Coastal Watershed Institute

'What we're seeing is adaptation': scientists study influx of gray whales into Sitka Sound during herring spawn - KCAW Scientists are looking at the relationship between gray whales and herring around Sitka. The baleen whales have had a massive population decline in the past decade. But their presence in the Sitka Sound has skyrocketed in recent years, coinciding with the Pacific herring spawn. Now, scientists and c...

The Western Flyer, of Ed Ricketts and John Steinbeck’s Log from the Sea of Cortez has had a rough go. She’s just now-finally-in dry dock in Port Townsend where there have been a steady parade of admirers. Bad news-her current owner is intending to dismantle her and take the wheelhouse to his restaurant in Salinas. Pictures are attached. REALLY too bad that the boat that has FINALLY landed somewhere she can be appreciated, is now going to be taken apart. So many better uses for such a famous vessel…

Keven Bailey, noted fisheries scientist and author, is writing a book on the Flyer entitled Steinbeck’s Porthole: the Saga of the Western Flyer’ which is about the environmental history of Pacific coast fisheries. You can find him on Facebook. Eric Eno Tamm’s Book, Beyond the Outer Shores’ is a great account of Ed Ricketts work in Washington and northern BC waters: http://www.beyondtheoutershores.com/. And Jacilee Wray, ONP, includes an account of Ed Ricketts working with the Makah Tribe in Neah Bay in the ‘Tide is Out’ paper (http://www.coastalwatershedinstitute.org/media/When$20the$20Tide$20is$20Out.pdf).

The boat is on the south end of the dry dock in Port Townsend if you want to see it-make it sooner than later….