January 16, 2015 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 11A
K-9 program ‘a great tool’ for local law enforcement
He’s got a great temperament.
He’s smart. He’s doing really
good with the trainer so far,”
Gregory said.
bounds” ahead of his prede-
cessor, “very hard working”
when its handler moved to
and “more able to concentrate
Bend, said Paul Williams,
on the job at hand.”
chief deputy at the Clatsop
“It seems like an easier
‘Leaps and bounds’
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partnership for Josh,” the
“They are a wonderful tool
Gunner doesn’t exactly chief added.
that allows us to utilize their have a tough act to follow.
Gregory doesn’t foresee
inherent traits to help us com-
The department’s previous running into any Cash-esque
plete our mission” — in this ZRXOGEH.RI¿FHU³&DVK´ GLI¿FXOWLHVZLWK*XQQHUZKR
FDVH ¿QGLQJ LOOLFLW GUXJV KH never made it through the is a “totally different dog,” he
said.
training with the Washing- VDLG ³, IHHO UHDOO\ FRQ¿GHQW
Gunner likely will work WRQ &RXQW\ 6KHULII¶V 2I¿FH with him.”
with other law enforcement Though he initially showed
Since Gregory is entering
agencies, perhaps even in Til- much promise when the Can- Gunner’s training process
lamook County, Schermer- non Beach Police Department midstream, the handler is
horn said.
acquired him in August, Cash learning how to read the dog’s
Although Gunner’s train- turned out to be rather jumpy, body language and work off
ing in Cannon Beach and afraid of heights and, when he of his tells, Schermerhorn
Washington County will be detected drugs, was inclined said.
ongoing, he is expected to to bark aggressively rather
“We’re getting into that
EHFHUWL¿HGDQGLQVHUYLFHE\ then lead Gregory straight to rhythm together,” Gregory
March. Gunner, whose radio them. Cash was returned to said.
call sign is 709, is considered Schultz, his original owner, in
Top Dog, top dollar
WKH GHSDUWPHQW¶V ³QLQWK RI¿ early October.
Last year, the department
cer.” He lives with Gregory
“We really liked Cash,”
and his family.
Schermerhorn said. But raised $29,417 for the K-9
“He’s a really good dog. Gunner is already “leaps and RI¿FHU SURJUDP DQG PRQH\
K-9 from Page 1A
is still trickling in, Schermer-
horn said.
“In fact, we’ve had peo-
ple ask if they can continue
to make donations,” he said.
The department is trying
to set up an account that al-
lows people to automatical-
ly donate a portion of their
paychecks to the program
monthly.
But whereas Schultz do-
nated Cash, the department
paid $6,200 for Gunner, who
was purchased from Top
Dog Police K-9 Training and
Consulting, a company in
Modesto, Calif. That amount
also paid for a one-year war-
ranty on Gunner’s health that
will include a total refund or
replacement if Gunner’s con-
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Still in place are the com-
munity donations from Dogs
Allowed Cannon Beach,
which has pledged to provide
free dog food for the life of
“Gunner” stands
at attention in
Cannon Beach
City Hall during
his fi rst graveyard
shift with his han-
dler, Offi cer Josh
Gregory. In addi-
tion to his training
in narcotics detec-
tion, the 2-year-old
chocolate Labrador
will be trained in
search and rescue.
ERICK BENGEL PHOTO
the program, and Dr. Robert
Remensnyder, a veterinarian
at the Seaside Pet Clinic who
will administer Gunner’s rou-
tine check-ups free of charge.
Gregory said he is sorry
it’s taking so long to make the
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but “everything happens for a
reason,” he said. “Sometimes
these things take time.”
“We’re looking forward to
it. It’s another great tool for
local law enforcement,” Wil-
liams said. The sheriff’s de-
partment appreciates Cannon
Beach starting the program,
he added.
Reason for the sea star disease outbreak is still unknown
Wasting from Page 1A
out millions of sea stars at
several sites along the West
Coast, from Alaska to South-
ern California.
Wasting events have hap-
pened before, but “we’ve
never seen the disease ar-
rive at the levels that we’ve
seen over the past year, year
and a half,” said Melissa
Miner, a research associate
at the University of Califor-
nia, Santa Cruz, who works
with MARINe.
The disease begins as
lesions on a sea star’s body
that degrade its tissue, shriv-
HOXSLWVUD\VDQG¿QDOO\GLV
solve the invertebrate into
a pale goo. It usually kills
the organism within a few
days to a couple of weeks,
though some sea stars may
slough off infected rays be-
fore the lesions reach their
vital organs and later regen-
erate them.
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disease at Haystack Rock
last March. By the end of
July, most of the sea stars
in the rock’s intertidal zone
had died.
“Sea stars were falling
apart,” she said. “We could
see that sea stars were dying
right in front of us.”
However, “that’s not
happening anymore,” she
said. “In general, we’re not
seeing category 4 anymore.
We’re seeing mostly cate-
gory 1 or 2.”
Comebacks
Right now, HRAP and
MARINe are focusing on
the number of new sea stars
in a given sea star popula-
tion and what species are
thriving in the aftermath of
the wasting.
In recent months, six-
rayed sea stars have prolif-
erated at the Needles near
Haystack Rock, despite
that very few were recorded
during HRAP’s July survey.
“I’ve never seen so many
six-rayed sea stars in my
life,” Ferber said, adding
that “none of the six-rayed
that we have found had any
signs of disease.”
Because most of the
larger sea stars that eat the
smaller six-rayed species
died of wasting disease,
Ferber suspects that six-
rayed sea stars don’t have
many natural predators.
“That’s just a hypothesis,”
she said.
When HRAP conducts its
sea star survey this month,
she will be interested to see
PHOTO COURTESY OF HAYSTACK
ROCK AWARENESS PROGRAM
Th is photo of a dying sea
star, taken in May at Hay-
stack Rock, shows the or-
ganism at roughly Stage 3 as
it disintegrates into a white
mush. By July, more than 90
percent of the sea stars at
the rock had succumbed to
the wasting disease.
whether the six-rayed sea
stars have continued to mul-
tiply.
Miner noted that at sever-
al coastal sites in Whatcom
County, Wash., species of
ochres and evasterias seem
to be making a comeback.
“There are a lot of ju-
veniles at nearly all of our
sites, way more than we’ve
ever seen before,” she said.
Unknowns
Last summer, marine sci-
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the virus responsible for the
sea stars’ dramatic die back.
A
disease-causing
many unknowns, includ-
ing the reason juvenile sea
stars are less likely to con-
tract and die from the wast-
ing disease. Is it that larg-
er sea stars carry a greater
viral load of the densovirus
(which naturally occurs in
sea star populations)? Or
is it just easier for younger
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“Because
scientists
don’t know what causes the
densovirus to kill the sea
stars — and what caused
this outbreak to happen —
it’s kind of hard to say for
sure why the smaller indi-
viduals aren’t affected as
SUSAN GLARUM PHOTO
much,” Ferber said.
Becca Cudmore, a Brooklyn-based science writer, who is
And, since the virus
wearing a black jacket, takes notes during HRAP’s October was already present, the
sea star survey. Nadine Nordquist, center, an HRAP staff question remains: Why is
interpreter, and Alix Lee, the program’s 2014 intern, gather the disease suddenly erupt-
information to send to the Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal ing on a much larger scale
Network.
now than at any time in the
past?
“We just don’t know
“densovirus”
associated mortality of sea stars, ac-
with sea stars that is “in cording to a study published at this point,” Miner said,
greater abundance in dis- in November in the journal adding that some environ-
eased than in healthy sea Proceedings of the National mental factors may have
exacerbated the widespread
stars” is “the most promis- Academy of Sciences.
ing candidate disease agent”
However, that answer wasting. “There’s still a lot
responsible for the mass LVQ¶W GH¿QLWLYH 7KHUH DUH to learn.”
Dune grading is ‘a continuing
job that’s been done before’
dispute the main facts of the re- proposal, she said.
quest, agreeing that the dunes
Mike Manzulli, chairman
Both methods carry the sand had grown to a level that may of the Ecola Creek Watershed
out to sea. In some places, at inconvenience homeowners.
Council, argued that the city’s
least 25 feet of sand needs to
Instead, they pointed out comprehensive plan does not
be excavated, said Tom Horn- that, while Breakers Point permit the dumping of sand
ing, a geologist working with is required to submit semi- into the Ecola Creek Estuary
the homeowners association. annual reports regarding the solely to enhancte property
Without permitting de- three-year effects of each dune owners’ views.
lays, the project would grading project, only two such
Furthermore, many com-
happen in two phases, the reports exist in the public re- munities that have recently
¿UVW WKLV 0DUFK DQG $SULO cord.
experienced natural disasters
the second in February and
“We’ve been told in years — including the Indonesian
March 2016.
past, when dune grading proj- tsunami of 2004, the Japa-
“This is a continuing job ects were allowed, that there nese tsunami of 2011, hurri-
that’s
been
canes Katrina
done before. ‘We love Cannon Beach. We
(2005)
and
We’ve done
Sandy (2012),
don’t want anything more
this in cooper-
etc. — are “re-
ation with the
building dunes
than just to have our view back
city of Can-
right now ...
as best we can have (it)’
non Beach,”
to protect the
Francis said.
community”
Ed Stone, Breakers Point homeowner
Break-
when they can
ers Point has
afford to do so,
done seven dune grading would be monitoring done he said. “I think we really need
projects, removing 4,000 thereafter on a regular basis to think about this.”
to 10,000 cubic yards per and reports submitted to the
Some opponents said that
project, since 2000. This city of Cannon Beach ... in nature ought to be allowed to
latest request calls for “a order to ascertain the effects take its course.
substantial increase over of the dune grading,” said Jan
“I have no doubt that some
what you’ve approved in Siebert-Wahrmund, a Can- of your views are gone. I think
the past,” City Planner Mark non Beach resident. “Where that’s probably very true,”
Barnes told the planning are these (by now numerous) resident Carol Bennett said.
commission.
monitoring reports?”
“I also think they built some
But “if you keep mak-
She also asked why the condos in the ’70s on an ac-
ing a bigger pile, you are planning commission was tive sand dune — what were
subjecting it to more wind even considering the Break- they thinking? (Breakers Point
movement,” Francis said. ers Point request “before these homeowners) bought condos
“You’re going to shift more many promised and required on an active sand dune —
sand onto adjacent proper- reports were turned in.”
what were they thinking might
ties and onto the Breakers
Fraser said the city, by not happen? Were they thinking
Point complex.”
demanding these monitoring the view was going to stay just
“We
love
Cannon reports, “did not hold up on the same? It’s not possible.”
Beach,” said Ed Stone, a their end of the bargain.”
“Those dunes are there for
Breakers Point homeown-
Until the city conducts a a reason. We may not under-
er since the early 1980s. comprehensive study of the stand it, even if we’re — no
“We don’t want anything effects of dune grading on offense — even if we’re ge-
more than just to have our the beach’s ecosystem, there ologists,” resident Tommy
view back as best we can should be a moratorium on Huntington said. “Nature does
have (it).”
any dune grading projects, this stuff for a reason, and to
said resident Susan Glarum. just destroy it for our view
Those opposed
“That should be the minimum or something like that is irre-
Most opponents did not response by the city to this sponsible.”
Dunes from Page 1A
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