This odd article comes from Chris Dunagan. For the life of me I can’t figure out how a Navy ship could possibly wash oysters ashore. Has anyone ever seen anything like this happen before? Did it somehow drop a depth charge or something? If in fact it did do something that they are not admitting that caused this massive wave, then it would be another question mark in supporting further Navy expansion in the Canal and Admiralty Inlet (which has been proposed). The secrecy that the Navy naturally seems to work under is very difficult to support in a sensitive area like this, where we are trying to protect dwindling stock of endangered fish and mammals. But I would like to see this report corroborated. I’m not yet willing to buy this story as reported.
SEABECK —
Residents living near Seabeck’s Misery Point reported that the wake from a Navy ship washed massive numbers of oysters above the high tide line on the beach Thursday night.
The ship was later identified as the USS Port Royal, a 567-foot guided-missile cruiser, which had appeared at Seattle’s Seafair before undergoing testing at the Navy’s Dabob Range on Hood Canal near Quilcene.
Emilie Jungschaffer, who lives near Scenic Beach State Park, said the ship must have made a sharp turn or similar maneuver, because her neighbor reported a loud sound of waves washing ashore, and on Friday most of the oysters were found far up on the beach.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Hood Canal |
In the latter part of the afternoon, the ship began making some really hard turns which were generating some large wakes. The breakers were pretty nice sized. Not much impact on the western shores but I do believe it could have done this to the eastern shore.
That would be a really interesting impact to have to analyze, should it prove to be a Navy mishap….
Potential effect…amount of shellfish blown out of water.