The Los Angeles Times is reporting potential COVID-19 infection risk at California beaches, not just from other people out for walks and surfing, but from the ocean and its spray. The piece quotes Kim Prather, an atmospheric chemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who “worries SARS-CoV-2 could enter the ocean from sewage spills and outfalls, and […]
beaches
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Newsom Announces ‘Soft Closure’ of Parks, Beaches
Following a sunny weekend when Californians flocked to beaches and hiking trails despite a government order to stay home, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday a “soft closure” of state parks to curb the spread of coronavirus. While not completely blocking access to natural open spaces, the governor’s action immediately closes parking lots at many state parks […]
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High Surf Warning This Week
Starting today and building up in height through Thursday, the Eureka office of the National Weather Service is warning that “large, steep” waves will be washing up local beaches and over jetties this week. According to NWS, the waves will begin building 17 to 20 feet today and should reach up to 25 feet by Wednesday, […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Witch/Fossil Hunt!
I apologize in advance to anyone who didn’t want to be transported to this alternate universe just now. But you can relax because the only difference between this new universe and your old one is that I was elected president of the United States in 2016. My presidency started out OK. But then someone noticed […]
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Large Surf Headed to Local Beaches
The National Weather Office in Eureka is reminding Humboldt County residents of the oft-said mantra — never turn your back on the ocean — especially with the first major winter swell set to hit local beaches late today. The west-northwest sets could hit heights of 16 to 20 feet for west-northwest facing beaches, with the […]
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The Humble Humboldt Roots of the World’s Largest Coastal Cleanup Event
When you stand on the Earth’s surface, it seems infinite, a place beyond dimension. A human is less significant than an ant fallen into the mid-Pacific. Nothing. From space our world is less expansive. Those are often the youthful perspectives when one appraises the future. Nothing seems so fraught with possibilities, yet enmeshed with such […]
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Interior Releases Draft Plan to Open North Coast Waters to Oil Drilling
This morning the Trump administration announced sweeping plans to increase offshore oil drilling around the country, including in Northern California. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke released the draft five-year plan, which would potentially see a combined 47 site leases auctioned off in the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Region, Pacific Region and off the […]
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Fiberglass, Rubber & Adrenaline
Humboldt winter brings dark mornings with chilly temperatures, ferocious winds, eerie skies and rainy predictions. For some, the winds are reassuring. They mean a storm is brewing — one that has traveled thousands of miles to greet our shores with waves. While everyone else is hunkered down with a hot beverage, watching movies or staring […]
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Krill Kill
For weeks, now, beach-goers from Bodega Bay to Newport, Ore., have encountered ribbons of pink bedecking their ocean shorelines. It’s krill — millions of the shrimpy critters, many of them impregnated females. A marine ecologist based in Eureka is trying to pinpoint what’s causing this major whale staple to wash ashore in such numbers. According to […]
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Stone Lagoon breached!
It doesn’t happen often — maybe every few years — but when the spit at Stone Lagoon is breached the site is spectacular: ocean rushing in, McDonald Creek-fed lagoon waters flowing out, white riffles fluttering in the mouth temporarily opened to facilitate the exchange. Perhaps, if the timing is right, some lagoon-trapped creatures venture oceanforth […]
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Memorial for Family Swept into Sea
A memorial is planned for 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 9 at Arcata High School for 16-year-old Gregory “Geddie” Kuljian, his father Howard Kuljian and his mother Mary Elena Scott, the Times-Standard reported over the weekend. The family was caught up in heavy surf, which pulled first their dog, then Gregory, and then his parents […]
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Scare Crow
Freaked-out opposition and stern eyebrow-raising amongst the citizenry has caused the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to drop its plan to poison crows and ravens on Clam Beach as a means to protect the threatened Western snowy plover. The plan — called an experiment by the Fish and Wildlife Service — was to plant avicide-laced […]