northwest Straits region, and 2) identify changes in habitat availability that are likely to accompany sea level rise. Data will be used by the Commission and MRCs to assess gaps in protection for important potential forage fish habitat.

These findings will allow the Commission and Northwest Straits counties to work with the Puget Sound Partnership, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, State Legislators and other groups to craft policies that protect the full range of forage fish spawning habitat. Additionally, it will provide MRCs with information to guide beach protection and restoration in light of changing climate and expected changes in sea level.

On the Horizon

KIRO’s Puget Sound Series

On July 25 we took KIRO television reporter Chris Egert out on a derelict fishing net removal operation. Chris brought along a cameraman who is also a diver. We headed out from Shilshole marina and removed 5 nets just north of Elliot Bay and they filmed at least one net underwater before removal and then filmed the removal process from the boat. KIRO is working on a series on Puget Sound that will air this fall. Our derelict fishing gear removal project will be part of the series. We’ll let you know when you can tune into the series – sounds like sometime in November.

Island and Snohomish MRCs have Joint Meeting

Snohomish and Island county MRCs will be holding a joint meeting and potluck on August 19 at Clinton Beach.

Bulletin Board

2008 Conference Registration

Have you registered for the 2008 MRC Conference? If you did not receive an email about registration or if you have questions please contact Connie at 360-428-1064.