Freshwater Update

Coast Time

September 4, 2018 Comments (0) journal

Snapshot

To get to where you want to go, it is important to know where you are.

On November 10, a couple of months from now,the Ikkatsu Project is putting together something called the Tacoma Shoreline Survey. (It’s going to be a slightly more organized version of the one that I did in 2014… you can read about that one here.) It’s a single-day effort to cover all of Tacoma’s waterfront – approximately 13 miles – and count up what we find, in terms of marine debris and other trash.

For the purposes of this study, we’ll be staying out of the tide flats (perhaps another time). The entire distance will be broken down into 10 sections, which can be further divided, depending on the conditions and the number of people on-site. Where it’s possible, we’ll walk the shore, logging debris as we find it and then removing the items that we can. Where it’s not possible to walk along the shore, kayaks or paddleboards can be used to get in close. All of the separate entries will be combined and those numbers, along with the results from water and sediment samples that will be analyzed later, will give us a better understanding of exactly where we are.

It will be good data, without question. But it is also an excellent chance to volunteer for a few hours and be a part of this one-day snapshot. To get a look at our fair city from a perspective that few people have really seen… and to help lay the groundwork for change. It’s going to take some collaboration to really pull this off right. More info is forthcoming but if this sounds at all interesting to you and you think you might like to be a part, please circle the date on your calendar. And shoot me an email to let me know you’d like to stay in the loop.

The map will be out next week.