Oregon L.O.W.F.I

Posts Tagged ‘Oregon Coast’

Strange Planet has a good post about the recent earthquakes, including yesterday’s 8.8 earthquake in Chile. As Strange Planet points out:

 An 8.8 compared to Japan’s 7.0 is not a quake 1.8 times the intensity, as many of you know. It’s exponentially horrific. A 7.1 is ten times the power of a 7.0, a 7.2 is ten times a 7.1, and so on.

When the sea lions left the San Fransico area, I posted that they left for a reason, and I said that they left because of soon to be witnesses earthquakes. Strange Planet also wonders, as I did last night when I heard the news, if the OCR attack on his trainer wasn’t in some ways due to the earthquakes. Giant squid washing up on beaches all up and down the coast, and other unusual marine life behaviors — we’ve been witnessing this recently. A combination of factors, including global warming/climate changes, which the earthquakes are a part of.

As to the orca Tilkumat and the death of his trainer Dawn Brancheau at SeaWorld and that tragedy, part of that tragedy is that whales and other creatures (big cats, elephants, etc.) are kept in captivity in the first place. Strange Planet comments:

 Several days ago, there’s the sad incident at Sea World in Orlando, Florida, where a trainer was killed by a 12,000lb. OCR. Reps for the park called it a deadly misstep on the trainer’s part, leaving her ponytail wagging in the water, signaling the animal to seize it as a ‘toy’. Could be. Could also be that he wants out of this bathtub and back into the wild, and that he also sensed something out there. Because if you remember, in the interviews that followed with the staff, they said all of the animals were behaving strangely, were agitated, and just weren’t performing as they know how. There’s something deeper there. [italics mine]

There certainly is “something deeper there.”

The tragic end of Keiko (the orca known as “Free Willy” and kept at the Newport, Oregon aquarium until his release into the ocean) is not something I want to see happen again. I don’t know if releasing Tilikum the orca (I will not use the exploitive and titillating term “killer whale”) back to the ocean is the right thing to do. Maybe it is, I honestly don’t know. A start to prevent these tragedies, and, to simply prevent the imprisonment of sentient beings like orcas in the first place, is to make it illegal to keep these creatures in captivity.

As to the events occurring now, local news (Eugene, Oregon, about 50 miles inland) tells us of tsunami warnings on the Oregon coast because of the earthquakes in Chile and Japan. According to the KEZI news website:

The National Weather Service has issued a tsunami advisory for the Oregon coastal area.  Coastal residents are advised to stay out of the water, off the beach, and away from harbors and marinas.

This is not a watch or warning. No significant coastal flooding is expected to  be produced by this wave.  However, some areas of the coast could experience dangerous currents and surges in harbors and bays due to this tsunami. [a href=”http://kezi.com/news/local/164262”> Massive Quake Prompts Tsunami Advisory For Oregon Coast

I heard about the earthquake in Chile from Ian Punnett on C2C. He said there weren’t any details but that the news was, an 8.5 (at the time, that’s what was reported; today’s paper said it was 8.8) earthquake in Chile. So I turned on the TV, with our roughly 250 channels, and I couldn’t find one news program. 11:30ish pm, and not one news program. I mean news, like the old CNN, where you had simple, straight forward information coming in about what was going on in the world. What I found were “news” shows having to do with entertainment, news shows, of a sort, with a host or two but clearly the show was about them, and what they wanted to focus on, which seemed mostly to be the tragedy at SeaWorld. The most news I got was from the Weather Channel.

In an odd bit of juxtapositioning, the following item was in today’s local news about Oregon’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport: State OKs money for Oregon marine mammal center:

Assuming Gov. Ted Kulongoski signs the bill, researchers at Hatfield hope that amount will be enough to win $16 million in federal funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, also called NIST. Combined, that would be $25 million, enough to build the new center.

“This would establish a unique center, a university-based center for the study of marine mammals,” said Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute. “It would be the largest in the U.S.

“It will give us the unique capacity to advance technology for the study of and protection of marine mammals, including satellite tagging, advanced studies of life history and analyses of genetics diversity.”

As with the people of Haiti, my prayers and thoughts go to those in Chile as well.

According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, there is a moose population in Oregon’s Blue Mountains in the eastern part of the state. The moose population is small; about 60 altogether. Moose have been spotted for a few decades but “only recently have animals been considered established residents.” says the ODFW site. Unfortunately, Oregon’s moose might have a parasite that can be fatal. Scientists aren’t sure the parasite is the cause; they speculate the deaths of the Oregon moose were caused by a parasite found in Wyoming moose that killed some of the animals there:

“We lost two of our radioed animals this summer, and we could never determine the cause of death,” said Pat Matthews, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist. “So this sort of jumped out as a possibility.” (Register Guard)

While the deaths are worrisome, and there are indicators that the parasite might be the cause of death, the herd in Oregon does seem to be thriving.

Sources:
The Oregonian:Oregon biologists fear small moose herd may be infected with deadly parasite

Moose on the Loose!

Register-Guard:Oregon biologists look into moose deaths

A Bigfoot blog that I’ve recently become aware of is Linda Newton-Perry’s Bigfoot Ballyhoo. A lot of activity there, the latest concerning news of Bigfoot sightings in the coastal areas of Waldport, Siletz, etc. Exciting for me personally (I live vorcariously) since I often travel through those areas, in fact I hope to relocate there soon.

Newton-Perry is an author who writes a couple of Bigfoot related columns for local newspapers, and has written a few children’s books about Bigfoot.

About the above sightings in that area; aside from the Bigfoot sighting reports themselves, is the discussion about the treatment of reports and witnesses from the local police, which is very negative, even heavy handed. I find that interesting; why are the police (and other authorities in the area) so reluctant to accept such reports, and why are they going so far as to be rude, almost libelous, in their treatment of witnesses?

Linda Newton-Perry’s blog Bigfoot Ballyhoo has a small report on a recent and possible Bigfoot sighting on the Oregon coast.

Update to my previous post on the squid invasion in Seaside, Oregon. Here’s a video of the squid. Thanks to Professor Hex for the link.

<a href=”http://www.kval.com/news/local/79115852.html”>Giant squid are washing up on the Oregon coast, in the Seaside </a> (which happens to be my mother’s birthplace; my grandfather was a mayor in the town decades ago) area.

Local columnist Bob Welch, who writes for the Eugene, Oregon paper The Register-Guard has an article in today’s paper about “Lawrence of Florence,” actually two camels,  in the coastal town of Florence, Oregon. (Florence is roughly fifty miles from where I live in Eugene.)

Welch often answers queries from people in the area about local history; recently someone  asked about camel rides on the coast back in the 1970s though Welch writes that there were two camels  there from 1983 to 1985.

A California couple bought over a hundred acres on the coast, some of it just sand, and that was their inspiration for the camel.  Welch reports that there were camel rides hired for entertainment from a California animal for hire entity: Movieland Animals, complete with “caretakers.”  For under $2.00 people could ride a camel on the beach.The following comment by a woman who remembers the camel rides captures the whole flavor of the coastal side show:

The size of the space was a bit disappointing; it was rather small and just off the highway. The camel looked exhausted. A guide walked the camel with a child on top around maybe a 30-foot-wide circle. I recall feeling the experience was anti-climactic.”

What ended the camel rides didn’t seem to be concern for the exploitive  nature of the coastal offering, but a neighbor who was upset with the amount of traffic caused by the camel attraction.

I wonder what happened to those camels. . .

This comment, actually, just a stream of words without punctuation or coherent message, was left on my post Newport, Oregon: A “New” Port(al)? from the 17th of February today. It was left by someone with the name of “Hidereligious” at gather@sort.com.

Department Open,ignore interested church owner type for fuel persuade operate committee popular data brief relatively minister unit challenge nod maintain form western journey board experience start official convention stick round display reason attack much central steal long crime central associate afternoon unless happen impossible index shut latter sure flight contrast legal will state watch link ignore under certain lawyer more ring one strategy sector terms program write force still since field sun noise note near when language mechanism agreement lunch dry economic street band usual again blue middle test

Playing around with the words I came up with the following found poem (and some people don’t think I have a life!)

Department Open
ignore interested church owner
type for fuel, persuade, operate. . .
Committee
Popular data, brief
relatively minister
unit challenge
nod, maintain form
Western journey
board
experience start, official convention, stick: round.

Reason, attack much
central, steal long crime, central, associate
afternoon, unless happen impossible
index shut
latter, sure
flight contrast
legal, will state, watch, link, ignore under certain lawyer
more ring, one strategy
sector

Terms: program
write force, still, since field, sun, noise note
near when language mechanism
agreement
lunch, dry

Economic street band, usual
again blue
middle. . .
test.

This could be an algorithm sort computer science thingie; I don’t know anything about that except what Wikipedia came up on my Google search when I typed in “sort.com.” I don’t know if it does have something to do with that, or if there is anything I should be worried about given the content of the post. Probably just a random, no account cyberworld kind of thing.

Naveed on his blog Naveed’s Realm has an interesting item about the legend of the monster in Devil’s Lake in Lincoln City, Oregon.

The short story as for as the Oregon one goes is that the Siletz Indian tribe centuries ago used to really like of the area of Devil’s Lake. Then one night when a group of warriors was dispatched across the lake, massive tentacles burst forth from the waters destroying the canoes. The warriors where then flung around, beaten against the water and debris, and died from drowning or injury. From then on the lake was called Devil’s Lake.

Was the “monster” a squid, or is the story only a myth to explain the dangers of the area?

Bears Close Down Central Oregon Campground
Obviously the bears themselves didn’t close down a campground, but because of unwanted bear activity, authorities decided to close down Lake Billy Chinook in Central Oregon. Garbage cans are being repaired, and fortified, camp is being generally cleaned up so campers can return and the bears will, presumably, go somewhere else for fun. I can’t help but notice the irony of going camping out in nature yet not being able to because of the very nature one is out to enjoy. Something like that. Maybe it’s the name that the bears find attrative; they do love their salmon.

More bear news: 61 year old Karen Noyes,who lives (or did) in the beautiful coastal town of Yachats (a favorite place of mine on the Oregon coast) was sentenced recently for feeding bears on her property. Neighbors complained to authorities; seems there was a massive bear problem, as there is in many places throughout the United States in human habitated areas. Eventually Noyes was arrested, and she was found guiltly of “chasing and harassing wildlife.”

Her sentence: she cannot live in her home for three years, and must stay away from the road where she lived within a 7 mile stretch. Noyes seemed to really piss off the judge, for he spoke for “thirty minutes” during the sentencing, “calling her behavior stunning and offensive.”

I agree it was not at all bright in any way, but exiling a 61 year old woman from her home, and for three years???!! I wonder at the constitutionality of the sentence. However, this state, no doubt like many others, is very pro-human/anti animal. Hunters have rights, you betcha. You better not even think of messing around with hunters when they’re out trying to bag themselves a critter, as the next item reveals.

Lori Lynn Slate, of Talent, Oregon, was cited for “obstructing the taking of wildlife” a class A misdemeanor apparently. Would be turkey hunter Darin Welburn, who was with his daughter, teaching her all about turkey hunting, complained, insisting Slate intentionally messed with his ability to shoot turkeys. Slate insisted she didn’t. It went down like this:

Welburn says Slate demonstratively waved the bag as she walked in front of the blind, declaring that no turkeys would be shot while she was there.

“She clearly was waving it in her arms and — how did my daughter put it? — with a grin on her face,” says Welburn, a firefighter. “My daughter asked if she could do that. I said, no, she can’t.

“I just want (Slate) educated about what the rules are,” he says.

Slate, a 53-year-old office manager for a local veterinarian, says she is a former hunter and insists she is not against hunting, and that she was flustered and frighted after stumbling upon Welburn.

Slate says she flapped her bag only slightly, but she insists she did not intentionally ruin the Welburns’ hunt.

“As I was walking away I was bag-flapping,” Slate says. “Bad bag-flapping. Just the conversation we had would have scared any turkeys away. There weren’t any turkeys to scare in the first place.

“Can I say he ruined my asparagus-picking and that I want him arrested?” she said.

After interviewing Slate and Welburn, OSP Senior Trooper Jeff Thompson on Saturday cited Slate to appear June 2 in Jackson County Circuit Court.

Thompson no doubt is a hunter himself, for he cited Slate, obviously to make a point:

People don’t realize there’s a law prohibiting someone from screwing up your hunt,” Thompson says. “I think we’d get a lot more (cases) if people were aware there’s a law against that.”

Slate says she’ll fight the citation, and that it was dangerous to be hunting so close to her home.