Harbor Porpoise Found on Toleak Beach

We’ve been surveying this section of the Washington coast for approximately two years. We do it year-round every month and in every kind of weather; wind storms, rain, and snow.

Steve Weileman

citizen-science, coasst

Harbor Porpoise

We’ve been surveying this section of the Washington coast for approximately two years. We do it year-round every month and in every kind of weather; wind storms, rain, and snow. Occasionally in sunshine. Of course, like most aspects of life, this routine was interrupted by our recent COVID crisis. However, I do feel a much stronger appreciation for the outdoors and the healing it provides with this forced interruption despite finding the occasional sad find cast up on the beach. In this case a Harbor Porpoise.

Harbor Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) are the smallest of 22 cetaceans recorded in the Salish Sea and are probably one of the few that are resident year-‐round. Excluding the Arctic, their distribution extends throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Their numbers in the waters of Puget Sound declined steeply in the 1970s, but their population has increased in recent years.

Phocoena phocoena vomerina is the subspecies found in the North Pacific, including the Salish Sea. Their subdued coloration is typically dark gray to brown dorsally and shades into white ventrally. Weighing less than 220 pounds and spanning less than 6 feet long, Harbor Porpoise sit low in the water and barely brush the water’s surface to breathe. Observers rarely glimpse more than their back and small, uniformly colored dorsal fin, which has a longer leading than trailing edge. They can be confused with Dall’s Porpoise (Phocoenides dallii), small, stockier porpoises that are black with white flanks along the belly and white-tipped dorsal fins and flukes). They could also be mistaken for Pacific White-Sided Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens), which have similar gray backs but complex white stripes on their sides, a bi-‐colored and more curved dorsal fin, and more exuberant, social behavior, generally traveling in larger groups and often leaping from the water completely.

COASST training a huge success!

So apparently the training session for the Outer Coast of Washington was a huge success and deserves a huge thank you to all the new volunteers. So…thank you!

If you’re interested in further trainings, whether for the Outer Coast Team, or something closer to home, you can find more information here.

If you care to see some behind the scene shots of our adventures on the Outer Coast Team click the button below.

Apparent Increase In Visitation

This trip was also unusual in that for the first time there was more than one car at the trailhead. A lot more. However, while on the beach we actually only saw a handful of tents near the north end of our survey beach; I can only assume that means there were quite a handful of campers dispersed along the coast.

On the one hand, that’s encouraging, the more people get out in nature the more they’re likely to want to protect what we have left. The downside is that these remote beaches can only support so many visitations before they start to be affected in a negative way.

“

We’ve been surveying this section of the Washington coast for approximately two years. We do it year-round every month and in every kind of weather; wind storms, rain, and snow.

Member of the following

twitter feed

Follow the team’s latest news and social feeds here. You’ll also find links to articles on the latest developments regarding citizen-science and the conservation of our oceans.

We also use this feed for updates from the field as we pursue our own science and the occasional short video clip.

And please, feel free to join in the conversation. We’d love to hear what you’re up to as well.

Essex Explorers @xexplore ·

24h 1380552595010424839

Epitomizing the old adage of “where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” a group of volunteers and scientists in Finland have set out to prove or disprove that the aurora borealis, or northern lights, make sounds. https://bit.ly/2O65NqS

Reply on Twitter 1380552595010424839 Retweet on Twitter 1380552595010424839 0 Like on Twitter 1380552595010424839 0

Essex Explorers @xexplore ·

9 Apr 1380546292150120448

Morning on the Dosewallips River. Heading into the Olympics today to do a bit of exploring.

Reply on Twitter 1380546292150120448 Retweet on Twitter 1380546292150120448 0 Like on Twitter 1380546292150120448 0

Essex Explorers @xexplore ·

8 Apr 1380295656397549576

When ‘eradicated’ species bounce back with a vengeance https://bit.ly/39jRMxb

Reply on Twitter 1380295656397549576 Retweet on Twitter 1380295656397549576 0 Like on Twitter 1380295656397549576 0

Essex Explorers @xexplore ·

8 Apr 1380190216766550016

How local surfers can help scientists with ocean restoration https://bit.ly/3u5LYiD

Reply on Twitter 1380190216766550016 Retweet on Twitter 1380190216766550016 0 Like on Twitter 1380190216766550016 0

Essex Explorers @xexplore ·

7 Apr 1379921690302504968

Scaling up on a shoestring while citizen scientists analyse the Great Barrier Reef - https://zd.net/2OYRBR9

Reply on Twitter 1379921690302504968 Retweet on Twitter 1379921690302504968 0 Like on Twitter 1379921690302504968 1

Latest Instagram

Apr 9

Harbor Porpoise Found on Toleak Beach

Harbor Porpoise

COASST training a huge success!

Apparent Increase In Visitation

Member of the following

twitter feed

Latest Instagram

Please share this:

More to explore

Costa Rica: Rufous-naped Wren

Costa Rica: Blue-gray Tanager

Successful Bird Survey At Toleak Beach

Costa Rica: Spotted Sandpiper

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

about

newsletter

search

social links

essex media & explorations

2020 Calendars Shipping Soon!