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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMarch 17 2026 NPC MRC First DRAFT Meeting Summary NPC MRC 3/17/2026 DRAFT Meeting Summary 1 March 17, 2026 NPC MRC Draft Meeting Summary The Tuesday, March 17, 2026 NPC MRC meeting took place at the Peninsula College campus in Forks, Washington and by Zoom connection from 4:00 PM to 5:36 PM. Appointed committee members present at the meeting were Maggie Bockart (Hoh Tribe Representative), Chris Butler-Minor (Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary [OCNMS], ex officio), Eileen Cooney (Citizen Representative, Jefferson County – Economic Groups), Wendy Feltham (Citizen Representative, Jefferson County – Scientific Community), Rod Fleck (City of Forks), Jennifer Hagen (Quileute Tribe Representative), John Hunter (Citizen Representative, Clallam County - Conservation / Environmental Groups), Rebecca Mahan (Clallam County Representative), Ian Miller (Washington Sea Grant, ex officio), Tami Pokorny (Jefferson County Representative and NPC MRC Co-coordinator), and Jill Silver (Citizen Representative, Jefferson County– Conservation/Environmental Groups). A quorum was present at the beginning of the meeting. Rebekah Brooks (Rebekah Brooks Contracting), Megan Juran (Washington CoastSavers), Lee First (Twin Harbors Waterkeeper), Lane Maroney (affiliation?), Nancy Messmer (Clean Coast Alliance), Roy Morris (Clean Coast Alliance), Chase O’Neil (Clallam County and NPC MRC Co-coordinator), Fred Sharpe (Templeton Whale SETI Team; Alaska Whale Foundation) and Chris Waldbillig (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife [WDFW] and Coastal MRC Coordinator) were also in attendance. Introductions Public Comments Wendy Feltham was sorry to miss the last NPC MRC meeting and appreciated the minutes. She was impressed with Megan Juran’s work of marine debris cataloging and removal along the coast. Additions to and Approval of the Agenda John Hunter added an update on the upcoming Northwest Aquatic and Marine Educators (NAME) Conference under New Business. The updated agenda was approved by consensus. Approval of the February NPC MRC Summary The February NPC MRC Summary was approved by consensus as written. Announcements Megan Juran announced the Coast Cleanup scheduled for Earth Day, 4/25/26; registration will be opening on the Washington CoastSavers website. Lee First announced a remote marine debris cleanup on the Quinault Reservation scheduled for 5/16/26 to 5/17/26; to volunteer, contact Lee at leefrider7@gmail.com. Old Business There was no old business. NPC MRC 3/17/2026 DRAFT Meeting Summary 2 New Business Humpback Whales of the North Pacific and their Aerial Acoustic Ecology Research biologist Dr Fred Sharpe presented some of his research and expertise on humpback whales. While there are concerns about whale predation on salmon populations, particularly around hatchery facilities, whales are also very important for the whale pump, increasing marine productivity, moving nutrients up to the photic zone, translocating nutrients from energy-rich cold water areas to more sub-tropical areas, and becoming part of the Sulphur-reducing bacteria communities on the ocean floor when they die and decompose. It is also thought that large whales can sequester carbon and lock it into more stable forms through enhanced productivity, and as marine organisms fall to the ocean floor and get locked into plate tectonic geological processes. He thanked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Marine Fisheries Service for their training, writing permits, and establishing global models for protecting marine resources including marine mammals. Marine mammals underwent intensive exploitation during the colonial era, with large whales being eliminated in many areas of the Salish Sea for about half a century. Many of these animals are now coming back and having to learn how to be in these environments again. Humpback whales are easily distinguished by the sensory nodules all over the front of the animal, telescoping blowholes, and the enormous flippers that can be up to one third of their length. They are also global citizens, found in all major ocean basins of the world. The Strait of Juan de Fuca seems to be an important dividing line. Most of the humpback whales to the north of the Straits are Polynesian in their derivation, whereas most of the whales to the south come from Mexican and Central American populations. They have structured movements between wintertime breeding and their movements north to productive foraging waters in the spring. Because of the vastness of the whale superhighways that cover huge areas of the world’s oceans, industrial ship noise that can travel through open ocean basins is a growing concern. Fred noted that it was nice to work in inshore waters where there was reduced exposure to the ship noise. Fred displayed a graphic of the humpback whale’s population trajectory: since the cessation of whaling in 1950’s when the population was at around 1,400, the population steadily increased to around 30,000 until 2012 when the population took a large hit and 7,000 to 8,000 whales died. Now there is an average annual growth rate of about three percent, hovering at around 21,000 to 22,000 animals. A lot of the population data came from citizen scientists. He observed that it was natural for animals to come into equilibrium with their food supply. They are remarkable foragers, feeding on a variety of food types. Depending on those, they develop cultures and foraging tactics, which are socially learned from each other. For example, when preying on fast and agile schooling fishes, cooperation is very important. Relative to humans, humpback whales have very large brains with complex anatomical features, including great quantities of spindle neurons, which are associated with social intelligence, communication, and compassion. This is likely one of the reasons why they are so intensely social and such excellent acoustic communicators. They make a lot of social chatter when they are working as teams and develop lasting bonds when hunting elusive prey. Complex prey types equal complex foraging and social tactics. The whales engage in tool-using behavior when they deploy bubbles in various configurations to capture their schooling prey. Some of Fred’s graduate research at Banfield Marine Station focused on testing ideas about the function of rising bubbles on schooling prey, whether it was the mechanical agitation of the bubbles, the acoustics they radiated, or some sort of visual component of rising bubbles that the whales used to herd and corral prey. He brought Pacific herring schools into the lab and deployed various configurations to show that when fish were put into the middle of one of these bubble nets, they were reluctant to cross through it, even when they were frightened by predatory stimulus. Another interesting form of bubble structure that the whales produce is a bubble ring, an entirely different structure from the bubble spirals that the whales use to corral schooling fish. Fred and several colleagues published a paper on this research titled "Humpback Whales Blow Poloidal Vortex Bubble Rings.” The bubble ring is a rapidly spinning halo structure that rises to the surface, some measuring about 12 to 14 feet in NPC MRC 3/17/2026 DRAFT Meeting Summary 3 diameter. Most of the incidents that they have documenting these types of bubbles come from being around humans. Fred acknowledged some sampling bias because humans are often present during the documentation of these events. However, with the advent of drones and underwater access systems, scientists are getting a lot better at spying on whales and can observe that the bubble rings are largely deployed in the presence of people. Three quarters of the examples involve the whales approaching humans in a goal-oriented fashion, appearing to be interested in entertaining, playing, or challenging and very aware of being observed. This shows a remarkable sentience. Bubbles are amazing because they represent a form of tool-using behavior and communication that is not available to terrestrial animals. Trying to decipher them has been part of Fred’s research. Humpback whales’ spindle shaped bodies, large wing-like flippers, and high maneuverability allow them to carve out all kinds of different structures. One of the goals Fred’s team has now is to build a bubble ring generator so that people can answer the whales’ invitations. Some of their other research is trying to directly tap into the whales’ social structures and communication systems, including repeating whale sounds to the animals in an attempt to converse with them. The scientists want to know the diversity and behavioral context of sounds. Their theories are tested by dropping a speaker and playing sounds back to the animals in various contexts. One of their recent projects is 2025 Humpback Aerial Sounds Research at Five Finger Lighthouse in Alaska, trying to come up with additional tools to detect presence and absence and monitor sounds underwater and through the atmosphere. Knowing where whales are is very important because there are many human hazards that befall them, including entanglements, and ship strikes, which are among the greatest whale killers globally. Fred shared NOAA’s hotline: 1-866-767-6114, and the US Coast Guard Channel 16 for reporting entangled whales. Discussion followed on local support, of which signage is a big part, and behavioral changes around foraging when food availability shifts. NAME Conference John Hunter announced the upcoming NAME Fall Conference: Sound Science, Shared Learning, which will be held at the Dumas Bay Center in Federal Way from 10/2/26 to 10/4/26. John welcomed any thoughts for presentations, keynote speakers, mailing lists, or otherwise. They will start selecting presenters in mid-April. The conference rotates among the four chapters, so three to four years from now, the conference will be back in Washington again. He suggested thinking about how to encourage a marine focus for that conference, consider existing resources, and draw a greater representation of attendees from the coast. River and Ocean Film Festival Planning Ian Miller gave an update on the Film Festival, which has an updated website inviting film submittals. He expressed concern about tying the Film Festival in with the Fish ‘n’ Brew, which would relegate the Film Festival to the Friday night of 10/2/26; this timing might limit the people who would be able to attend. He asked the NPC MRC whether they thought that would be a successful strategy. The group discussed the value of tying the Film Festival to another related event and of reaching locals by keeping it connected to Fish ‘n’ Brew and pushing the timing of the film showing late enough in the day to coincide with sunset, which is around 7 PM. While they agreed that it was hard to tell whether the correlation would benefit the Film Festival, there was consensus to give it a try. Fish ‘n’ Brew is hosted by the Pacific Coast Salmon Coalition and features displays from local natural resources organizations. Photos of last year’s Fish ‘n’ Brew can be found here, and more information can be found here. Ian had an email exchange with the organizer, who was interested in the collaboration and offered to include the Film Festival with their marketing. Next steps include adding the date to the website, confirming with the Fish ‘n’ Brew organizer, and soliciting films, which need to be submitted by mid-June. NPC MRC 3/17/2026 DRAFT Meeting Summary 4 Current Project News Jill Silver said that Elizabeth Davis came out to Rialto Beach with other team members of the Coastal Hazards Study and collected data and pictures. There was a meeting scheduled between Jill, Elizabeth, and Tami Pokorny to get an update on the project, but Elizabeth was offered a position with US Geological Survey (USGS) to conduct the same study. Jill wondered if having the recognition and support of the NPC MRC might have been instrumental in receiving the offer from USGS. This might result in the project funding of about $10,000 from NPC MRC being returned and redistributed. Tami added that the only other project that was not yet under contract was with Stonybrook University, but Guleed Ali was not concerned. She hoped to hear back about that soon. The team has already started preparations for coming out to the Olympic Peninsula this summer to begin the project. The OCNMS will be hosting the Remotely Operated Vehicle Competition in May. Tami added that she and Megan Juran connected with former NPC MRC member Chiggers Stokes, longtime advocate for the removal of marine debris caches from Olympic National Park backcountry beaches. They will schedule a virtual meeting for next week. Megan added that she was interested in historical photos of debris caches, especially if the location and date could be identified; she can be reached at Coordinator@CoastSavers.org. Updates Coast MRC Update Chris Waldbillig reported some substantial state budget cuts to regional fisheries enhancement groups, WDFW, wildlife, land maintenance, and fisheries monitoring; the budget is not good for natural resources. In spite of the governor’s emphasis on increasing law enforcement and WDFW putting in a request for an improved budget for that, they actually lost a significant amount of law enforcement positions, which was another unwelcome surprise. The good news is that the MRCs have not taken a hit. Tami Pokorny said that she was making gradual progress on the Storymap of the coastal MRCs and their projects. The next MRC coordinator meeting is scheduled for 4/23/26. Washington Coastal Marine Advisory Council (WCMAC) Rod Fleck gave an update. The last meeting was held on 3/6/26. The next meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, 3/18/26, and will include an update from the economic resiliency work group, briefing on ocean energy updates, and a discussion on European green crab. The agenda and other WCMAC meeting materials can be found on the Ecology website. Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council Chris Butler-Minor gave an update. The next meeting is scheduled for 3/19/26 and will be virtual. The agenda includes prioritization for council members and the Sanctuary, and a presentation on Pacific spotted ratfish. The meeting will be virtual and open to the public. West Coast Ocean Alliance Jennifer Hagen reported that the Alliance was establishing their next set of indicators. Ocean acidification is at the top. They are trying to decide on three more of the following: beach water quality, rocky shore biota, marine mammals, beach width, and ocean temperatures. The selection process includes looking at the available data; if it is transferable; and trying to cover the entire west coast, which can be dominated by California data. The result will be a two-page document describing each indicator and showing trends over time. These are set to be completed by next spring. The Tribal portion of the Alliance is planning a trip back to Washington D.C. to meet with elected officials and agency leaders on ocean issues. The annual Summit will be held in Ventura, California, focusing on their actions over the next couple of years and putting more emphasis on science. Invasive European Green Crab NPC MRC 3/17/2026 DRAFT Meeting Summary 5 Jennifer Hagen announced that the Makah and Quileute Tribes have Washington Conservation Corps assistance this year. They are gearing up for this season’s trapping. Marine Debris Megan Juran announced the Washington Coast Cleanup, scheduled for 4/25/26. She is working on getting permits from the Olympic National Park for the Ozette triangle cleanup and will share that information when it is approved. Climate/Fossil Fuels Related There was nothing new to report. Administrative Update Tami Pokorny said that Chase O’Neil offered to host the NPC MRC in person next month. Tami is looking for agenda topics, and invited thoughts for projects that could use the $10,000 from Elizabeth Davis’s Coastal Hazards project if it gets returned. No request for proposals is needed for projects up to $10,000. Next Agenda (April 21, 2026): The next NPC MRC Meeting will be held on 4/21/26. Public Comments/General Chris Butler-Minor reminded the group about the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Marine Discovery Center in Port Angeles on 4/8/26. Wendy Feltham recommended the book Is a River Alive by Robert Macfarlane. Adjourn at 5:36 PM