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Stormwater Monitoring Season is Here! 

 

Autumn 2022 starts our second two-year stormwater sampling campaign. This time with a twist: new citizen scientists in three more cities will be monitoring city stormwater outfalls in addition to continuing our work in Anacortes. Oak Harbor, Mukilteo, and Edmonds are now part of the expanded monitoring work that Friends of Skagit Beaches is leading in the North Sound. 

20221008 104425 1000226 1K smThis work is funded by a grant from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundations’ Southern Resident Killer Whale Conservation Program for the purpose of improving habitat, food sources, and conducting research to support recovery of the Southern Resident Orca population within our region. The grant covers the costs for volunteer coordination, recruiting, training, equipping, and managing the data captured by our volunteers.

During the summer of 2022 Friends established a partnership with the Snohomish County Beach Watcher program and the Sound Waters Stewards on Whidbey Island to connect to eager citizen science volunteers in their programs.  We recruited, trained, and equipped volunteers in Oak Harbor, Mukilteo, and Edmonds, as well as new volunteers for Anacortes. All three groups of eager volunteers are ready to get down to the beach and sometimes even in the water (photo left) to sample and take monitoring measurements. 20211115 102742 1022691 1Kpix

This volunteer effort addresses a shortcoming in our federal Clean Water Act: no required periodic monitoring of stormwater outfall pipes. Local towns would have difficulty in financially supporting the manpower and equipment costs for this activity. That’s where Friends of Skagit Beaches and our citizen science volunteers come to the rescue . . .

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Rockfish

Rockfish

In Puget Sound there are 36 different Rockfish species, and worldwide there are 100 different types of this creature that is popular with fishermen. Each type has its own shape, size, and color. What Rockfish have in common is big heads with large eyes, broad down-turned mouths, and bony plates covering the head and body. They also sport mildly poisonous spines whose sting causes swelling, burning pain and fever.

As you might expect, Rockfish usually live near rocks, in various habitats and depths down to 9,000 feet. An air bladder helps them float by adjusting the fish's weight, keeping it from rising or sinking too much and being injured by changing pressure. When fishermen catch Rockfish in deep water and reel them to the surface too quickly the fish can't equalize their air bladder pressure and die. There's no catch-and-release with Rockfish.

These creatures grow slowly and live long. In fact, the Rough-eye Rockfish, whose life can exceed 200 years, may be the longest-lived fish on earth. Female Rockfish give birth to live young the size of eye lashes. They don't reach maturity until they're 20, which makes them vulnerable to overfishing. Another problem Rockfish face is that many are homebodies spending their entire long lives in a small area. It takes many decades for Rockfish to re-colonize good habitat once they're fished out.

Fishing pressure, both commercial and for sport, and habitat loss have caused rockfish populations to plummet. Some have declined 98%, and species such as the Yellow-eye Rockfish are federally listed as threatened with extinction. You can help Rockfish by protecting their habitat, carefully following fishing regulations, and choosing seafood wisely.

In Friends Notes

Autumn 2022 starts our second two-year stormwater sampling campaign. This t...
UPDATE: Grant for Fidalgo Bay and City of Anacortes stormwater monitoring. ...
Compiled by Chris Wood with contributions from Ellen Anderson, Betty Carter...

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