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About Cannon Beach gazette. (Cannon Beach, Or.) 1977-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 2018)
VOL. 42, ISSUE 4 WWW.CANNONBEACHGAZETTE.COM FEBRUARY 23, 2018 FALLEN STARS Sea star wasting unusually high at Haystack Rock Survey findings could be a worrisome indicator By Brenna Visser Cannon Beach Gazette A wasting disease is again plaguing sea stars at Hay- stack Rock — and it’s not clear why. A survey in January found that 64 of the 247 sea stars monitored had symptoms. The spread of the dis- ease in the sea star population — 26 percent — is high- er than other locations on the West Coast. The disease was first spotted in Washington state’s Olympic National Park in June 2013, and then shortly after on the coast from Alaska to Southern California. It didn’t appear at Haystack Rock until 2014, where a summer survey showed more than 70 percent of the population was affected. The population bounced back in 2015 when there was a sharp increase in the birth of baby sea stars. PHOTOS COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP Sea stars at Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach have been hit hard by a wasting disease. See Stars, Page 7A Fire district foregoes hike As demand grows, volunteers step up Extra money would have paid for firefighter paramedics Food pantry gets creative to handle growing need By Brenna Visser Cannon Beach Gazette PAID COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP Checking equipment to ensure it is in working order is a daily task at the Cannon Beach fire department. “I think wording is important,” said board member Bob Cerelli. “This shows we have more options for this money that can be helpful with the overall needs of the dis- trict.” Modifying the levy also helps pave the way to propose an increase in the future, Benedict said, after the fire district has more time to educate the community about the reasons for a higher property tax bill. It will also allow the district to consolidate the budgeting process and open up funds for more general maintenance and supplies, Benedict said. The vote was unanimous, but some board members had concerns that changing the name without changing the rate could cause confu- sion among voters. “I’m concerned about changing the wording. With all these bond is- sues out, I don’t want people to get confused. The most important thing See Levy, Page 6A Unraveling a whale of a mystery PERMIT NO. 97 ASTORIA, OR PRSRT STD US POSTAGE The Cannon Beach Rural Fire Protection District will not propose a tax increase on this year’s fire chief levy to pay for firefighter paramedics. Residents will vote in May whether to renew the levy that pays for the fire chief’s salary, expenses and training at the rate of $0.1488 per thousand of assessed property. This rate will again bring in about $141,469 to the fire district over five years. Fire Chief Matt Benedict had sug- gested increasing the rate up to $0.35 per thousand of assessed property and modifying the fire chief’s levy into an operational one to allow fund- ing for two firefighter paramedics. But after a month of discussion, the fire district board came to a con- sensus that voters were unlikely to pass another tax increase after pass- ing the $99.7 million bond in 2016 for the new Seaside school campus. While the rate will remain the same, the board did vote to modify the levy so that revenue can be used for all operational and staffing needs, rath- er than just costs associated with the fire chief. Wednesday, all taking home about three to five days worth of food. While those visiting the food pantry represent a diverse popula- tion, Littell and Wood, the co-chair- women, said almost everyone they By Brenna Visser Cannon Beach Gazette serve lives from Cannon Beach to Jewell. In an informal survey last As Nancy Littell and Judy Wood year, volunteers interviewed 89 prepared for the Cannon Beach households and found about 50 percent of all custom- Food Pantry’s week- ers worked in a hotel, ly Wednesday service, ‘THE NEED restaurant or retail job they reminisced about in Cannon Beach. the day it first opened. IS HERE, “The need is here, Ten years ago, the THE NEED the need is strong and food pantry was a few ta- bles lined up in the base- IS STRONG it’s increasing,” Lit- tell said. “A lot people ment of Cannon Beach AND IT’S don’t realize we’re even Community Church. A few minutes before they INCREASING.’ here. They ask, ‘Why do we need a food bank were supposed to open in a place like Cannon their doors, no one was Nancy Littell Beach?’ Well, we have waiting in line. the need.” “I remember think- ing, ‘What if we throw a party and no one comes?’” Littell Contributing factors The rising demand for emer- laughed. “Yeah, well, I don’t worry about that now. Our dance floor is gency food is nothing new, Clat- sop County Regional Food Bank full.” Over the past two years, the Director Marlin Martin said. More number of households using the than 25 percent of county resi- small pantry in the shuttered Can- dents qualify for emergency food non Beach Elementary School has assistance, and the number of almost doubled. The food pantry households served peaked at 1,400 used to serve about 26 households countywide in 2017. a week. Now, Littell and Wood are See Food, Page 6A seeing closer to 40 families every Marine ecologists study coast’s whale habitat for answers By Nancy McCarthy For Cannon Beach Gazette NANCY MCCARTHY Marine ecologist Leigh Torres de- scribes what her team from the Marine Mammal Institute have discovered about the gray whales that visit the Oregon Coast. Whales have existed for millions of years, but, like the depths of the oceans they live in, they remain mostly a mystery. Marine ecologist Leigh Torres and her collaborators at Oregon State University, where she is an assistant professor, are trying to unravel some of that mystery by studying whales at the Oregon coast. Of the 200 whales that visit Or- egon regularly between May and October, scientists know little, Tor- res said during a “World of Haystack Rock” lecture Feb. 14 in the Cannon Beach Library. “We really don’t know much about them,” she said. “But we do know they have ‘site fidelity’; the same individuals come here year after year, and we can see the same ones pretty regularly.” But with the advent of drones, computers and other testing equip- ment, it is easier to observe, measure and analyze the giant creatures in their habitat without disturbing them. “The Oregon coast habitat is real- ly important for these individuals be- cause this is their prime feeding sea- son and their prime feeding habitat,” Torres said. While the coast is important for the whales, the whales are also important to Oregon’s economy, Torres noted. In 2008, whale watching brought in nearly $30 million, she said. “And that was 10 years ago,” she added. “They’re an important part of our economy, our culture, and we all like to see them. So, the important message here is that we don’t want the gray whale to be disturbed, or leave or not show up in this habitat.” Torres is working on four research projects on the whales’ habitat: vessel traffic impacts, preferable locations and food, entanglements and ocean noise. By using surveyor’s equipment and trigonometry in Depot Bay and Port Orford, Torres tracked vessels and whales in their vicinity. She learned that whales will continue to feed or travel to another site even with a vessel 100 meters away. How- ever, if they were searching for food as a vessel approached, the whales would leave the area. Until recently, Oregon lacked guidelines about how to operate ves- sels around whales, Torres said. Her team took its collected data to fishery groups and together they eventually See Whales, Page 7A