Just three years after she was found covered in oil and near death, a California sea otter called Olive is a new mom — another milestone for the first otter to survive an oiling in the state.

9/14/12

The California Department of Fish and Game said Friday that "Olive the Oiled Otter" was spotted recently swimming on her back with a pup resting on her belly.

"Olive is an attentive mother, frequently grooming, nursing and holding her pup," the agency said in a statement.

The birth continued the remarkable story of the animal rescued in 2009 from a beach near Santa Cruz. It also was welcome news following a recent state and federal study that found tepid growth of the threatened California sea otter population on the Central Coast.

Scientists say oil is especially harmful to the species that has the thickest coat of any mammal. When the animal's coat is damaged by oil, its skin is exposed to cold water, which can lead to hypothermia and death because otters don't have a layer of blubber like other marine mammals.

The U.S. Geological Survey said there are 2,792 sea otters left in the California population, which spans more than 200 miles of the Central Coast, from Morro Bay to Half Moon Bay.

The animals once ranged from Mexico to Alaska, but they were hunted to near extinction in the early 20th century for their fur.

David Jessup, a veterinarian with the state wildlife agency who washed Olive, said the animal was "circling the drain" when she arrived.

"She was in very bad condition," Jessup said. "She had probably been oiled for some period of time and (had) not eaten."

For the previous two years, he had been researching techniques for washing oil off otters — the Monterey coast sees regular natural seepage, which likely was the source of Olive's oil.

Jessup and others bathed the otter in olive oil — hence the name — which he'd found could loosen the tar-like oil off the thick fur. Once cleaned, Olive was fed by Jessup and his staff.

After she recovered, Olive was outfitted with a microchip and transmitter and released back into the wild, where scientists have tracked and studied her.

Veterinarians understand the immediate health effects of oil on wildlife, but little is known about long-term impacts.

That makes Olive and her baby especially interesting to marine biologists.

"Few animals are available for long-term follow-up," said Bill Van Bonn, a veterinarian at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, which rescues and rehabilitates marine mammals. "It illustrates the value of rehabilitation work."

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9/10/2012

The Northcoast Environmental Center will sponsor the 28th annual California Coastal Cleanup Day next Saturday (Sept. 15) from 9 a.m. to noon. Volunteers will scour Humboldt County shorelines, from the Klamath River to Shelter Cove and inland to Willow Creek and the South Fork Eel River, to remove debris that has accumulated over the past year.

While much of the garbage contaminating the sea comes from ships, an estimated 60 percent to 80 percent of it originates on land. Cigarette butts, plastic bags, fishing line, six-pack rings, bottles, cans, syringes, tires are just a few of the items commonly found polluting beaches and waterways. It's not only ugly, it can be a health-and safety risk to both humans and wildlife.

Thirty-six years ago, the NEC received federal funding for its Humboldt Beach Beautification and Restoration project, which combined beach cleanup with community education and job training. In 1985, it expanded into California Coastal Cleanup Day (led by the Coastal Commission) and the International Coastal Cleanup (led by the Ocean Conservancy).

Today, the International Coastal Cleanup includes 130 countries and all 50 U.S. states. Last year 598,076 volunteers throughout the world removed 9 million pounds of debris from 20,776 miles of shoreline.

This year's event will also provide one of the first opportunities for documenting debris on the shores that may be a result of last year's devastating tsunami in Japan, when an estimated 1.5 million tons of debris were washed out to sea. The West Coast has already begun to feel its impact, as items as small as a soccer ball and as large as a 100-ton pier have washed ashore north of the California border. None of the items recovered in Humboldt County so far -- including those found on Mad River Beach in June -- have been confirmed to be tsunami debris. To achieve a better understanding of when or if the debris from the tsunami is reaching local shores, the NEC in coordination with the Coastal Commission will be distributing a new, simplified data card for use at selected beaches. These cards will collect information about items that could potentially indicate tsunami debris, and will provide a baseline of data against which future cleanups will be measured.

”Given that Humboldt County's coastline will likely be among the first to be hit in the state, we expect the NEC's Tsunami Debris Monitoring Program will be helpful not only in gathering data, but serving as a watchdog for counties to the south,” said Dan Ehresman, NEC programs manager. “While Japan's tsunami will likely increase the amount of debris washing up on shorelines on the North Coast, we hope it does not take the attention away from the fact that we have a veritable tsunami of debris coming from our own shorelines and inland areas throughout the county.”

For more information, visit www.yournec.org or call 822-6918.

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9/10/2012

Employees with Humboldt County's public works department are utilizing a $17,000 grant to start formulating a plan to manage parts of the McKay Tract near Cutten as a community forest.

The Trust for Public Land -- a nonprofit conservation organization -- is providing the grant, which was approved Aug. 28 by the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors. The grant will fund the first phase of examining the feasibility of having the county oversee a community forest operation.

Public Works Deputy Director Hank Seemann said the grant will help the county start making more detailed preparations to look at trail opportunities and timber harvesting procedures on the property.

”That's actually already started, and we'll be continuing to do that,” Seemann said.

He said the county will have to determine how to make the management of the forest a cost neutral venture that doesn't dip into the county's general fund -- or at least doesn't dip in too much.

”The board of supervisors will want to see a pretty robust financial plan,” Seemann said.

Since 2010, the trust has been working to purchase up to 1,225 acres in the Ryan Creek Watershed from the Green Diamond Resource Company -- a forest products company that owns and manages forests in California and Washington -- to create the community forest. The trust still needs to raise funds to acquire the property, and doesn't anticipate purchasing it until sometime in 2013.

Since the sale of the property is still tentative, Seemann said the forest concept is going to take some time to develop.

”Best case, this could unfold over the next two to four years,” Seemann said. “It's going to be a journey of a thousand steps.”

North Coast Program Manager John Bernstein said the trust is looking at purchasing 640 acres to 1,225 acres to create the community forest -- an anticipated cost of $8.1 million. The entire cost of implementing the community forest is expected to cost $12 million to $13 million, he said. The plan is use federal, state and donated funds.

”Over the years, we've become one of the go-to nonprofits to put together all these many different pots of public funding,” Bernstein said. “It really takes a long time to get this money together.”

Seemann said the county plans to apply for a Headwaters Fund grant to cover the remaining costs of drafting a complete community forest management plan. He said the full plan is anticipated to cost about $125,000, so the county would be applying for a $108,000 grant to supplement the trust's starting grant of $17,000. The Headwaters Fund was created by the county to utilize $22 million in state and federal funds given to offset the sale of the Headwaters Forest Reserve.

While the trust hopes to acquire 1,225 acres for a community forest, the Green Diamond Resource Company owns a total of about 7,500 acres in the Ryan Creek Watershed. Bernstein said the trust wants to have the remaining land protected by a conservation easement.

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9/7/12

After years of optimistic pronouncements, haggling with coastal residents and fishermen, and one project that landed in Davy Jones' locker, a new wave of Oregon's renewable energy experiment is taking shape off the coast.

Only time will tell whether this science project can gather momentum, or the necessary funding it will need to reach commercial viability.

In late August, researchers at Oregon State University launched the first of what they hope will be a fleet of wave energy devices at their new test bed two miles offshore of Yaquina Head.

The Wave Energy Technology-New Zealand or Wet-NZ buoy, has been bobbing lazily in the summers swells for two weeks, sending reams of data and a trickle of electricity via underwater umbilical to the Ocean Sentinel, a floating battery pack and data hub anchored nearby.

A five-week test will allow the prototype's owner, Northwest Energy Innovations, Inc., to gather performance data on the $750,000 prototype and its mooring system. The plan is to pluck the device out of the water before it meets the full fury of fall on the Oregon coast, then go on to develop a full-scale model.

OSU scientists are hovering nearby, dropping their hydrophones and related equipment into surrounding waters to measure the device's acoustic footprint, electromagnetic frequencies and impact on sea life, whether its bottom dwellers or migrating gray whales. Meanwhile, the Ocean Sentinel monitors the strength of wind waves and the current, in tandem with the power buoy's output.

"It's naive to think there will be no impact from these devices," said Belinda Batten, director Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center at OSU. "We can help answer some of those important questions."

OSU is one of three federally funded research centers addressing the technical, environmental and social challenges of wave and tidal energy. Established in 2008, its aim is to provide standardized facilities that commercial developers can use to deploy and test power buoys without a protracted siting process.

Wave buoys have been controversial on the coast, and the test site was chosen after two years of discussion with crabbers, fishermen, state agencies, wave energy developers and scientists.

For developers, the tests can provide crucial information on their devices' durability, efficiency in different wave conditions, and other maintenance issues and costs. The WetNZ is the first prototype moored at the Yaquina Head site. But the center hopes to score another $25 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for a second Oregon test zone with berths for four buoys -- this one fully connected to the electrical grid on land. Batten said she expects an answerin the next couple months, though it could depend on the election and congressional jockeying over spending cuts.

Meanwhile, the center says more tests will be forthcoming. There are myriad designs to maximize the extraction of the kinetic energy in waves. Some are for near shore deployment, others for deeper waters. Some float, others sit on the sea floor. Mechanical systems vary widely. Developers are looking to capture the most energy at the least cost. The answer may depend on location.

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