Over-the-counter pesticides found in islands’ forage fish-San Juan Journal

Posted on September 12, 2022 by Al Bergstein

Very troubling findings in a recent research on pesticides found in Sand Lance which are fish eaten by many higher level predators. Please do not use pesticide sprays like this for carpenter ants and other insects. You likely are poisoning yourself and the environment.

An intriguing sidelight of the Kwiaht study is a finding that sand lances collected closest to Admiralty Inlet, the entrance to Puget Sound, were on average twice as contaminated with pyrethroid pesticides as sand lances collected on the north side of San Juan County closest to the Fraser River plume.

https://www.sanjuanjournal.com/news/over-the-counter-pesticides-found-in-islands-forage-fish/

Filed under: Admiralty Inlet, Environmental Science | Tagged: , , , , | 4 Comments »

Forage Fish in Spring – Video

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Al Bergstein

When scientists and citizen activists want to implement regulations to protect the shoreline, one of the things that they are attempting to protect is spawning habitat for a critical piece of our ecosystem, such as sand lance. These fish spawn on the shore, and nearshore, and supply food for salmon, and most other species of fish that we eat. So the inconvenience of protecting some shorelines is off set by the food resource all of us get from it.

While much attention is paid to herring spawning, kelp habitats are critical for a number of forage fish species and life history stages, including young of the year sand lance. Here’s a glimpse of this captivating and beautiful component of our marine ecosystem. (Coastal Watershed Institute)

Nearshore Spring 2015 https://vimeo.com/126381367

Filed under: Puget Sound | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Once-common marine birds disappearing from our coast – Seattle Times

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Al Bergstein

For many years I’ve been commenting to friends that I felt I’ve seen a substantial drop in shorebirds around Port Townsend, and on the coast in general. It appears I unfortunately may be correct.

“Scoters down 75% from the 1970’s. Murres have dropped even more. Western Grebes have mostly vanished…”

Craig Welch reports for the Seattle Times.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2024155783_birddeclinesxml.html

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Nice short video showing forage fish in action in the Strait

Posted on September 9, 2012 by Al Bergstein

When you see the fish diving at the herring balls, this is likely what’s happening under the water.
http://www.coastalwatershedinstitute.org/video.htm

Filed under: Puget Sound | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

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