Category: Know Your Watershed|Bioregion

What is a watershed? American Heritage Dict.: 1. A ridge of high land dividing two areas that are drained by different river systems. 2. The entire region draining into a river, river system, or other body of water.
What is a healthy watershed? From Wendell Berry’s essay “Two Economies,” in Home Economics: “A healthy topsoil… has at once the ability to hold water and to drain well. When we speak of the health of a watershed, these abilities are what we are talking about. A healthy soil… not only gives good crops but also erosion control as well as both flood control and a constant water supply.” [Note: healthy soil also absorbs and sequesters up to 7 times as much CO2 as factory farmed depleted soil on factory farms.]
What is a bioregion? American Heritage Dict.: An area constituting a natural ecological community with characteristic flora, fauna, and environmental conditions and bounded by natural (rather than artificial) borders.

22 West Coast Species of Surfperches • Status from 1920s to 2003 • CAWildlife.gov

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PDF: 2003 Report on Status of 18  Local Species of CA Surfperches

whereas the drop in landings from 1983 to 2001 appears to be due to declines in surfperch populations.

Overview of the Fishery

13. SURFPERCHES

The 22 species in the surfperch family, Embiotocidae, are commonly called surfperch, seaperch and perch. They are found predominantly in temperate, northeastern Pacific waters; however, three species are found in the Sea of Japan and one species (tule perch, Hysterocarpus traski) occupies freshwater and estuarine habitats in California.

Eighteen species occur in California’s coastal waters:

  1. barred surfperch Amphistichus argenteus
  2. black perch Embiotoca jacksoni
  3. calico surfperch Amphistichus koelzi
  4. dwarf perch Micrometrus minimus
  5. kelp perch Brachyistius frenatus
  6. pile perch Rhacochilus vacca
  7. pink seaperch Zalembius rosaceus
  8. rainbow seaperch Hypsurus caryi
  9. redtail surfperch Amphistichus rhodoterus
  10. reef perch Micrometrus aurora
  11. rubberlip seaperch Rhacochilus toxotes
  12. sharpnose seaperch Phanerodon atripes
  13. shiner perch Cymatogaster aggregate
  14. silver surfperch Hyperprosopon ellipticum
  15. spotfin surfperch Hyperprosopon anale
  16. striped seaperch Embiotoca lateralis
  17. walleye surfperch Hyperprosopon argenteum
  18. white seaperch Phanerodon furcataus
  • one Estuary|Freshwater CA perch
  • 3 from Sea of Japan
  • 3 from Sea of Japan
  • 3 from Sea of Japan

The island surfperch, Cymatogaster gracilis, was once thought to be a separate species, however it is now considered synonymous with shiner perch.

 
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Reduction in Phytoplankton-40% since 1950s

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It may be hardest of all to care about something unseen. A single glass of seawater drawn from the surf in Newport or Brookings might look clear but in fact would roil with at least 75 million organisms called phytoplankton.

And we vitally depend upon such creatures. Out in the ocean, infinite numbers of them produce half the world’s oxygen and form the base of the marine food chain. For what it’s worth, phytoplankton eat crazy amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

But their numbers are down 40 percent worldwide since the 1950s and may be headed down further. The culprit appears to be rising ocean temperatures associated with climate change. The sea’s warming top layer of water, where phytoplankton do their job, increasingly lacks life-sustaining nutrients from the cold deep.

via An ocean on the slide could hurt us badly | OregonLive.com.

Winter 2011: Heavier Snow for Chicago… Normal Snowfall for NYC, Philly and D.C.

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This does not mean a free pass for the Northeast. Bastardi predicts late November and December could get winter off to a fast start in the East, with a major thaw coming for much of the country in January.Bastardi makes the early cold connection between this year’s active hurricane season and his winter forecast.

He said that years that see significant landfall, such as 1995, 2008 and 2005, usually also have cold for much of the eastern and central portions of the nation in December

via AccuWeather.com – Weather News | Winter 2011: Heavier Snow for Chicago, Minneapolis and Detroit, Normal Snowfall for NYC, Philly and D.C..

AccuWeather.com Winter Forecast Coming

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On Tuesday, Aug. 3, AccuWeather.com Long Range Meteorologist Joe Bastardi will reveal if winter will again grip the Northeast with extreme cold and snow, or if it will pummel another region.

Expect Bastardi to release an exciting long-range regional outlook for the entire U.S., forecasting when and where the core of the cold will be for all the major cities, as well as the brunt of major snowfall.

Bastardi’s winter of 2009-2010 accurately predicted the stormiest weather centered over the mid-Atlantic, with record snowfall from Washington, D.C., to Charlotte.

His forecast was confirmed when several big snowstorms dropped more than 54 inches of snow in Washington, D.C., making it the snowiest winter on record for the nation’s capital.

Three major snowstorms struck the Northeast in February 2010, causing the winter of 2009 to be dubbed “snowmaggedon.” Bastardi predicted nearly six months earlier that major cities in the East could get up to 75 percent of their total winter snowfall in two or three big storms.

via AccuWeather.com – Weather News | AccuWeather.com Winter Forecast is Coming Tomorrow.

via AccuWeather.com Winter Forecast Coming.

Video: The Bermuda High and tropical storms

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The Bermuda High pressure system sits over the Atlantic during summer. Acting as a block that hurricanes cannot penetrate, the size and location of this system can determine where hurricanes go. A normal Bermuda High often leads to hurricanes moving up the east coast and out to sea. During summer 2004 and 2005, the Bermuda High expanded to the south and west, which steered hurricanes into the Gulf of Mexico rather than up the east coast or curving out to sea. Once in the Gulf, most hurricane paths will involve landfall at some location.The Bermuda High pressure system sits over the Atlantic during summer. This visualization first shows a typical Bermuda High system. Then, it expands the Bermuda High to show what happened in the summer of 2004 and 2005.

via The Bermuda High and tropical storms.