Although an official census report is not due until October, it appears that the population of our southern resident killer whales has increased by one over the past year. That slight increase is the net result of four births and three deaths, according to the Center for Whale Research, which is responsible for the annual […]
July 7, 2025
A photographic tour of the entire Puget Sound shoreline by watercraft and aircraft
Kayaker-scientist Brian Footen is back on the waters of Puget Sound this summer, paddling through inlets and circling islands on a 2,700-mile journey to photograph the shoreline and document natural and human-caused changes to the habitat. This state-funded project is Brian’s second photographic trip along the sinuous shoreline throughout the entirety of the Sound, from […]
June 12, 2025
Low oxygen challenge, part 4: Many actions may be needed to improve Puget Sound waters
A grand plan to reduce human sources of nitrogen in Puget Sound started coming into focus in 2019 when the issue of regulations reached a decisive point. After years of study and advances in computer modeling, experts at the Washington Department of Ecology were beginning to see what it would take to reduce human sources […]
June 12, 2025
Low oxygen challenge, part 3: Computer models spell out the extent of the water-quality problem
After more than eight years of study amid ongoing discussions, the Washington Department of Ecology has made public a far-reaching plan for reducing human sources of nitrogen that contribute to the destructive low-oxygen conditions in Puget Sound. The plan, called the Puget Sound Nutrient Reduction Plan, calls for reductions in nitrogen from sewage-treatment plants, agricultural […]
June 12, 2025
Low oxygen challenge, part 2: Water-cleanup plans and the search for ‘reasonable’ actions
On a clear autumn day, the blue waters of Budd Inlet reflect the distant snow-capped Olympic Mountains. From the water’s surface, nobody can tell if low-oxygen conditions might be lurking below, as they often do, creating a stressful or even deadly environment for sea life. The fact that beauty can disguise the harsh reality of […]
June 12, 2025
Low oxygen challenge, part 1: The debate over oxygen in Puget Sound
In Puget Sound, low oxygen levels are a proven threat to marine creatures, from fish to shellfish and even tiny organisms. This threat has long been recognized by scientists — particularly within slow-flushing bays and inlets where low levels of dissolved oxygen can impair sea life and occasionally create deadly conditions in late summer and […]
April 29, 2025
New law requires sewage spills to be revealed to the public through a new statewide website
Mindy Roberts of Washington Conservation Action said someone asked her a few years ago about the frequent sewage spills occurring in Tacoma’s Thea Foss Waterway. “My answer was, ‘What sewage spills?’” Mindy recalled, quickly realizing that if she didn’t know about sewage spills in her own city, then hardly anybody else was likely to know […]
April 17, 2025
Eating fish: Court order may end the battle over toxic standards in Washington state waters
It appears that a decade-long battle to establish allowable levels of toxic chemicals in Washington state’s waterways may finally be over. Strict toxic standards, first imposed on the state in 2016 by the Environmental Protection Agency, seem to have prevailed. Primary chemicals of concern in the long battle over human health criteria include polychlorinated biphenyls, […]
April 7, 2025
Research and whale watching enhanced with artificial intelligence to identify individual orcas
When out on Puget Sound with killer whale experts, I’m often impressed by how quickly such folks can identify individual whales by name or number, even when a group of orcas is swimming a fair distance away. I can’t begin to do that, because I have never studied the catalogs of dorsal fins and markings […]
December 16, 2024
Protecting the health of people who eat fish: The long battle over water quality standards
Culminating more than a decade of fierce debate, Washington state officials formally adopted new water-quality standards for toxic chemicals to protect the health of people who eat fish from our local waterways. On its face, this action appears inconsequential, considering that these numerical criteria were already in place, having been imposed two years ago by […]