A2
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2021
IN BRIEF
States reopen portion of
Columbia River to salmon fi shing
Salmon fi shing on a portion of the Columbia River
will reopen Saturday.
Fishery managers in Oregon and Washington state
will allow fi shing of fall Chinook, hatchery coho and
steelhead from the Warrior Rock line upstream to
fi shing deadlines at Bonneville Dam. Any steelhead
caught will need to be released through Oct. 31. Fish-
ermen are allowed to catch Chinook, but only hatchery
coho may be retained.
Camas Slough remains closed to all salmon and
steelhead fi shing until Sept. 30.
Last week, fi shery managers had closed the rec-
reational salmon fi shery from Astoria to the Bon-
neville Dam because of high impacts to a natural,
listed salmon stock. After a brief pause, however,
fi shery managers felt they could reopen a portion of
the river.
— The Astorian
MEMORIALS
Friday, Sept. 17
Memorial
ROPKINS,
Phil-
lip Robert — Memorial
from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in
the Camp Rilea Armory
Building, 33168 Patriot
Way
in
Warrenton.
Because it is a military
establishment, identifi ca-
tion is required at the gate
for all attendees.
Saturday, Sept. 18
CLARK,
Judith
“Judy” Paulsen — Cele-
bration of life at 11 a.m. at
the Peace First Lutheran
Church, 725 33rd St. in
Astoria.
CORRECTION
Wrong day — A break-in in Aldrich Point was
reported to law enforcement on Sept. 1. An On the
Record item on A2 on Sept. 4 incorrectly said the
break-in was reported on Aug. 31.
Correction
Walmart in Warrenton.
DUII
• Taylor Deshaun Flo-
rance, 26, of Seaside, was
arrested Thursday morn-
ing at the Holiday Inn
Express & Suites park-
ing lot near Marine Drive
and Columbia Avenue for
driving under the infl u-
ence of intoxicants and
reckless driving. He was
also charged with driving
with a suspended license.
• Jaden Michael Brad-
ford, 23, of Boulder City,
Nevada, was arrested
Monday at U.S. Highway
101 and Cullaby Lake for
DUII, driving uninsured
and driving without an
operator’s license.
• Jennifer Leann Law-
ler, 48, of Seaside, was
arrested Sunday near the
U.S Highway 101 and
U.S. Route 26 junction for
DUII.
• Curtis E. Newman,
45, of Bend, was arrested
Sept. 3 on U.S. Highway
30 near milepost 26 for
DUII. He was also cited
for driving with a sus-
pended license and driv-
ing uninsured.
Reckless driving
•
Tiff anie
Lisa
Boldizsar, 53, of Red-
mond, Washington, was
arrested Thursday on U.S.
Route 26, near milepost
19, for reckless driving
and two counts of reckless
endangerment of a high-
way worker.
On the Record
PUBLIC MEETINGS
MONDAY
Seaside Tree Board, 4 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway.
Airport Advisory Committee, 4 p.m., terminal building at
Astoria Regional Airport.
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway.
TUESDAY
Clatsop Care Health District, 5 p.m., (electronic meeting).
Cannon Beach City Council, 6 p.m., work session, (elec-
tronic meeting).
Lewis and Clark Fire Department Board, 6 p.m., main fi re
station, 34571 U.S. Highway 101 Business.
Warrenton City Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S. Main
Ave.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Established July 1, 1873
(USPS 035-000)
Published Tuesday, Thursday
and Saturday by EO Media Group,
949 Exchange St., PO Box 210, Astoria, OR
97103 Telephone 503-325-3211,
800-781-3211 or Fax 503-325-6573.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
The Astorian, PO Box 210, Astoria, OR
97103-0210
DailyAstorian.com
Luke Whittaker/Chinook Observer
Axel Redinger, 4, pushes a toy truck toward the surf while playing on Waikiki Beach.
Expedition to search for
new species of beaked whale
A search at the
garbage patch
By JES BURNS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
ON THE RECORD
Assault
• Dillon R. Fitzpatrick,
29, of Hammond, was
arrested Sunday on Rus-
sell Drive in Warrenton
for assault in the fourth
degree.
Burglary
• Steven Wolf, 44, of
Warrenton, was arrested
Wednesday on S. Main
Avenue in Warrenton for
burglary in the fi rst degree
and harassment.
Theft
• Timothy Joseph
Butcher, 61, of Ventura,
California, was indicted
Aug. 26 for unauthorized
use of a vehicle and theft
in the fi rst degree.
• Anita Kay Rogers, 57,
of Seaside, was arrested
on Sept. 3 for theft in the
fi rst degree at Walmart in
Warrenton. Rogers was an
employee at Walmart.
• Ronald Lee Nida, 61,
of Rainier, was arrested
Sept. 3 for theft in the
second degree and crim-
inal mischief in the third
degree at Walmart. The
person with him, Cynthia
A., Wiseman, 53, of Asto-
ria, was arrested for crim-
inal trespass in the second
degree.
Criminal mischief
• Timothy Edward
Adams, 41, of Knappa,
was arrested Sunday for
criminal mischief in the
third degree, possession
of burglary tools and theft
in the second degree at
TRUCKIN’
Circulation phone number:
800-781-3214
Periodicals postage paid at Astoria, OR
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2021 by The Astorian.
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Oregon researchers are on
their way to the Great Pacifi c
Garbage Patch to look for a
potentially new species of
whale.
The expedition, led by a
team from Oregon State Uni-
versity, will sail nearly a week
onboard the R/V Pacifi c Storm
to get to the search location —
the area of the Pacifi c about
halfway between Oregon and
Hawaii where the ocean’s
stray trash congregates.
“It’s a high-risk, high-re-
ward project — a somewhat
needle in the haystack trip,”
said expedition lead Lisa Bal-
lance, director of Oregon
State’s Marine Mammal Insti-
tute. “At the same time, we
have some good indicators
that where we are headed, this
animal is there.”
The researchers know the
whale they’re looking for is a
type of beaked whale. These
shy whales live in remote
parts of the ocean, hunting
squid at extreme depths. They
resemble an oversized por-
poise, with a somewhat comi-
Simon Ager/Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
An unidentifi ed beaked whale photographed off Baja
California, Mexico.
cally small head.
“There have been some
sightings of a cryptic whale.
Quick photographs snapped.
… We’ve taken a look at
them. We don’t know what
that animal is. So we want to
go fi nd it,” she said.
Relatively little is known
about the whales; in fact, six
known species of beaked
whale have never actually
been observed alive. And
because so little is known,
there is no way of track-
ing how human activity in
the ocean is aff ecting their
populations.
The area with the garbage
patch is technically called
the North Pacifi c Gyre and
it’s a massive area to search.
And the expedition will only
have about 20 days on loca-
tion. But the researchers think
that if beaked whales behave
like other whales, they will
frequent the same areas from
year to year to feed.
“Humans do the same
thing. We have our favorite
restaurants, our favorite gro-
cery stores. So the more we
know about whales, dolphins
and porpoises, the more we
learn that that is actually not
unusual and it may actually
be typical for beaked whales,”
Ballance said.
Once they make it to the
gyre, the researchers will tow
an underwater microphone
behind the boat 24 hours a day
to try to pick up whale calls.
They’ll also be scanning the
surroundings with high-pow-
ered binoculars. If success-
ful, they will then attempt to
photograph and collect DNA
samples to try to determine
what species the whales are.
If the researchers are able
record the unique whale calls
of new or previously unob-
served species of beaked
whales, it will give them a
tool to track the populations to
understand more about their
numbers, range and if human-
caused noise in the ocean is
disrupting their behavior.
It’s unknown if there’s a
connection between the Great
Pacifi c Garbage Patch and the
beaked whales that are sus-
pected to live in the area. As
a side project, the researchers
will be catching the whales’
primary food source — squid
— living among the plastic
and other trash fl oating in the
area and analyzing them.
“If we can understand the
extent to which squids might
be impacted by the plastic, it’s
another step ( closer to under-
standing) the impacts on the
beaked whales themselves,”
Ballance said.
Part of the funding for the
expedition comes from sales
of Oregon’ gray whale license
plate, which supports Oregon
State’s Marine Mammal Insti-
tute in Newport.
State emphasizes disaster preparedness
By SAM STITES
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Oregon’s Offi ce of Emer-
gency Management is calling
on residents to think critically
about how they’re preparing
for the next big crisis event.
Over the past year, Ore-
gon has taken a beating from
severe wildfi res and drought,
destructive ice storms, tragic
heat events and a pandemic
that continues to fi ll hospitals
and morgues statewide.
With those events in mind,
the state is asking Oregonians
to “honor with action,” mean-
ing that the Offi ce of Emer-
gency Management wants
people to pay respect to those
who have lost their life, home
or livelihood to a disaster
event by taking individual
preparedness more seriously.
According to Andrew
Phelps, the director of the
Offi ce of Emergency Man-
agement, those actions can
look very simple, but go a
long way in terms of emer-
gency protection .
That includes doing things
like identifying evacua-
tion routes at home, work or
school; establishing an emer-
gency plan and practicing it;
packing a go-kit with essen-
tial items such as copies of
important documents, medi-
cations and phone chargers;
and signing up for emergency
notifi cations.
“If you and I are prepared
for an emergency, we know
how to get out of our homes
or evacuate our communities,
we’ve signed up for alerts and
we’ve got our kits or shelter-
Nathan Parsons/Warm Springs Agency
The Lionshead fi re started small and later erupted during the
Labor Day weekend windstorm in Oregon last year.
in-place kits ready, that’s two
more families that don’t nec-
essarily need assistance from
the fi re department or police
department,” Phelps said.
“Those resources can then go
to families that are under-re-
sourced or folks that have
disabilities and can’t access
transportation to evacuate.”
The Offi ce of Emergency
Management also suggests
other actions to take that
include establishing or join-
ing a Community Emergency
Response Team or a Neigh-
borhood Emergency Team ;
creating relationships with
neighbors to ensure every-
one is checked in on when an
emergency takes place; and
donating to or volunteering
with disaster relief organiza-
tions such as the American
Red Cross.
Since the 9/11 attacks
in 2001, governors across
the nation have proclaimed
September as National Pre-
paredness Month to remind
Americans that, while the
nation’s fi rst responders are
highly trained and skilled at
what they do, there will be
occasions in which they’re
stretched to the limit. In those
events, the onus will be on
everyone to do their part to
take care of themselves and
each other.
Phelps was living in New
York City during 9/11, and
he remembers how, even in
a city with emergency infra-
structure as well-resourced
as New York , there was still
devastation that followed as
emergency responders rushed
toward the World Trade Cen-
ter, leaving massive gaps in
service elsewhere.
Fast forward 20 years
and nearly 3,000 miles away
from New York, a diff er-
ent type of crisis had Ore-
gon’s emergency respond-
ers stretched to their limits
as they rushed to save lives
and property amid historic
wildfi res. Meanwhile, smoke
wreaked havoc on vulnerable
populations and caused peo-
ple to be hospitalized.
Just a few months later,
an ice storm left hundreds
of thousands across the state
without power. And a few
months beyond that, extreme
heat killed upward of 120
people.
At the same time, a Cas-
cadia Subduction Zone
earthquake hundreds of years
overdue looms every day.
Phelps believes that while
Oregonians are aware of the
dangers they face year in and
year out, they’re woefully
unprepared. That’s the major
message behind National
Preparedness Month.
“I don’t think everybody
understands that emergen-
cies and disasters can impact
them,” Phelps said. “We
have hazards of fi res, haz-
ards of fl ooding and earth-
quakes and winter storms
and utility outages, but the
one hazard that we really
struggle with is this hazard
of apathy, where folks think,
‘It can’t happen to me,’ or ‘I
can prepare later before the
disaster happens.’”
Phelps said the Offi ce of
Emergency
Management
is struggling to help Ore-
gonians see just how vul-
nerable they are. That’s the
main message behind the
agency’s push to get people
thinking about preparedness
during the month of Septem-
ber as the nation remembers
9/11, and as Oregon remem-
bers the destruction that took
place just a year ago.
“All of those things
make such a huge diff erence
between being a disaster vic-
tim or disaster survivor,” he
said.