8/8 Cascades frog, bluffs, state land geoducks, marine climate migration

"Chuckling" frog (Ashley Ahearn)

If you like to listen: Maureen Ryan scales rocky trails at 5,000 feet elevation as nimbly as the mountain goats that wandered through camp earlier this morning. The amphibian researcher leads her team of scientists down off a ridge line in the Seven Lakes Basin of Olympic National Park to her “lab”, you might call it. It’s a series of pothole wetlands cupped in the folds of these green, snow-studded mountains - perfect habitat for Cascades frogs (Rana cascadae). Ryan, a researcher with the University of Washington, is an expert on alpine amphibians. She’s also part of a group of scientists from around the region, coordinated by the Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative at the USGS, who are trying to understand and project how the warming climate will affect these frogs’ ability to feed, mate, and ultimately, survive. Ashley Ahearn reports. Tracking An Alpine Frog That Chuckles And Beeps For Climate Change Research

One thing you’ll notice when visiting Puget Sound’s lovely shorelines: they’re definitely bluffing. Just about every beach here demands a strenuous workout before you get to dabble your toes in the water. Are you standing in the surf right now? Great! (Cold, innit? I’m afraid our seas aren’t warm. Sorry.) Turn landward. Do you see a steep cliff sort o’ thing looming behind you, wearing some greenery and promising you some serious exercise when you exit your seaside siesta? Yeah, that’s a bluff. Dana Hunter blogs. Hey, Puget Sound! Are Ya Bluffing, Punk? Well, Are Ya?

Commercial geoduck aquaculture on state-owned beaches has been given a tentative green light by the Washington Department of Natural Resources. Many steps remain before state tidelands are leased to commercial geoduck farmers, according to Toni Droscher, spokeswoman for the agency, but it’s time to move forward with a pilot program to measure the benefits and drawbacks of growing the giant clams on state aquatic lands. Leasing of state tidelands was underway in 2007, when the Legislature and incoming Public Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark called for more research into the environmental effects of geoduck aquaculture, which generally involves inserting plastic tubes in the beach and covering the area with nets to protect young clams. Chris Dunagan reports. Geoduck farming proposed for state tidelands http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2013/aug/07/geoduck-farming-proposed-for-state-tidelands/#axzz2bMcO9JYl

Ocean animals are moving toward the poles and doing so even faster than their counterparts on land, new research shows. The three-year study, published in Nature Climate Change, shows that warming oceans are causing marine species to change breeding, feeding, and migration timing as well as shift where they live. “The leading edge or front-line of marine species distributions is moving toward the poles at an average of 72 kilometers (about 45 miles) per decade—considerably faster than terrestrial species, which are moving poleward at an average of 6 kilometers (about 4 miles) per decade,” says lead author Elvira Poloczanska, a research scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Marine and Atmospheric Research in Brisbane. Sea creatures race toward cooler waters

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 900 PM PDT WED AUG 7 2013
THU
W WIND TO 10 KT...RISING TO 10 TO 20 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS...BUILDING TO 1 TO 3 FT IN THE AFTERNOON. W SWELL 3 FT AT 10 SECONDS. AREAS OF FOG.
THU NIGHT
W WIND 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 3 FT AT 10 SECONDS.

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