I may be starting to enjoy posters...

A few posts back I took the opportunity to poke some fun at one of the three legs of the scientists communication "stool". The poster is a much used tool - sort of like the first step in communicating progress or results of a study. Yesterday I presented my second poster at a conference in Washington...but I wasn't there. My co-author, a student from Peninsula College (also a boat-driver for the US Coast Guard) stood at the poster and reported that people were interested in the work. Always good to hear. Though to be honest he thought the interest was more in the method (putting RFID tags into rocks) than in the sedimentological ramifications of our research. Oh well - I totally get it.

Elwha Dam Removal - Getting Closer

This article appeared five days ago in the Seattle P.I. I've been tracking this story since moving to the peninsula in 1997, and I feel I've gone old and crusty with it, even though I am a relatively newbie to the scene. I can't even imagine how those that have really put their careers into this must feel at this point. I sort of think that it must be some profound sense of exhaustion, with almost equal parts suspicion (can it really happen, after all of this time?) and elation. I imagine that when the first chunk comes out they might all just get together and have a big weeping session somewhere.

A tale of two lighthouses

It somehow gives me comfort whenever i find tangible connections between Santa Cruz and Port Angeles. Santa Cruz is an incredibly nice place, and continues to grow on me, but I really do miss the Olympic Peninsula. Today we went for a Sunday drive (a relatively new diversion that is a function of both having a new baby, and having grandma in tow. Kind of limits the options) along the coast north of Santa Cruz. We stopped at the Pigeon Point lighthouse, where I happened upon and bought a book by local historian Frank Perry about Lighthouse Point in Santa Cruz. Now that I am a westsider, I spend a considerable amount of time starting up at the light house while surfing along the bluffs of steamer lane. The lighthouse that currently occupies the point is not the original, but it does mark the area where the original lighthouse once stood (Well, almost. Where the original lighthouse once stood is now over water. cliff erosion is a killer that way). When the Santa Cruz lighthouse was built in 1868, every effort was made to save money in its construction - including recycling the design from another, recently built lighthouse. And the design picked? You guessed - the lighthouse on Ediz Hook, built in 1865.

Both lighthouse are now gone. The one in Santa Cruz was dismantled by some local contractors, I think in the 60's, and parts were used in their various projects. The Ediz Hook lighthouse was moved - to 3rd and Albert in Port Angeles. According to Frank Perry, they were the only two of their design built...one in Santa Cruz, and one in Port Angeles.

So the photos - the first photo is the one in Santa Cruz, the bottom two the Ediz Hook lighthouse back in the day, and its current manifestation as a residence...

Where coastal geology and maritime history meet...

In beautiful Grayland, WA in fact...



I find myself enthralled by stories like this one precisely because they offer so much of interest. They tell a story of coastal accretion and retreat that extends well beyond most of our lifetimes AND most of our records. In this case, it is a reminder that a section of coast that is deemed relentlessly and chronically erosive wasn't always so. It took some serious and prolonged accretion to bury this boat. Where did all of that material come from and, most importantly, why did the pattern of accretion change over time?

This story, though, is also one of shipwreck, which is always a topic to engage any self-respecting coast nerd. As of right now, the actual identity of this boat is still to be determined, but some 80+ years ago the loss of this ship, no doubt, factored heavily into the lives of some people. Stories were woven and lost, but may now be re-told...

Aquatic Erratics as Refugia

I've spent the past few days going through data, photos and videos from our 2008 dive surveys at Elwha in preparation for a planned USGS report. I've been struck by the role that relief - in the form of reef or boulders - seems to play in enhancing diversity and supporting life. The example shown here is from an area to the east of the river mouth - a region characterized by fairly expansive plains of mixed sediment (shown in the photos) and decreased densities of large invertebrates and algae. Boulders are also rare to the east of the river mouth, but where they do occur they seem to act as islands for the variety of organisms that are somehow reliant on the hard surface, stability or shelter they provide.

The video is a stark example of this. We came across a large boulder in the middle of this plain of mixed small sediment, which was encrusted with kelps and invertebrates (including the giant barnacle, Balanus nubilis). A little cave under the boulder seemed a perfect shelter for a Giant Pacific Octopus, and sure enough there was one in there. The video is poor, but you can make out the mantle and siphon of this mid-size octopus.

"I was gobsmacked!"

So this is a pretty cool story in and of itself for those of the coast nerd variety. What really caught my eye, though was the absolutely wonderful use of the phrase, "I was gobsmacked" by Aussie research biologist Julian Finn. Finn was talking of observing an octopus collecting and transporting coconut shells for later use as shelter. Doesn't seem like much to get too gobsmacked about until you recall that Octopi are molluscs. This only adds to the reputation of octopi as being the smartest invertebrate in the class. They probably have to hide in coconut shells only because they are routinely bullied by the dumber invertebrates in the ocean.

Anyhow, I am presenting tomorrow at a conference in San Francisco, and will definitely be thinking hard today on how to work the phrase, "I was gobsmacked!" into my talk. I love it.

Thank YOU Russell, Dan and Donna!

Look at that hydrograph. Its been a pretty impressive run of high flow at Elwha over the last week or so.

Since August I've been working with a group of students from Port Angeles to track samples of RFID tagged cobbles over an entire year. Which means that while I'm sitting here in my cofortable office in Santa Cruz they are out for the winter low tides on the Elwha Delta, getting real wet and real cold. So this is the next in what will be an on-going series of thank yous to Russell Means, Dan Brooks and Donna Stanly for braving the PNW winter, all to track some rocks. Science is a funny pursuit that way.

Attached is a photo that Russell shot on the 21st of November, looking west from a vantage point on the east side of the river mouth. You can see just the tiny top of a bar that has grown across the mouth over the last year or two. During most of the summer and fall that bar was a full size island - just to give some sense of what these high flows mean. I'm just conjecturing, but it sure looks like the river channel to the east of that bar has widened over this series of high flows and storms. I think the river is set to shift over to a new channel...