All about the West Seattle neighborhood around Beach Drive
August 12, 2013 at 9:07 am: UPDATE: Elektra has been found. Many thanks to Beach Drive neighbors Alexa and Clyve and everyone else for helping to reunite Elektra with her humans.
Elektra is a 5 year old black curly coat retriever who is lost tonight. Her owners are visiting friends at the 4700 block of Beach Drive and she became spooked and took off running down the street.
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.
The 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…
Several fish have been thrown to the gulls. We may be reading about this on a poaching enforcement site soon!
Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog
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!
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.
This 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
The Alki Community Council is jointly sponsoring the Seal Sitter’s clean up of Alki Beach Park this Saturday from 9:00 am to noon. For more information, or to rsvp for this event, click here.
On Sunday, August 11, 2013, around one hundred cyclist will pedal the through Beach Drive as part of their 180 mile trek for Obliteride. 
Obliteride is a fundraiser for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to help obliterate cancer.
Our neighborhood is the 2nd day of a 180 mile course with day 2 beginning at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma and finishing in Magnuson Park in North Seattle.
Neighbors are encouraged to come to the end of their driveway, set up chairs, play music and cheer for the cyclists as they ride through the area. Cyclists will be wearing a rider number on their helmet, back of jersey and on the back of their seat.
Here’s the West Seattle portion of the course from Burien:
Let’s cheer these cyclist on for such an important cause!
Seattle Night Out will be here in ten days! If you are planning an event for your area on Beach Drive, it’s not too late to register your event with the SPD. You are also welcome to share your Beach Drive area Night Out event on our Facebook Page.
This event is a great way for neighbors to connect.
From SPD:
Night Out Against Crime is an opportunity for individual neighborhoods to renew their commitment to the following:
- Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness
- Generate support for, and participation in, local anti-crime programs
- Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships
Send a message to criminals that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.
It’s a great excuse to get together and celebrate your neighborhood! If you would like us to promote your Beach Drive area Seattle Night Out event – please let us know!
Lots of oohs, ahs and wows took place last night watching the beautiful fireworks display that took place off the shores of Beach Drive by Me Kwa Mooks Park.
Vintage fire trucks and crew take some time to relax after cruising the West Seattle parade earlier today…
Getting ready for the fireworks show at 10PM tonight?
Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog
Meet Beach Naturalist (they’ll be wearing red hats) from Seattle Aquarium at Constellation Park and Lincoln Park beaches
It’ll be boom city this Saturday at 10PM for a 10 minute show of barged-in fireworks. Tuxedo and Tennis Shoes has given notice via West Seattle Blog about the brief show taking place off the 4500 block of Beach Drive. I know our dog Scupper will be looking for ducks falling out of the sky. Hope everyone’s pets around the vicinity (just north of Mee-Kwa-Mooks) take it in stride!
Enjoy!
Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog
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