More marine debris washes up on some beaches than others due to local current patterns. Kamilo Beach, Island of Hawai`i, is such a place, presenting a constant challenge to local community groups who strive to keep it clean. Photo courtesy of Algalita Marine Research Institute.
A Tsunami of Trash. The rate of marine debris washing up on North American shores increased tenfold after the 2011 Japanese tsunami
VICTORIA, British Columbia
An estimated five million tonnes of debris was swept out to sea during Japan’s 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami—five million tonnes of houses, cars, boats, fishing gear, shipping containers, and other materials. It was a catastrophic loss of property to add to the 18,500 dead. But where did all of this debris go? Beachcombers along the west coast of Canada and the United States reported finding fishing equipment, crates, and even whole boats in the years after the tragedy, but no one knew exactly how much had washed ashore. Now, a new study has found that the tsunami increased marine debris along North American coastlines by ten times.
Like other communities, Hawai‘i was largely unprepared for the tsunami debris, which included more than 60 Japanese fishing vessels. The state had to remove and dispose of the items, but also be on the lookout for potential invasive species. Moy recalls investigating a jet ski picked up on a Hawai‘ian beach that was full of mussels, clams, and even a crab. “It was like a little Noah’s ark traveling across the Pacific,” she says.
State salmon managers project poor returns of several salmon stocks are expected to limit fishing opportunities in Washington’s waters this year
OLYMPIA, Washington
Forecasts for chinook, coho, sockeye, and chum salmon – developed by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and treaty Indian tribes – were released during a public meeting in Olympia.
The forecast meeting marks the starting point for crafting 2018 salmon-fishing seasons in Puget Sound, the Columbia River and Washington coastal areas. The annual salmon season-setting process is known as “North of Falcon.” Fishery managers have scheduled a series of public meetings through early April before finalizing seasons later that month.
Kyle Adicks, salmon policy lead for WDFW, said numerous salmon runs are expected to be lower this year compared to last season, including several key chinook and coho stocks. As a result, a number of fishing opportunities from Puget Sound south to the Columbia River will likely be restricted.
An unfrozen North. The world’s permafrost holds vast stores of carbon. What happens when it thaws?
by J. Madeleine Nash / High Country News / February 19, 2018
PAONIA, Colorado
Like a giant dragonfly, the chopper skims over undulating swaths of tussocky tundra, then touches down at Wolverine Lake, one of a swarm of kettle lakes near the Toolik Field Station on Alaska’s North Slope. Even before the blades stop spinning, Rose Cory, an aquatic geochemist from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, gracefully swings to the ground and beelines to the spot where, four years ago, a subterranean block of ice began to melt, causing the steep, sloping bank to slump into the water. The lake throws back a somber reflection of the clouds swirling above, its surface riffled by the wind.
Cory has brought me here because the slump provides a vivid example of the ordinarily inaccessible stuff she studies. Slick with meltwater, the chocolaty goop brims with microscopic bits of once-living things that have not touched sunlight or air or flowing water for centuries, perhaps millennia. Deeper still lie plant and animal remains that could be tens of thousands of years old, dating back to the Pleistocene, when steppe bison and woolly mammoths wandered a treeless region that extended from here across the Bering Land Bridge, all the way to Siberia.
Recreational fishing an economic engine
NOAA Headquarters: SILVER SPRING, Maryland
Saltwater recreational fishing is an American pastime, conservation contributor, and important economic driver nationwide. Millions of Americans access the great outdoors through recreational fishing each year, strengthening families, friendships, and communities while contributing $63 billion in sales impacts and $36 billion in gross domestic product each year to the national economy. Saltwater recreational fisheries are crucial for introducing and connecting the next generation to the natural world while simultaneously presenting complex stewardship challenges, including balancing ecosystem conservation with social and economic benefits for the nation.
Bass Pro Shops Offers Severance Packages to Employees at Cabela’s Headquarters in Sidney
SIIDNEY, Nebraska
It’s a sad reality that so many fantastic Cabela’s employees are losing their jobs in this purchase by Bass Pro Shops, but credit must be given to Bass Pro Shops’ owner Johnny Morris. It appears he’s doing everything in his power to provide departing workers substantial severance packages.
The remaining employees at Cabela’s former headquarters in Sidney, Nebraska, have until March 1 to accept their severance packages, which were offered in a letter to employees last week.
Reckoning with History: The Antiquities Act quandary
by Adam M. Sowards / High Country News / February 22, 2018
PAONIA, Colorado
The Antiquities Act law has created constant tension between the executive and legislative branches.
Reckoning with History is an ongoing series that seeks to understand the legacies of the past and to put the West’s present moment in perspective.
“Ambition must be made to counteract ambition,” Madison wrote to explain balancing branches of government. “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” Congress did this for Alaska and Wyoming, but its monumental inability to legislate on environmental matters today has created a surge in the use of executive power, which fills the vacuum left by congressional gridlock. And this produces uncertainty, both for local land users and our system of government. While the balance of powers has been fundamental to American democracy, the practice of one president rescinding the monuments of another is surely not the system Madison intended to create.
