From PA to P to PT to PA agian!

Well, it has been a weekend of much driving and even less sleeping, but it has been quite great regardless! For those of you who are questioning my sanity (due no doubt to my title), I've just come back from PT (Port Townsend) and a extremely enjoyable evening lecture to the awesome people at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.

Driving up from Portland, I arrived in PT just as the sun began to set, affording me a great view of the sound as I arrived on the 'campus' so (as) to speak. As I would not be one to pass up such an opportunity, I managed to take a few pictures while there was still some daylight left. Soon it was time for the presentation to begin, so I made my way over to the presentation room, where I was met by Pam Grey, the conductor of this particular orchestration. Arriving in the room, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Pam and I would not be sharing the room with a scant few! No, the people of Port Townsend seemed well aware of my upcoming, somewhat pre-meditated lecture, and what was more were interested to hear what I had to say. This, of course, terrified me.


The fear was not long lived, however. As I began to talk I realized just how great it can be to have a captive audience that take there own time to come listen to what you have to say, instead of paying attention for a grade. This was extremely satisfying, and I know that it gave me the confidence to loosen up and talk to these interesting people about the Elwha, research and what it means to be a undergraduate researcher on the Olympic Peninsula. In the end cookies, turnips and oranges were pressed into my hands, I was lucky enough to get in an interview and was invited back again. And you know, I just may have to take them upon that: )

Lecture at the Port Townsend Marine Science Centre

Well, turns out that not just scientists are interested in science! Today I was given the pleasure of talking with a one Pam Grey who has invited me to come speak to her and her peers at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center about the research i have been conducting. Needless to say, this is an awsome opertunity for me to expand the awareness of the work we do on the Elwha, and also to see a part of the world that i have never been to before (albeit a very small part).

The lecture, entitled: Assessing Marine Salmon Abundance Using Marine Derived nitrogen signals and tree-ring-width in the Elwha River Watershed will be held on the 18th of this mouth in Port Townsend, and I certainly hope that I can be entertaining for two hours, which is the time that is now set aside for me! Wish me luck!

Don't Mess with Nature

Well it looks like the laws of science win agian! Last week the WDFW team did the last of our Sandlance spawn data collection. For those who are unaware of the intricacies of the Sandlance, Ammodytes hexapterus spawn from November 1st through Febuary 15th. needless to say it has been a cold month and a half. In any case, one of the most iteresting places that we sample, ecologically, are the Elwha buffs.

Years ago, when the Nippon paper industry moved into Port Angeles, they needed a ready supply of fresh water for there paper making needs. Any anyone could tell you, the most ready supply of fresh water around PA is the Elwha river. Figuring that mother nature could take one more for the team, Nippon Paper constructed a large cement pipe to funnel water from the Elwha to the plant (a distance of ~4 miles). The interesting thing about all this is that, in order to protect the plant, Nippon 'armored' the Elwha feeder bluffs with ripwrap (large block of rock) and sheet pile (large sheets of iron). The result of this is that the Elwha system is sediment starved due to the poor transfer of wave energy from shoreline to bluffs. It seems, however, that nature is beginning to have enough.

As can be seen from the picture, we came across a hole in the great Nippon pipe, proving that rocks and iron will only get you so far when defending against the straight of Juan de Fuca. long story short, the pipe is clearly eroding away, and it seems that the mentality that spawned it (hopefully) may not be far behind. Don't mess with mother nature.

The fish fight back and other thoughts

A new quarter! As anyone who is reading this probably is aware, it is a new quarter for us here in Port Angeles, and this means a whole host of new fun research! Right? Well... in actuality things have remained quite the same for Ben in the old PA; the world turns, the grass grows, the ocean is cold and violent at 9:00 am, and we, the WDFW team, are out in it.

A merry Christmas

Santa was good to me this year. Why? you ask. Knowing me, and you knowing that I know that you know me (get that?), it may come as no surprise that I am deserving of all the wonderful goodies that Santa brought this year: primarily among them a new GPS and a waterproof camera. In an effort to give back some of my good fortune (thank you Tif and parents: ) I spent this day in the surf taking a host of pictures for your viewing pleasure, including two beautiful striped sea perch, who stabbed me with there dorsal fins (picture also included). This leads to the tittle of this blog (sorta a stream of consciousness i know). As well, there are many a photo of our seining efforts, that, save the two vindictive perch, yielded no fish whatsoever. Perhaps the fish have migrated to more productive waters, perhaps the season is effecting their metabolism, requiring less furloughs to the near shore? For whatever reason, here's hopping for a more bountiful net next week; herring, smelt and salmon...hold the perch!

Shark attack

Yay for the end of a successful quarter! As a result, I took it upon myself to attack this shark ...in a video game...in honor of all the work we've done in the ocean : D.

One Big Sticklback

Well it has been a while since the last post, and its been a bit slow on the dendrchronological front. Waiting for a research proposal to be approved in the park has put my project effectively on hold, so my time has been taken up with Near-shore work. Recently, we sampled a off-shore habitat/estuary and managed to catch a Coho salmon measuring over 750 mm ! As can be seen from the picture, the adipose fin is still present, and the fish had no tag- so chances are very good that this particular find was a wild Coho! What was most interesting to me was that, historically (meaning the past few months) this particular body of water had hereto only contained hundreds of disgusting stickleback! My guess... this guy ate them all...mmmmmmm.

Ahhh...to poke a tree finally

Finally and after long last, the first tree has been poked! This Friday John and I went out to the Elwha fish hatchery, in lue of permitting issues, to make some headway in the Dendro REU project! With the sound of construction high over head from the replacement bridge going in, we rooted around for some big strapping conifer trees in witch to collect samples from. As the trip continued, we managed to find a big tree far enough away from the alders to get a decent sample, so we gave it a good poke! Using our know-how, muscle and plenty of WD-40, we cored this nice Douglas-Fir specimen near the west bank of the Elwha River. As can be seen from the picture, John is expertly coring the tree (the one with the cougar scratch, safe)- as I, ever lazy, am taking the picture: D The data that we collected will be used in conjunction with the Olympic National Park samples to construct a chronology based on the Marine Derived Nitrogen signal of the Elwha river and the prevalent climate conditions of the Olympic Peninsula. Sounds fun eh?