China rejects contaminated US oysters

In a "man bites shark" story, China recently halted the import of contaminated oysters from the US.

That's a turnaround, Chinese regulators stopping a questionable food import from overseas. Maybe we need to take another look at food safety; it's not just health risks caused by bad people from far away.

The oyster problem arose in Washington state in the US because ofoysters contaminated with an annoying bacteria Vibrio parahaemolyticus. In case you're skeptical, here's the US FDA announcement on the problems with Washington oysters.

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Squid that eat salmon?

Everyone knows that salmon can eat squid, but how about the reverse? Would you believe that squid are eating salmon as far north as Washington state? At least that's the report from fishermen who say squid are taking salmon off their fishing lines.

These are not just any squd, they're giant Humboldt squid that can grow to be 6 feet long and weigh more than 100 pounds. Salmon fishermen are catching squid instead of salmon this year, and some are getting concerned.

A state biologist thinks the squid are moving north with the warm El Nino ocean waters, and they're likely to head south again. Global warming may lead to more problems of this type, but it's worth noting that there was a previous attack of the killer squid in the 1930's, so it's not unprecedented.

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Killers killing killer whales

The killers killing salmon are now killers killing killer whales now that we have attribution of a killer whale decline to declining salmon.

We love orcas and salmon out here on the damp coast, and we're very sad to see both of our friends going missing. It's especially bad that they're in the crapper together. With outsiders blogging about this, I was reluctant to dive in. I wanted to mourn in private But this awesome picture in the PI was just too good to not steal and now I'm diving in. Here goes.

The only real question here is whether we will get serious about saving our friends. Or will we continue to write lots of plans expatiating our guilt and doing too little. We can save them if we really want to. And it doesn't necessarily have to hurt our economy or otherwise carry a high price. We just need people to live their lives as though killer whales and salmon matter to them.

We see the killers killing killer whales when we look in our mirrors. They're the same killers that are killing salmon. What shall we do about the killers that are running free in our midst?

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Rapid evolution in fish

A small fish now provides a great example of rapid evolution, thanks to an accidental experiment.

Pollution control turned Seattle's murky Lake Washington into a beautiful clear lake. Good for us, but the lake's threespine stickleback was suddenly visible to hungry trout. They had to do something quickly if they wanted to survive...evolve. And they did.

Threespine sticklebacks in Lake Washington lost their armor, made up of bony plates, when the lake got dirty and the water got cloudy up until about the mid 1900s. Then, an expensive cleanup in the 1960s made the water clear and sticklebacks because trout food again. The response? Sticklebacks regrew their armor of bony plates.

No sign of intelligent design in this case, just genetic changes that confer a survival advantage.

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Urban salmon a living legend that people can see

City wildlife don't get much respect, especially the gritty urban salmon of Seattle. But they do matter, even if they just help teach kids about saving salmon.

There are some non-pristine urban creeks where a few salmon return to spawn each year. And there's the Cedar River sockeye run that is grand enough to excite even a salmon-smart biologist.

The map shows where you can find them, with total numbers seen so far this year. There are several good weeks remaining in case you're local and you want to have some fun watching fish sex. It's an amazing sight watching salmon spawn, it'll give you hope for the future.

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Whale killed in US whale hunt

It's difficult question time as a grey whale was killed during a whale hunt in nearby coastal waters. Blogfish finds many friends asking questions about this hunt.

First, news is sketchy, so more time is needed to sort out what really happened. Sunday morning, before coffee, a banner headline screamed "Grey whale killed in rogue tribal hunt." BTW, this is Seattle all right. How many other places carried the news so prominently?

The early story was rogue hunters did a bad thing. But wait. It now seems that the lead hunter was a grey-haired man who led the legal Makah hunt of 1999 that also killed a whale. One comment was that he was tired of the 8 years of process and wrangling over their treaty rights, and "it was time" to hunt again. For detailed reports, visit Olympic Peninsula Environmental News.

Blogfish sees many shades of grey here. Makah whale hunting is important and culturally valuable. Lots of people claim this and it's rarely true. It's true for Makah whale hunting. Process hurdles do look ridiculous at some point, and I can understand wanting to act rather than spin more papers. But it's breaking the law and one has to be prepared to pay for breaking the law. This "rogue" whale hunt is at least partially some people standing up for what they view as their rights, but that will have consequences. The hunters are not hiding, they're prepared to take responsibility for their actions.

Finally, there is no scientific reason that I know of to worry about the biological impact on the whales. It may be significant if this was a local resident whale, but it's not primarily a conservation issue. This is a moral and social issue, and raises concerns about resumption of whale hunting elsewhere.

It's a tough call, and the rule of law is important. But I wish we were better at drawing lines between resource uses that are ok and those that are not ok. The Makah tribal hunt doesn't worry me as a conservation problem, and I wish the Makah well in maintaining their identity. They have some of my sympathies, I just wish they had waited until they had a permit.

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Salmon win road-crossing lawsuit

Why did the salmon cross the road? Because the road was in the way.

But now salmon have new hope for a better way to get upstream. A federal judge ruled yesterday that salmon-blocking roads are illegal and need to be fixed. The lawsuit was filed by tribes upset over a lack of salmon, and it focused on harm to salmon caused by roads that block streams.

Blockage comes in many forms, but the bottom line is that many roads were built without regard for the ability of salmon to swim upstream. In many cases culvert pipes under roads end high above streams, so high that salmon could never make the jump. It's not subtle.

This salmon victory is a major step forward in learning how to live with salmon. Now the state of Washington must get serious about fixing this well-known problem. Without the lawsuit it might have taken decades to a century to get the roads fixed.

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