Oregon man guides boat to safety - backwards
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/weird_news/12424788.htm
08/19/2005
Associated Press
NEWPORT, Ore. - Jim Peterson, a 61-year-old fisherman, was 80 miles off the coast of Newport last week
when the reverse gear seized up on him. After some frustration, Peterson managed to get the boat to shift
into reverse. But only reverse.
Far from his home port of Coos Bay, Peterson and the deckhand, Jeremy Welsh, considered their options Wait hours for a Coast Guard tow, wait for help from other fishermen or drive the boat all the way back in
reverse.
Peterson wasn't waiting.
"It was odd, watching the wake roll out the front windows; like watching a movie in reverse," Peterson told
The Register-Guard of Eugene.
Stranger still was trying to steer the 38-foot Alice M., a 60-year-old wooden troller. It was sort of like
backing up a truck towing a trailer - with some extra motion underneath.
"It can go in reverse, but the rudder isn't made for it," said Welsh, 34. "You go in a direction for 15
minutes, then you'd have to stop, zigzag around and correct yourself. You couldn't really steer while you're
driving, you'd have to position the boat in the direction you wanted. It was an ordeal."
A 39-hour ordeal, to be precise. The boat goes only about seven nautical miles an hour at full, forward
speed.
"I've talked to some old-timers," Peterson said. "Nobody's ever heard of anybody doing that before."
Early last Saturday, the pair arrived at the mouth of Yaquina Bay, which was closer than Coos Bay. It was
dark and foggy, so the men slept a few hours before crossing the bar. With four-foot seas and whitecaps,
crossing isn't an easy thing to do while traveling forward.
"We knew if the weather turned, it was going to be dangerous," Welsh said. "Definitely going through the
jaws (jetties) in Newport was scary."
But Peterson maneuvered the craft to safety, despite a quick turn he had to make when a startled charter
boat captain got too close. It wasn't the only strange look he got.
"One guy asked me what was wrong," Peterson said. "I told him I forgot something."
The pair made a hard landing at the docks with 13 tuna and one fish tale.
"The story is spreading," Welsh said. "I've gotten drinks bought for me in Charleston from people I don't
even know, just because I was on the boat."
Peterson spent Thursday in Newport filleting his catch and working on the transmission.
"It was hard to get used to just walking on the dock, forward," Peterson said. "Things were coming at me
too fast."
Man accused of being naked on Sequim Bay captured after allegedly flashing Port Townsend concert-goers
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/sited/story/html/215329
2005-08-19
by NICK KOVESHNIKOV
PORT TOWNSEND -- A Port Townsend man who caught the attention of a Coast Guard helicopter on
Tuesday by standing naked on the bow of his boat in Sequim Bay was arrested Thursday night after he
allegedly exposed himself to people standing on a Port Townsend dock.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office dispatched a boat about 7:30 p.m. Thursday after a caller complained
of a man exposing himself from the bow of his boat in Port Townsend Bay.
At that time, more than a 100 people were attending a concert in the Quincy Street dock area.
Sheriff's deputies contacted Lynn Merle Mowry, 52, and pursued his boat in the direction of Fort Worden
State Park, said Port Townsend Police Sgt. Joe Kaare.
In an attempt to elude deputies, Mowry rammed a Sheriff's Office patrol boat, Kaare said.
Shortly afterward, deputies took Mowry into custody and returned him to shore near the Northwest Marine
Sciences Center's dock at Fort Worden.
Officers from the Port Townsend Police Department, Fort Worden State Park and Port Gamble S'Klallam
tribal police assisted in the arrest.
Mowry stepped off the Sheriff's Office boat shouting slogans about American freedom as about two dozen
onlookers watched the drama unfold.
Booked into county jail
Port Townsend police took Mowry to the Jefferson County jail, where he was booked.
Deputies are still assessing damage to the Sheriff's Office boat, while Mowry's vessel has been secured at
the city dock.
Mowry may face charges for indecent exposure, eluding police and more, said Kaare.
A similar incident led to Mowry's detention on Tuesday, when he caught the attention of a Coast Guard
helicopter by standing naked on the bow of his boat in Sequim Bay.
Vessel safety checks offered
http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=395&ArticleID=26942&TM=51599.
32
The Daily Astorian
Thursday, August 18, 2005
The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary will offer free vessel safety checks for boat owners Sunday at the
Hammond Marina.
From 5 a.m. to 11 a.m., Auxiliary members trained in federal and state boat regulations and safety
equipment needs will stick a seal of approval on boats they determine to be safe. They will offer
suggestions to owners whose boats don’t meet regulations.
The Auxiliary, a civilian affiliate of the U.S. Coast Guard, has offered vessel safety checks during the busy
Buoy 10 fishing season, which started Aug. 1, for the past four years. For more information, contact
Auxiliary member David Wilson at 861-0709.
Feds clear 80% of salmon waters
http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=618&ArticleID=19168&TM=28899.
22
Friday, August 19, 2005
Under court order to clarify critical habitat designations, NOAA Fisheries on Aug. 12 trimmed about 80
percent of the river miles it had designated in 2000. The new habitat list is limited to streams in California,
Oregon, Washington and Idaho where endangered salmon and steelhead are known to exist.
In the four states, that amounts to more than 27,000 miles of streams in private and public ownership.
Bob Lohn, NOAA’s Northwest regional director, said the new designation will be used to build recovery
plans. Many are already in draft form, a process that continued while the agency re-did the controversial
2000 critical habitat work.
A coalition of environmental groups set the scene for more legal battles over salmon by the Aug. 11 release
of a 28-page report charging the finding amounts to a “rollback” of salmon protection mandated by the
Endangered Species Act.
“The proposal for critical salmon habitat is part of a broader scheme by the current administration and its
allies to dismantle the Endangered Species Act,” says the coalition’s report. It also puts down the Oregon
Plan for Salmon and Watersheds as “relying heavily” on inadequate rules dealing with forest management
and agricultural impact on habitat.
The official findings issued this month won’t take effect for 60 days after publication in the Federal
Register. They are no surprise. A draft was released in November, and NOAA met with state and tribal
fishery officials in April.
The official papers are on the Internet. For California, the site is swr.nmfs.noaa.gov; for the three
Northwest states, it is www.nwr.noaa.gov/1salmon/salmesa/crithab/chsite.htm.
In California, the designations reach from coastal streams below the Klamath River to Ventura County. The
Central Valley’s Sacramento and San Joaquin basins also drew miles of listings.
The Pacific Northwest designation includes tributaries of Puget Sound, most tributaries of the Columbia
and Snake rivers, and Oregon’s John Day River Basin.
Missing from the map are the Klamath Basin in California and the Rogue Basin and Oregon coastal
streams, where NOAA is partway through a review of status on endangered salmon species.
Those reviews should be complete by year’s end, said Brian Gorman of NOAA.
Federal land managers face ESA reviews for actions impacting streams used by listed fish. The critical
habitat designation also applies to actions on private lands that require federal permits such as those
involving modification to wetlands.
The 2000 critical habitat designations were withdrawn as part of a lawsuit brought by National Association
of Homebuilders.
Since that time, several other federal court cases addressed ESA critical habitat designation, some affirming
the logic of the Homebuilders’ case that said economic impact must be considered, others finding on
different portions of the 30-year-old law.
NOAA Fisheries said it couldn’t wait to resolve those issues under the most recent court order that set an
Aug. 15 deadline for publication of the West Coast critical habitat designations.
Tam Moore is based in Medford, Ore. His e-mail address is tmoore@capitalpress.com.
Ferry routes would ease traffic: County Council looks at several runs to help lighten congestion
http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/215235
2005-08-19
by Lori Varosh
Journal Reporter
The prospect of passenger ferry service across Lake Washington continues to tantalize commuters and
transit planners alike.
Ferries linking Kirkland with the University of Washington and Renton with Leschi are among eight
hypothetical routes included in a Waterborne Transit Study presented to a committee of the Metropolitan
King County Council this week.
A Kirkland route could attract 223,700 passengers in 2015, and play a role in easing the commuting pain of
Evergreen Point Bridge replacement, the study showed.
As roads have grown increasingly congested, the Regional Transit Committee sought the study as a way of
deciding what role the region's ample waterways will play in helping people move around.
``The idea of passenger ferries is attractive,'' explained David Hull, project manager of the Waterborne
Transit Study, which has been under way since January.
``We have a long, rich history of passenger ferry service in the region,'' Hull said. ``This is kind of back to
the future.''
To give the transportation department a handle on costs, benefits and issues associated with passenger ferry
service, the study examined two routes each on Puget Sound, Elliott Bay, Lake Union and Lake
Washington.
Though the study ``is not a route-planning exercise, but a policy study,'' Hull said, it showed that some of
the eight routes would be better used than others.
Assuming the ferry fare would equal bus fare, and student passes would be accepted, a Kirkland-to-UW
route would attract 223,700 passengers in 2015, compared to 387,300 on a West Seattle-to-downtown
route, 709,790 on a triangular route encompassing Vashon Island and just 33,400 on a Renton-to-Leschi
route.
Of the Kirkland riders, 63 percent would switch from buses, 20 percent would be new riders and 17 percent
would be tourists. Compare those numbers to 43 percent switchers, 14 percent new riders and 43 percent
tourists on the West Seattle-to-downtown route, and 72 percent switchers, 22 percent new riders and 6
percent tourists on a Renton-to-Leschi route.
Renton fares poorly, because riders would need to transfer to a bus to reach downtown, making all-bus
service faster, and because of the relatively low numbers of hotels, tourist attractions and other amenities to
attract tourists, Hull said.
Ferry service on Elliott Bay could help mitigate congestion resulting from replacement of the Alaskan Way
Viaduct, observed County Councilman Dow Constantine, as well as gridlock from reconstruction of the
Evergreen Point floating bridge.
Neither would solve the problem, however.
With 100,000 cars a day crossing the State Route 520 bridge, Hull said later, ``a passenger ferry could play
some role, but other mitigation would be needed.''
If the state has traffic mitigation money available to pay for such ferry service, however, it would be a way
of lessening the impact on Metro's other transit services, Hull said.
Before anyone starts looking for a ferry terminal, however, the County Council must determine whether
such passenger ferry service is feasible and, if so, how it should be financed and who should operate it.
Then more detailed questions would be addressed, including whether a Ferry District with taxing authority
should be established and what its boundaries should be, or how to determine the cost-effectiveness of
individual routes.
One thing is certain. A privately operated ferry is unlikely, said Victor Obeso, service implementation
manager.
``Passenger ferry service will not pay for itself and will need to be subsidized,'' Obeso told the transit
committee this week. Several private companies have expressed interest in joint operations, he said.
Such a subsidy might make sense, as long as ferries provide a way of selling transit to a significant number
of single-occupancy commuters, rather than simply causing bus riders to switch to ferries, observed
Constantine, whose council district encompasses the westernmost parts of King County.
Discussion with the transit committee will likely resume in October or November, Hull said.
Lori Varosh can be reached at lori.varosh@kingcountyjournal.com or 425-453-4234.