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Tribal Canoes Towing Underwater Probes in the Salish Sea Attract Widespread Interest, Gather Valuable Water-Quality Data
More than 100 canoes took part in the July 2008 voyage, launching from various points around the Salish Sea and beyond. In a first for the Tribal Journey, five of the canoes towed underwater probes that collected scientific data on water qualitypart of a collaborative effort with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to better understand how the Salish Sea is responding to pollution, urban growth, and climate change (see Sound Waves article, "USGS Will Collaborate with Coast Salish Indigenous Peoples to Measure Water Quality in the Salish Sea (Puget Sound, Strait of Georgia, and Strait of Juan de Fuca"). The probes, towed 1 to 2 ft beneath the water surface, measured such parameters as water temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity. The data were collected every 10 seconds, transmitted to a data logger onboard the canoe, and tagged with latitude and longitude automatically recorded from a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit. At the end of each day, the data were downloaded, given preliminary screening for quality control, and published in near-real time on the USGS Web site "A Blending of Science and Tradition." Visitors to this site can access the water-quality data by way of a Google map overlain with the tracks of the canoes as they made measurements (go to "MapsFollow the Journey" and click on "Daily Updates of the Journey"). Clicking on track segments (or on links listed below the master map) leads to more detailed maps that show every point where data were collected by a particular canoe on a particular day; clicking on a data-collection point opens a window listing the time, latitude, and longitude of the measurement and the recorded data.
Collection of water-quality data during the Tribal Journey was supported through the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, the Northwest Straits Commission, the USGS, and the Potlatch Fund. The project was coordinated by Sarah Akin, a scientist with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. USGS scientists Eric Grossman and Paul Schuster were invited by the Coast Salish to serve as science advisors in planning and conducting the study and analyzing the data. Participants in the collaboration were astounded by the magnitude of media interest, which resulted in television coverage, radio interviews, and articles in numerous print and online publications in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
This summer's Tribal Journeyand the concurrent collection of Salish Sea water-quality dataended on Landing Day, July 28, at Cowichan Bay, where the assembled groups celebrated their gathering and went on to hold the North American Indigenous Games (August 3-10). The GPS units and water-quality sensors have been retrieved and returned to the offices that maintain them. In the coming months, the participating scientists will examine the water-quality data more thoroughly to produce maps, geographic-information-system (GIS) data layers, and a report on the results. These products, in turn, will be used to identify important water-quality issues and design future studies in the Salish Sea.
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in this issue:
Scientists Map Arctic Sea Floor Tribal Canoes Gather Water-Quality Data
Diversity in the USGS Workforce Kvenvolden Honored at International Conference |