The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
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September 2020
Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest
Another baby orca was born into the critically endangered SRKW population it was reported just this morning! Second baby orca this year! On September 8, Tahlequah (J-35) gave birth to a male calf, and yesterday a new baby was seen with Eclipse (J-41), a 15-year old whale in their small family. J pod is currently widely spread out near the Canadian side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The births are heartening news for a population near extinction. What’s threatening their survival is lack of Chinook salmon, boat noise and harassment, and persistent marine pollution. (Another new orca baby born to J pod — the second this month)
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Over concern that harbor seals are preferentially eating endangered salmon, research has been conducted to determine what they actually eat. Newly published work using preserved seal skeletal tissue has determined that the diet of seals over history can be indirectly measured. It has found that Salish Sea seals eat opportunistically and lower on the food chain than seals on the open ocean: when herring are abundant they eat that, when salmon are abundant, they eat those. (www.eopugetsound.org/...).
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Fishermen blame seals and sea lions for the decline in what they want to fish for. Recently a Canadian herring fisherman was fined for throwing an explosive device into a group of sea lions, claiming their increasing numbers are outcompeting him for fish. Biologists note that sea lion numbers, artificially low until the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and similar legislation in Canada allowed pinniped populations to recover. Fishermen today are only now experiencing historically typical pinniped numbers. (www.cbc.ca/...) ( Personally, this reminds me of Franklin Leonard’s observation: “When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.’)
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The Sea lice issue has heated up with attention being focused more on Atlantic salmon farms as breeding grounds for these fish parasites due to the packed conditions in aquaculture pens. The lice attack baby salmon on their way from their natal rivers out to sea. Data has recently been published showing that aquaculture farms regularly undercount sea lice in their self-reporting, which allows them to avoid expensive delousing treatments. (www.cbc.ca/…, www.saanichnews.com/…)
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Sea otters are making a comeback in the Pacific Northwest! After being hunted out and then reintroduced off northern Vancouver Island, a fieldwork study shows their numbers are increasing southward. As sea otters populate an area they improve local kelp beds by eating urchins (which graze kelp down to nubs, creating “urchin barrens”). Besides an improvement of marine diversity in the kelp forest ecosystem, more kelp sequesters more atmospheric carbon dioxide. This video describes the work being conducted, showing the sea otter families and underwater conditions.
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Blustery in the PacificNorthwest today. Spitting rain. Temps in the 50s.
What’s up in nature in your area today?
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