The Puget Soundkeeper is a Watchdog for Puget Sound

The Puget Soundkeeper and her first mate conduct weekly patrols in Elliott Bay and up the Duwamish River.  If you would like to learn more or be our guest on one of these weekly patrols, please contact Paul Fredrickson at 206-297-7002.

Up the Duwamish River - View from the Helm

By Soundkeeper Sue Joerger

The engine starts with a roar!  As skipper Paul Frederickson, drops the throttle to idle speed, volunteer Bruce Dean and I cast off the lines, then climb aboard the Soundkeeper boat for our weekly patrol.  

A dozen blue herons sit on the breakwater as we motor out of Elliott Bay Marina, their long necks buried in feathers puffed up against the cold December breeze.  A Kingfisher chatters at us as it flies across our bow.  I point out the newly arrived Goldeneyes, diving ducks that spend the winter in Puget Sound, to Jennifer Joseph, the fourth member of our crew and Soundkeeper Assistant.

Elliott Bay is choppy as we speed across.  I feel a slight wave of nausea as my stomach adjusts to the movement.  Paul points the bow of the Soundkeeper boat towards Todd Shipyard, our visual bearing to the entrance of the Duwamish River.  Although it has been called the Duwamish Waterway since it was straightened and dredged back in 1913, I still prefer to think of it as a river.

In Todd’s east dry dock we can see the red hull of the 420 foot US Coast Guard Cutter HEALY, a polar icebreaker designed to break 4 ½ feet of ice continuously at three knots.  It is in for its winter repairs after finishing its summer deployment in the Arctic.  A huge curtain is pulled across the front of the dry dock to prevent red paint chips that contain metals toxic to salmon and sand blast grit from blowing into the water.  “Good job” I report to the crew.

As we start up the river we watch a California sea lion fishing for salmon off one of the Lockheed Superfund cleanup sites. We then check out the mouth of Longfellow Creek.  The tide is high, so all we can see is the top of the vertical metal bars attached to the concrete opening, surrounded by riprap.  It is a depressing sight. Up to 90% of the coho salmon migrating up the river through these metal bars die before spawning because of toxic stormwater runoff.  A couple of years ago I saw coho in the river, swimming in circles, a behavioral disorder scientists link to stormwater pollution and results in death.  Although I work on stormwater regulation everyday, progress seems painfully slow.

As we motor under the West Seattle Bridge we wave to a gillnet fisherman in bright orange foul weather gear, pulling up his net across the bow of an aluminum runabout.  I worry about the fish in this river and the people and wildlife that eat them.

The Washington State Department of Health finally released its Puget Sound Fish Consumption Advisory in October 2006.  The Health Department recommends that you limit your consumption of Puget Sound Chinook salmon, resident Chinook salmon (Blackmouth), Rockfish and flatfish be limited because of “relatively” high levels of mercury and PCBs.  

Table 1 summarizes the meal recommendations for fish caught in the Seattle/Bremerton area.

Click here for fish consumption advice in your area.

After we pass the old rusted train bridge, I point out the osprey nest nestled in a tall street light above a scrap metal yard, then spot the white tails of two bald eagles sitting in a tree on Kellog Island.  Humans aren’t the only ones fishing the Duwamish River.  If human consumption in Puget Sound is limited what impact are PCBs and mercury having on those that eat from the Sound every day?

At the Duwamish Shipyard the air is hazy with sandblast grit and paint chips and there is a milky sheen on the water.  A green barge is in the graving dock.  There is no tarping and the curtains are tied closed. We take photos, call the Department of Ecology pollution hotline and motor on.  I can feel the grit, like sand, crunching between my teeth.   (Later in the week, Ecology issued a “verbal warning” to the Shipyard).

At Seattle Iron and Metals, Paul turns the boat around to head back to the marina and I take the helm while we watch flattened cars and trucks get shredded to be recycled.  I’m cold and my feet are numb.  My thoughts wander as I throttle down, to let a tug and barge cross the river in front of us. 

As we pull into the fuel dock back at the marina the smell of fresh grilled salmon from Maggie Bluff’s scents the air.  I’m hungry and looking forward to some barbecued salmon on my boat tonight, if the weather holds.  The salmon is from Alaska, in case you are curious.