This May 2020 edition of Tide Bites was written by Alyssa Scott… As the tides of life have ebbed and flowed, I’ve continually found myself on the shores of FHL [Friday Harbor Labs]. My first encounter with the Labs was via a two-week research sailing expedition through the San Juan Islands with Deep Green Wilderness.  Continue Reading

This winter, Friends of the San Juans staff and a team of trained citizen scientists, documented six new Pacific sand lance spawning beaches. They also discovered two previously unknown surf smelt spawning sites. Coupled with results from last winter, the number of documented sand lance spawning beaches in San Juan County more than doubled from 8 to  Continue Reading

Dead and dying conifers have proliferated throughout the Salish Sea area, especially with cedars and hemlocks, causing concern for many property owners. This webinar will talk about why so many trees are dying right now and how to recognize when there’s a problem on your property. Topics include insects, diseases, and drought, and what property  Continue Reading

Greetings, This month’s Tide Bite chronicles a not-that-unusual career progression for Friday Harbor Labs’ scientists: going from a student in a course, to a student doing their own research, to teaching here themselves, to having their own graduate students come to learn the trade!  We love these multi-“generational” ties.  Beth Brainerd is one we are  Continue Reading

  Today we launched a resource called HOMESCHOOL that will allow homebound students to explore the Salish Sea during this period of self-isolation. These videos and activities can be easily deployed amid the chaos of the current moment. Also, they’re fun!    We’ll continue to add content to this page, so keep an eye out and share  Continue Reading

Congratulations to Friday Harbor students! Fostering a scientific competitive spirit is well underway at Friday Harbor Elementary School!  Three elementary school STEM Teams have received recognition for their work at the national level through Exploravision, sponsored by the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) and the Toshiba Company. These three elementary school teams started projects in  Continue Reading

Community Projects Press Release Are you interested in astronomy? Do you love exploring the wonders that space has to offer? Well, here at the Library we do! And, thanks to the admirable Community Project fundraising efforts of two of our Friday Harbor High School students, Allie and Tyler Fleming, the San Juan Island Library is  Continue Reading

In the SJ Update mailbag this morning there is this announcement from Travis Ayers of Luxel Corp… Dear Editor, I wondered if you would want to share this news with your readers. On Sunday night the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter was launched by NASA from Cape Canaveral, FL. Luxel has three sets of filters  Continue Reading

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to swim with sharks, create a sculpture out of thin air, or fly through space?  Find out what all the VR buzz is about and head to the Marie Boe Building on Saturday, February 8th from 11am-6pm.  Spend the day with Bellingham’s Heady Virtual Reality and choose from  Continue Reading

Mission Statement: Creating conditions for community resilience and regeneration in a rapidly changing world We have set the next meeting of Transition San Juan Island for Sunday, March 1, 2020 from 3-6 PM at the Mullis Center. The purpose is for each action group to complete their Vision Statement. So when you arrive at 3,  Continue Reading

First, we extend our sincere appreciation for the attentive and engaged turnout at the Mullis Center on January 12!  A quiet Sunday afternoon among busy families, threats of snowy roads and of course the Seahawks playoff game notwithstanding, about 65 of you responded to our invitations.  We were enthused by our smiling friends from Lopez  Continue Reading

Weaving Art and Science to Create Ocean Tapestries In the early 1990’s, Véronique Robigou and John Delaney were exploring the bottom of the ocean in the deep-diving Submarine ALVIN off the Pacific Northwest Coast. There, they discovered a spectacular 135 ft tall sulfide structure spewing 700° F fluids out of the sea floor atop an  Continue Reading

Ron Lehman shares these photos he shot of some mammatus clouds he saw over Mt. Vernon on Tuesday morning. Very interesting cloud formations and good thing he got the photos when he did – he says they were completely gone within about 15 minutes. Here’s more info on this kind of cloud on Wikipedia. Thanks  Continue Reading

Lynn Danaher shares this invitation with you… Due to our long-standing friendships with some of the residents, we have been invited by the Pitcairn islanders themselves to spend a month on Pitcairn exploring petroglyph sites and conducting forensic archaeology.  We will be the first to test for DNA at a historical burial site in Adamstown,  Continue Reading

What’s in the Mailbag today? Here’s a letter from Steve Ulvi… As a blue-collar kid in suburban California following WWII, we enjoyed many simple freedoms. Young families rapidly infilled modest developments in old walnut and almond orchards, grassy oak hills to roam. We didn’t feel the urban apprehension of economic displacement, social injustice or class-constrained  Continue Reading

Friends of the San Juans is seeking citizen scientists to help conduct beach surveys for spawning forage fish over the next two years. There will be a survey training session on October 26 from 9 am – 1 pm with researchers from Friends of the San Juans and Salish Sea Biological at the Old Town of Friday Harbor  Continue Reading