Big bottom fishing bust happening off Beach Drive

July 31, 2013 by 2 Comments

A frequent visitor to the south Alki “Rock Pile” reef appears to be suspected for illegal fishing. The authorities have been rafted up for at least an hour searching and confiscating what must be illegal fish. This has been a regular stop for this boat over the last couple of years.

DSC_0888The boat registration appears to be from Oregon

With a view from my telescope, I can see handcuffs being put on a couple of the men and a telephones being passed between the 10 fishermen/women/children and the authority. Might be a language barrier. Poles have been confiscated and paperwork passed out.

The bottomfish rules for Area 10 are as follows…

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DSC_0904Several fish have been thrown to the gulls. We may be reading about this on a poaching enforcement site soon!

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Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog

Filed Under: Boats, Crime, Puget Sound, Uncategorized

New rest-stop for seals installed off of Beach Drive SW

July 31, 2013 by Leave a Comment

As a neighbor and I were tracking down the impending giant herd of pink salmon, we noticed that the old buoy off of Alki Point mysteriously disappeared while this new one near Lincoln Park magically appeared!

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This new scientific research buoy installed by King County Natural Resources & Parks will be measuring all kinds of data regarding our local water quality.  A member of the water quality team kindly sent us this info:

A  new marine buoy was successfully deployed on July 30th off of Point Williams (West Seattle) in Central Puget Sound by staff of the King County Environmental Laboratory’s Field Science Unit. The buoy is anchored at a depth of approximately 550 feet.   An in situ water quality monitoring system is contained on the buoy and consists of water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, chlorophyll, nitrate, and depth sensors that collect data measurements every 15-minutes. The sensors are suspended below the buoy at a depth of about 1 meter.  Data are sent via a cell-phone in near real-time to the County’s marine mooring webpage where the public can access the data.  The webpage can be found at https://green.kingcounty.gov/marine-buoy/default.aspx

This in situ water quality monitoring system is one of four systems of this type that collect high temporal resolution data that are used to evaluate daily, and sometimes hourly, variability in Puget Sound marine waters.  The data are integrated into the County’s monthly marine monitoring program in order to provide a more comprehensive picture of marine water quality dynamics.

 

She also stated that this new and improved float is a replacement for the buoy that was located off of Alki Point. Apparently the Alki buoy had a pretty tough time weathering our recent winter storms. This new model is much beefier and will hopefully hang for it’s five year stint as stated on it’s Application for Use.

 

researchbouyThis photo from Natural Resources appears to be working with the old Alki buoy. The newer version off of Lincoln Park is said to be much easier to maintain “With the new and improved design, they just have to lift up a cable and change a connection—WAY better and safer.”

UPDATE:

The nice folks at the DNR followed up with a live link to the science buoy:  http://www.ysieconet.com/public/WebUI/Default.aspx?hidCustomerID=165  He said “Just mouse over the green dot on the proper location and you will get the most up to date data.  Click on the dot and you can view graphs and download data. Note that the Seattle Aquarium unit provides very interesting data.  You can compare the 1 meter data to 10 meters, which often times shows huge discrepancies due to the fresh water coming out of the Duwamish River.”

 The gentleman that maintains the DNR buoys also wanted to leave his phone number (206-684-2323) if anyone notices if the light on top stops flashing or any other obvious damage that can lead to a navigational hazard. Boarding or approaching a state owned buoy too closely is illegal.

Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog

Filed Under: Boats, Puget Sound

Delta Marine Superyacht Invictus cruising off the shores of Beach Drive

June 27, 2013 by 2 Comments

It’s hard to miss this 215 foot yacht, even through tonight’s misty Puget Sound waters.

Delta Marine Invictus

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Delta Marine’s project name for this superyacht is “Invictus”, check out more information here.

Filed Under: Boats, Puget Sound Tagged With: , ,

Low Tides uncover cool West Seattle history

June 24, 2013 by 1 Comment

 

With much of our industrial history only dating back a hundred years or so, the lowest tides of the season still show-off West Seattle’s colorful past.  Today’s low tide of -3.7 was about as low as we’re going to see this year so I figured a walk around the point was in order. The first stop was checking out the pilings rearing their worn heads from the early 1900’s off of Weather Watch Park at Carroll Street SW.

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Some of the only history I’ve been able to find about the old pier is the verbal account of Ada Hallberg  published in the newsletter Footprints of the SSWHS

There was a pier at Carroll St. in the early 1900’s; it was a regular port of call for the little steamer Eagle, which carried passengers to several ports on the Sound, including this little village of South Alki. Villagers would gather here when the steamer docked to meet the passengers. It was a time that neighbors met to greet each other and to visit with each other whether they expected a passenger or not. It was a gathering place for people whose homes were a considerable distance from each other.

The only other evidence of a substantial pier existing at this location is from a USCG chart dated 1918. I have inquiries into the Log House Museum as well as the Puget Sound Maritime Museum for any vintage photos showing this location was a launch (40ft or less) for Mosquito fleet steamers. The steamer Eagle was reported to have burnt & sunk in it’s home port of Winslow in the Spring of 1903. Many blamed the misfortune on an improper christening!  NOT THAT THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE FISHING HOLES but I can personally attest to the unusual deep underwater ravine located just off the park…

1918Chart

 

Next stop is some submerged pilings found on the south-end of Alki Beach. This was the southern stretch of several piers along Alki Beach…

 

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Photo courtesy of BDB’s Rhonda Porter

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This Seattle Archived photo 1936 shows the pier off in the distance.

Third stop is the site of the biggest, most bestest amusement park west of Chicago

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A shot of the pier and support pilings of Luna Park & a protected niche for repairing halibut fishing boats 

Fourth point of interest was the dawning of of Seattle’s first regular ferry service (outside the Mosquito fleet) near what is now Seacrest Park. An excerpt from History Link…

The company built a dock near today’s Seacrest Marina and began offering regular service to downtown Seattle on a steam-powered sidewheeler named the City of Seattle, the first bona fide ferry on Puget Sound, launched December 24, 1888. The crossing took eight minutes. One hundred and thirteen years, ten bridges, and tens of millions of dollars later, the City of Seattle still holds the record for the fastest trip between Seattle and West Seattle.

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WSferry

 

Finally, I wonder where these tracks and ramps led to…

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Davy’s Locker perhaps???

 

Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog

 

Filed Under: Alki, Boats, Parks, Puget Sound

Marine Seal boards boat anchored off Beach Drive

June 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Spotted this big fella posing on the back of a fishing boat this afternoon. And to think Beach Drive boat owner’s worry about seagull poop!

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Looks like he could eat that outboard with just one bite

 

Scupper reporting for Beach Drive Blog (yes, that’s my boat!)

Filed Under: Boats, Puget Sound, Uncategorized, Wildlife

Tribes heavily crabbing off shores of Beach Drive SW

June 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Throughout the last couple of days, I’ve seen at least three lines of crab pots set between Alki and Lincoln Park. This area of Puget Sound is only available for Indian crab harvesting. Other commercial licenses are restricted to other areas of Puget Sound. They appear to be tending the pots twice a day and releasing quite a few Sunflower Stars caught in their pots.

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Sho’ am hope’n dey don’t empty all da honey holes of cwabbys befo us boys get a go at it on July 1st!

 

Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog

 

Filed Under: Boats, Puget Sound, Wildlife

Talk’n Lings and Shrimp’n in the hood this week!

May 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment

 Have I mentioned lately just how great this time of year is around here??? Ling cod season opened this glorious morning with boats swarming the south Alki Rock Pile or what we call “Mediation Reef” from an earlier post.

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Popular Ling Cod fishery located just off the 4800 block of Beach Drive

… and if that wasn’t enough excitement to float your boat, the short Spotted Shrimp season starts this Saturday morning! A good local shrimp hole is along the NE side of Vashon Island. Get you telescope out and check out the hundred or so boats pulling up the scrumptious booty from 250 feet below the surface. These fine crustaceans are considered some of the finest shrimp in the entire world!!

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Cleetus, an old shrimp’n Beach Drive neighbor displays his catch from 2012

Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog

Filed Under: Boats, Food and Drink, Puget Sound

Coast Guard performing exercises off of Beach Drive

April 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

 Happening now…

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Coast Guard Exercise

Update 7:11 pm.  This photo was provided to us by one of our readers, Rayetta,

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Filed Under: Boats, Puget Sound

High speed sub making wake past Winslow

March 4, 2013 by 2 Comments

 Spied this sub around 9:30 this morning making it’s way north with a Coast Guard escort. Photo is less than detailed from our distance but the telescope spotted a couple of people with orange vests riding on top…

 
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Estimate speed around 20 knots!
Filed Under: Boats, Puget Sound

The Skipper has his boat!

February 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Thanks to a couple of good people in our community, the “Skipper” has his power boat out of Puget Sound waters by Cormorant Cove Park and Harbor West Condominiums.

boat rescue Feb19
boat rescue Feb19a
 

I’m sure he really appreciates the kind help he had from the West Seattle community and beyond during this unfortunate event.

Filed Under: Boats
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