Two Endangered Icons: Southern Resident Killer Whales and Chinook Salmon
Kenneth Balcomb, senior scientist at the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, Washington, explains the connection between the Southern Resident killer whales (orcas) and chinook salmon. The...
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Web Extra: Orca Sounds vs. Underwater Noise
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View ArticleMegathrust Earthquakes
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Up, Up and Away: Escaping a Tsunami Vertically
Proposed tower and berm structure by Ronald Kasprisin. Image courtesy of the Washington Emergency Management Division. CAMP MURRAY, WASHINGTON- When natural disaster strikes, most of us instinctively...
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Tales from the Ghost Forests
Ghost forest on Washington state's Copalis River during a very high fair-weather tide in December 1997. Photo courtesy of the USGS public domain If a megathrust earthquake struck the modern world,...
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Fish Earbones Provide a Rare Glimpse into the Past and Future of Fisheries
The rings on an otolith: photo courtesy of Eustatic Field Notes: Cathy Britt, The Burke Museum From salmon steaks and sushi, to fish nuggets and crab cakes, the world’s fisheries provide three...
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Tracking Your Ecological Footprint
Community Contributor | Clancy Wolf, PhD – IslandWood, WA The other day as I walked along a sandy beach, I noticed a series of footprints from a bird. Two things struck me. First, that even a small...
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Penguin Sentinels
“Penguin Sentinels” was produced by QUEST Northwest’s Jo Ardinger. Say “penguin” and the images that come to mind are of frost-covered penguin couples struggling to raise their chicks in sub-zero...
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Revitalizing Grasslands, One Steak at a Time
Photo courtesy of Global Water Partnership Two-thirds of the world’s land is turning to desert, thanks largely to the steak on your plate. That’s the conventional wisdom, anyway. For decades people...
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Citizen Scientists Gather Data on Urban Bees
Image courtesy of Benson Kua. Around the world, bees are dying in unprecedented numbers. While scientists hypothesize pesticides and habitat loss are to blame, the exact causes are still unclear....
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A River Returns
Sunlight streaks through the leafy canopy, painting the Elwha River and surrounding forest in dappled light. Two men in chest waders splash through the swift-moving current, kicking up mushroom...
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Kickstarting Science: Crowdfunded Research Explores Potential Health Impacts...
A train is loaded with coal at a mine in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.Courtesy KCTS 9 / Earthfix In recent years crowdfunding — raising money for a project from a number of small donors, usually...
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What’s for Thanksgiving Dinner, Turkey or Cormorant?
Image courtesy of Tim Sackton. The average American eats the same 12 to 20 different foods every week. But imagine a world in which you ate hundreds of different foods throughout the year, and all of...
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Putting Nuisance Beavers to Work
Biologists and volunteers in the Yakima Basin move nuisance beavers into upper Yakima River tributaries. Photo courtesy of William Meyer. With their strong buck teeth and flat tails, beavers are the...
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The Killer Affecting Killer Whale Populations
SEATTLE, Wash.—Nothing excites whale researchers and whale fanatics more than seeing a new calf born into the pod. However, researchers have learned that calf survival rates are incredibly low,...
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Puget Sound Orca Poop is a ‘Treasure Trove’ for Researchers
A pod of transient orcas swim past North Pender Island in Puget Sound. Credit: Ashley Ahearn SAN JUAN ISLANDS, Wash. — Puzzled by orcas’ failure to thrive in Puget Sound, researchers have turned to a...
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Cultural Differences in Northwest Orcas
Photo Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce. Photograph by Captain Budd Christman, NOAA Corps SEATTLE, Wash.—A few years ago, I worked as a naturalist on boats...
View ArticleInto the Waves with Orcas
Orcas use sound to navigate, find food and communicate. But underwater noise is making it more difficult. We explore how scientists use hydrophones to track noise from ships and boats to discover what...
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