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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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August 2020
Salish Sea, PacificNorthwest
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It’s plankton bloom time of year in the Salish Sea. Earlier this month a “tomato soup” bloom of Noctiluca appeared in Chuckanut Bay south of Bellingham. Noctiluca is not a toxin-producing species but it’s an indicator of warm nutrient-rich waters. Most of the Salish Sea is currently closed to shellfish harvesting due to biotoxin presence due to the presence of microscopic drifting dinoflagellates that generate various toxic substances. Shellfish filter them out of the water. August is not an unusual time for biotoxin closures, but blooms have increased over the past half century in the Salish Sea with the dramatic increase in human population. More people means more nutrient runoff in the form off sewage, agricultural waste, fertilizer, stormwater runoff, household wastewater.
Noctiluca bloom in Chuckanut Bay may be a first (KOMO news)
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Numbers of Sockeye returning to the Fraser River in the past decade
Sockeye salmon should be streaming into the Fraser River right now to spawn in upriver tributaries after four years at sea but as it happens there are fewer sockeye this year than ever counted. Several reasons for this. For starters, juvenile salmon on their way downriver are taking a huge hit between the Fraser estuary and the open ocean. Baby salmon need to spend time in the estuary to make the shift from fresh to salt water, and 70% of the Fraser estuary has been lost to industrial development, with more loss on the way (including the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion). Then there’s the gauntlet getting through the Salish Sea, where swarms of sea lice generated by the salmon farms will infect them. One sea louse is enough to kill a baby salmon. The fish farms have used every pesticide they know and the sea lice just scoff at their efforts, so things don’t look good for either farmed Atlantic salmon or endangered native Pacific salmon here. Ongoing climate change poses additional stresses on salmon, both directly as warmer water and indirectly with reduced zooplankton prey and precipitation changes. And the BC government has been faulted for refusing to more aggressively limit fishing in the face of these plummeting numbers of incoming salmon.
Four reasons 2020 is set to see the lowest Fraser River sockeye salmon return on record (The Narwhal)
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Did you know that Tiger Rockfish can be identified as individuals? Jackie Hildering (the Marine Detective) has been monitoring these bottomfish for years and discovered they have strong site fidelity, ie she can find a particular fish at “home” year in year out. Rockfish have been overfished for the past few decades so their numbers are low. They grow slowly and can live over 100 years, with the older females being most productive, so in areas restricted from fishing, the rockfish will have a chance to build their population. There are some Rockfish conservation areas and fishing restrictions, which help, but many are caught as bycatch in the halibut and lingcod fisheries. There are efforts being explored to change lures or bait to reduce bycatch.
Fish Have Homes! (The Marine Detective)
Respecting the rockfish of the Salish Sea (Encyclopedia of Puget Sound)
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Sea otter
Out at Race Rocks, the ecoguardians are reporting increasing numbers of sea lions. Some have been there all summer but with numbers picking up that means they are returning home for the winter from the breeding rookeries. One had a brand that indicates it spends the summer at Rogue River Reef off southern Oregon, the rookery where it was pupped. Sea lions have strong fidelity to pupping/mating sites. The resident sea otter “Ollie” has been seen in the kelp bed twice this month. Sea otters are fairly common farther up the Vancouver Island coastline but quite rare down here in the Salish Sea, as yet, so it’s a good bet this is the same individual.
Race Rocks Ecological Reserve
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Sunny in the PacificNorthwest islands today. Distinctly cooler these past couple of days. Foggy mornings. Fall approaches.
What’s up in nature in your area today?
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