West Seattle, Washington
07 Thursday
Thanks to WSB Forums member HMC Rich for sending the photos, one of which he headlined “What a catch.” There’s probably also a joke in here about “dumpster diving” – in this case, the dumpster itself apparently did the diving. We don’t know HOW it wound up in the water at Alki, but there it was – right off the heart of the boardwalk near 62nd/Alki – requiring expert intervention:
Rich says, “Seattle Parks and Ken’s Towing fished it out.”
If you’re looking north/northeast into Elliott Bay early Monday morning – between about 5:15 and 6 am – you may see ms Amsterdam, Seattle-headquartered Holland America Line‘s flagship, which’ll be the first cruise ship to call in Seattle this season, during a 108-day around-the-world journey. The Port of Seattle is expecting 223 ship visits this year, up five from last year; Celebrity and Norwegian Cruise Line will dock at Pier 66, while Holland America, Princess, Royal Caribbean, and Carnival will dock in Magnolia. More info here (though the schedule link doesn’t appear to be working – we’ve got a message out to the port seeking a copy).
(March 27 photo by Trileigh)
In case you haven’t yet seen the link in Herongrrrl‘s comment following this morning’s coverage of the whale-towing operation off Arroyo Beach: We now know what happened to the gray whale that spent the day swimming in West Seattle waters on March 27. The Orca Network page on Facebook linked to this update from Cascadia Research regarding the four gray whales found dead in Puget Sound before the one in the Arroyos on Wednesday. According to that update, a gray found near Fidalgo Island on April 11th matches photos of the whale watched here three weeks ago. It was described as thin, with its stomach full of “woody debris.” While this is certainly sad news, there’s an important paragraph in the Cascadia Research report:
At this point while these deaths are important to monitor, we do not consider them alarming and they do not appear to reflect any specific problem in Puget Sound. None of the whales that have died are the regular animals that visit Washington waters on a regular basis each year. These appear to be stragglers from the larger gray whale population of close to 20,000 gray whales that typically migrate north past Washington each spring after fasting several months in warmer southern waters they use as their breeding area. This makes April a period when whales that did not get enough food on their Alaskan feeding grounds may be running out of their reserves. A major mortality event occurred in 1999 and 2000 in which 50 gray whales died in Washington State in the two years combined.
One of those whales beached in West Seattle in 1999 – the last stranding here until this week in The Arroyos. (Again, that latest one was towed away this morning for a necropsy at an undisclosed location to the south – here’s our report, to which we just added information from Seal Sitters‘ Robin Lindsey, who works closely with NOAA, that the whale has been “secured” at the location where that necropsy will be done tomorrow.)
Thanks to Trileigh, wildlife photographer extraordinaire (remember Wollet the owlet?), for providing the first photo we’ve seen of one of the orcas that have been in the area today. She took the photo from the south side of Lincoln Park. (Here’s our earlier story, with updates and comments tracking the sightings.) ADDED 8:52 PM: Trileigh sent this one later, after going through hundreds more she took:
(BACK TO ORIGINAL 5:35 PM REPORT) And we’re happy to be able to share another great photo, an “Easter seal” courtesy of Seal Sitters‘ Robin Lindsey, photographed this morning before the sun went away:
There’s another photo on the Seal Sitters’ “Blubberblog“ – see who the seal shared the raft with for a while.
ORIGINAL 9:56 AM REPORT: Just got note and text from Gary — orcas spotted west of the Alki Point lighthouse, heading “slowly south.” Off to look. 10:20 AM: Orca expert Jeff Hogan just called, says they’re off Lowman. 10:28: You need binoculars to see them – they are by Blake Island and heading south fairly fast. 10:46 AM: They went into the far passage off west Vashon, out of view, but keep an eye out later – Jeff says they’re transients. 11:46 AM: And now they’re heading back north, per commenter Jen – who also just called. Watch the comments; we’re heading back down the hill to look again! 1:35 PM: Just back from whale-watching – you definitely need binoculars – they’re out between WS and Blake Island again, and you can look for a very, very small boat, which is virtually next to them. We just watched them for quite some time from a vantage point near the West Beach Condos west and downhill from Marine View Drive’s north end (map); they did not seem to be going in any particular direction. We’re told that what some describe as “playing” – we saw tail-slapping while watching – could mean they’re feeding. Bottom line, they could be visible off our shore for quite a while. Keep an eye on comments here, and/or on our Facebook thread.
Two wildlife notes: First, as of this writing, no new sightings reported this morning of the gray whale that captivated people along the West Seattle shore (our reports from yesterday are here and here, and a stunning overnight photo from seattlepi.com is here). Susan from Orca Network (which tracks other types of whales too) posted some observations on its condition in this WSB comment. If you see it – please share the news – here’s how. Meantime, Robin from Seal Sitters has published a touching and sad update on the death of “Sea Star,” the nickname given to the harbor seal that turned up on Alki Friday – read it here.
(Scroll down for added photos, video)
ORIGINAL 9:58 AM REPORT: Getting multiple reports of a gray whale off south West Seattle shores, Brace Point earlier, Lincoln Park near Williams Point (Colman Pool area) within the past half-hour. The photo above is from Rick Rasmussen, who glimpsed it south of Brace Point earlier this morning:
At 730 this morning, I saw what looked like an unusual disturbance in the water, just south of Brace Point, very close to shore. It was in about 15-20 feet of water, but close to the drop off to much deeper water.
It appeared to be a large whale, black or dark gray, with no dorsal fin. It looked larger and also longer than the Orcas we’ve seen around here.
At first, it was moving quickly and sporadically, just breaking the surface of the water and not showing much of itself. Then it started moving slowly in a circle for a few minutes, disturbing the water, mostly submerged. It then partially surfaced and spouted twice, a few minutes apart, then swam off toward the deeper water, showing a lot of it body before disappearing.
12:18 PM UPDATE: While out for the past couple hours, we saw the whale multiple times from Lincoln Park’s north beach and then from Lowman. It’s apparently off Emma Schmitz now – we went there too soon – according to a tweet we received. Lots of whale-watchers out; we’re checking video we shot, and also starting to receive some photos. Here are two from Trileigh – the first is the whale’s backbone, she says:
ADDED 12:46 PM: And this is our short video clip. Not close-enough in to see much, maybe most worthwhile for the oohs and aahs in the background audio!
More photos later as we get them. Gray sightings are not as common as orca sightings in Puget Sound – but they aren’t uncommon either – the whales do detour here sometimes while heading up from breeding grounds in Mexico to summer feeding grounds in Alaska, and there are apparently some that just never bother finishing the trip!
2:37 PM UPDATE: Via Twitter and comments, we’re hearing the whale is still in West Seattle waters – off central Beach Drive (Weather Watch Park) per “dq,” still moving northbound since @kerrywa on Twitter said it was off Me-Kwa-Mooks just before 2. Thanks for the reports!
Thanks to the person who called a little while earlier to say the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) was heading back out of Puget Sound, visible from West Seattle shores. We sent quick word via Twitter and Facebook and rushed down in hopes of a photo – it was too far away when we arrived, but Kyle Braget got the image you see above. After a short visit, Nimitz is heading back south to its current homeport, San Diego (with crew members’ families on board for a “Tiger Cruise”), but will be back here for a longer stay starting in December, when the nuclear-powered carrier returns to Bremerton for maintenance. ADDED 11:16 AM: Two photos from Gary Jones – the second one, explained as being among those watching the Nimitz leave!
ADDED 1:11 PM: Christopher Boffoli shot a bit of video – with a beautiful cloud formation in the frame toward the end:
The fabulous folks at Orca Network had passed along news of a few orcas spotted off Carkeek Park in North Seattle earlier today – and now we’ve just heard from Vanessa at Alki that it looks like they’re off Alki Point/Lighthouse as of a few minutes ago, “heading toward the islands.” Let us know if you see them!
Thanks to Trina for mentioning this on our Facebook wall: The USS Nimitz (CVN 68) is coming to Bremerton tomorrow – just a quick stop to pick up friends/family for a “Tiger Cruise” down to its homeport in San Diego, after a half-year-plus deployment, but this December, it’ll be back for maintenance at Naval Base Kitsap. We haven’t yet nailed down the best time range you’re likely to see the carrier off West Seattle shores, but so far it looks like early-to-mid-morning. (U.S. Navy photo, from Nimitz’s recent visit to Thailand)
Though the wind stayed away from many other parts of West Seattle, it blew strongly enough off Alki for these adventurers to get in some good runs – Christopher Boffoli was there to capture it on video.
10:54 AM: Just got this note from Lori:
My son, Ian, is currently on the ferry from Fauntleroy to Southworth right now (10:40 a.m.) and is watching at least 3 orcas. He says they seem to be just kind of hanging out again between Vashon & Lincoln Park. They’re rather surface active. He saw quite a bit of tail slapping. He estimated them to be about 200 yards from the boat.
That follows the Friday and Saturday sightings (KING 5’s helicopter caught them on Friday – the video is included in our update). 11:28 AM: We’re on the south LP waterfront – no luck, aside from a sea lion sighting. 12:25 PM UPDATE: Finally gave up to head back to HQ – but we ran into Donna Sandstrom from The Whale Trail, who was on the phone with a contact on Vashon who had clear view of them off the north end of the island – perhaps a little too close to the Southworth side for viewing from here. Updates as we get them. 1:18 PM: Donna called – she can see them now from Lincoln Park, south side. 2:26 PM: KING5‘s helicopter got video again today – and we’ve embedded it atop this story. 5:10 PM: Rode the Fauntleroy-Southworth ferry round-trip at mid-afternoon in hopes of whale sightings – saw spouts in the distance off the Arroyos – but now we have word from Facebook friend Krista that they are heading north “toward Alki Point,” as of a few minutes ago.
Just got the call from Jeff Hogan at Killer Whale Tales: Five orcas off Lincoln Park – closer to the ferry dock – transient orcas, the kind that hunt sea lions and seals, and he says “they just made a kill” so you may see birds hovering around where they are. Let us know if you see them! 4:15 PM UPDATE: Back from an expedition. Very quick sighting in the distance, via binoculars, off north Vashon. Looked from the Lincoln Park shore like KING5’s chopper found them – video’s not on their site yet, but we’ll add a link here when it’s available. 5:14 PM: Adding the embedded video atop this item.
A few hours after last night’s “surprise” fireworks show on Elliott Bay, we added a link shared with us by a citywide-media friend – who finally found out about what was apparently the only website in the city that listed the show in advance – the City of Seattle Special Events Calendar. Then tonight, in a new comment on last night’s story, DSA pointed out that another Elliott Bay fireworks show is on that calendar for Saturday night, March 27 – as with the insurance company having a blast last night, it’s for a business celebrating a centennial: This time, General Construction Company (history here), which happens to have a branch here in West Seattle. Coincidentally, that night is also this year’s date for “Earth Hour” – 8:30 pm, an hour after the calendar says the fireworks will be happening. (Photo from last night, courtesy Emory E)
ORIGINAL 10:38 AM REPORT: Dean just shared that photo via Facebook – as we were about to run out to follow up on e-mail that Pat sent about the same thing: A “cow” afloat off Alki Point. As to who put it there and why – don’t know yet; do you? ADDED 12:24 PM: Just back from a reconnaissance mission for a closer look. You have to be near Alki Point Lighthouse to really see it – or near the “$1.3 million teardown,” where we zoomed in for some bobbing-bovine video:
It’s just west of the most famous Alki Point raft, the Joy D. Smith Wildlife Raft.
9:23 PM UPDATE: Just got word from former co-worker David Rose, anchor at Q13 FOX News, that they had a crew over here this afternoon who got to the bottom of it. He says this is the story they were told:
(A nearby resident) built the cow out of fiberglass and it was on his back deck for years. He and his neighbor, Jacqueline Garnett, decided the cow was lonely and needed a pasture to graze in. Since she had grass in her yard, she took it to her yard. After a while, she moved it up to her front fence, decided it didn’t belong there. Then, they decided it would be fun to have the cow drift over to West Point. But then, they decided the Coast Guard might not be happy so they decided to anchor the cow to a buoy. They put rainboots on the cow to keep its feet warm and dry and put a life-jacket on it to keep it compliant with boating regulations. She told our photog she’s never gotten any milk from the cow, but with the rough seas, all she would get is buttermilk :)
If you see this before 10 pm, we’re guessing you will catch some version of it on Q13’s newscast. We appreciate getting the info from David; they found out about the story by seeing it on WSB, so a nice return favor! (And thanks yet again to our morning tipsters, Pat and Dean!)
(photo added 9:33 pm – see explanation below)
ORIGINAL 8:44 PM NOTE: First we got various reports of noise in the Admiral District that sounded like fireworks. Apparently there are fireworks over Elliott Bay off the downtown waterfront. Trying to find out why!
8:58 PM: A brief report of a possible reason, turned out to be somebody’s joke. The Local Notice to Mariners issued by the Coast Guard mentions Farmers Insurance‘s 100th anniversary as an Elliott Bay event – but we can’t find any link to fireworks – so that might not be it – still checking!
9 PM: Via Twitter, KIRO confirms it’s the Farmers’ Insurance party. They are apparently celebrating at the Space Needle – which would have a great view of the bay!
9:15 PM: For our fellow info-geeks, here’s the aforementioned “Local Notice to Mariners.” Note that it mentions the Farmers Insurance party and a narrow evening time window, but doesn’t specify fireworks. Citywide media did not get advance alert, either, in case you were wondering.
9:33 PM UPDATE: Adding a photo e-mailed to us by Emory E.; accompanying note says Emory is 13 and took the photo from Hamilton Viewpoint. Meantime, THANKS AGAIN to everyone who sent word of this while it was happening – phone, e-mail, Twitter, Facebook. That’s why we had something up fast – when YOU share word of something like this happening, that helps inform others who are wondering too – we didn’t hear/see it ourselves because HQ is in south WS. Here are all the ways to reach us, 24/7.
10:12 PM: One note for absolute clarity: Per the news release we found, this is Farmers New World Life Insurance celebrating its centennial – not the entire Farmers Insurance Group, which acquired Mercer Island-headquartered New World Life in the ’50s.
1:10 PM: Found out from a citywide-media friend that one website has turned up with an advance mention of the fireworks: City of Seattle Special Events. We’re linking it to the list of calendars at the bottom of the WSB Events calendar so we will be able to check it regularly ourselves!
Thanks to Mark Ahlness for sharing photos of, and info about, the “water rescue” call off Alki Point earlier this afternoon. He wrote, “Shortly after noon on March 6 we spotted a guy in a small swamped sailboat being towed to shore, just south of the Alki Lighthouse … Coast Guard, Seattle police boat also responded, but it was the couple in the kayak that got him in. Medic crews were waiting on land.” The photo above shows the police boat approaching (USCG was out of the picture to the south) as the boat was being towed; this one shows everybody safely on shore:
(Photo by Seal Sitters’ Robin Lindsey)
We weren’t expecting to bump into news while taking a long walk along Beach Drive/Alki around sunset – but that’s what happened when we stopped in an Alki coffee shop. A few chairs away, Seal Sitters leaders were meeting with a city rep – who brought them the news that they are receiving a $15,000 Small and Simple Grant. Seal Sitters is an all-volunteer nonprofit group that’s run till now mostly on scrappiness, with some donations – just last November, a jewelry sale at Merrill Gardens-Admiral Heights (WSB sponsor) was their first-ever fundraiser. Founder Brenda Peterson told us they’ll use the $15,000 grant for education — one of their major missions, something the actual seal-sitting itself embodies too. Find out all about Seal Sitters at sealsitters.org; they also keep a blog-format journal at blubberblog.org.
Greg Whittaker from Alki Kayak Tours shares what he says is the first photo of a kayak in the new “finger piers” that are part of the King County Water Taxi dock upgrade at Seacrest – work we’ve been tracking here. And with the work done, he says Alki Kayak Tours is ready to reopen. From his announcement:
Alki Kayak Tours, one of the 2009 recipients of the City of Seattle Mayor’s Small Business Award, will be reopening for the season this weekend at its location at Seacrest Marina in West Seattle.
… Alki Kayak Tours has prepped its sea kayak fleet and will be offering guided sea kayak tours of Elliott Bay, exploring the natural history and human history of Puget Sound. Migratory waterfowl are prevalent this time of year along with sightings of marine mammals including the California sea lion, harbor seal, and occasional grey whale and porpoise!
Alki Kayak Tours also offers “other outdoor adventure gear,” plus inline skates, beach cruiser bikes, longboards and Stand Up Paddleboards. As for the Water Taxi – it’s still on track to start the season exactly one month from today, Monday, April 5. (Did you see our stories with a sneak peek inside the new boat and the first look at it with the official paint job?)
So much else was going on this afternoon, we never got a chance to go into full whale-watching-sound-the-alert mode, but thanks to Eve for sending a photo as proof (and yes, we know it’s fuzzy, but hey, it’s A WHALE!): We’ve had several reports of a gray whale spotted in Elliott Bay, then heading southbound in the Sound, earlier this afternoon. Eve took that photo off Alki at 1:15 pm; Orca Network (which tracks sightings of non-orca marine mammals too) had a report of a gray whale in Elliott Bay, closer to downtown, just after 10 this morning. Orca Network also has a great page on its website explaining why you see grays in Puget Sound, most often at this time of year; see that page here.
Thanks to a tipster (who didn’t want to be credited) for pointing out the Coast Guard’s report of a partially submerged 65-foot tugboat at Island Tug and Barge, in the Duwamish, just north of The Bridge. It had more than 6,000 gallons of fuel and oil on board, but according to the Associated Press, it was brought back up this morning without spilling anything but 25 gallons of oily bilge water.
Not West Seattle, but taken by a West Seattleite, and some WS riders had to have been in the crowd – that’s a ferry full of bicycles, headed from Bainbridge Island to downtown Seattle after the Chilly Hilly, photographed by John LaSpina, who caught this view too:
This has apparently been in beta a few weeks but we hadn’t heard about it till a mention on WSDOT‘s Twitter feed today: The Vessel Watch page, which tells you where any given state ferry is at any given moment, has been upgraded – the map used to be static, and now it’s dynamic, with panning/zooming capabilities among other things. Check it out here. (And while that feature can identify a state ferry for you, if you’re looking to ID any other kind of vessel, MarineTraffic.com’s the place to go.)
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