The only problem I have with calling Puget Sound the Salish Sea is that it sounds so much like the Salton Sea, which is a disgusting body of water.

Ocean acidification is a critical concern- for example how it might affect oysters in Washington coastal waters. In the meantime, let's hope no more disasters befall the Pisasters!

that penis thing is a droopy plumose anemone. they're lovely when they're upright underwater but so ignoble when they're flaccid. just like penises.

Are we really sure the photo at top is not just a leaf with some glitter glue on it? Because I'm not ready to rule otherwise.

Yes! This is good news. I thought I saw a few young healthy ones on Seacrest Pier last week.

So, I didn't notice until today that EVERY SINGLE POST is a "click here to continue reading". That's not good.

@2: Oyster and shellfish farmers in WA are already affected by acidification -- they have to set the larva in waters off Hawaii, so the shells develop thickly enough.

A pulse of hit-and-run money might be better than nothing, but I'm with Barsh that long term research needs to happen. Many ecological processes happen on cycles longer than your typical two-three year grant. It would be great to set up a LTERS -- Long-Term Ecological Research Station -- in the Salish Sea.

There are already a bunch of long-term research projects with permanent data collection towers, buoys, and research stations - UW's Friday Harbor Labs that have had studies ongoing since before the 1940s, Puget Sound Ambient Monitoring Program, the huge blanket of research from NOAA, the enormous body of work through the Puget Sound Partnership - but the hinderance is that no one has the time or the money to keep many long-term studies going.

Long-term data collection means no papers written until a decade or so in, and no one can build a career on that kind of publication record any more.

As a diver, I've been seeing small sunflower and ochre (pisaster) stars for a while now. They don't seem to be getting much bigger, but I'm not sure how long it takes for them to grow to full size. Sadly, I've personally seen some smaller ones that have the telltale unhealthy wasting appearance too. It's really too early to say if they're going to thrive or not. Either way they number many fewer than before while the presence of green urchins and to a less extent mussels has noticeably increased.

Also, the Salish Sea is not just Puget Sound. It includes Puget Sound, Georgia Strait and Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Hmm, I wonder if any of these wonder organizations have tested any of the sea stars for the cesium from Fukushima? Its been washing up on our shores and bioaccumulating up the food chain for a few years now, I know everyone that gets paid to think likes to pretend it isn't so but scientific fact isn't a conspiracy theory. Cesium is an easy one to test for, its not like we need test results for all the 1200 radionuclides released in a triple reactor meltdown/explosion but something might be better than nothing.