Look What the Nets Dragged In

On the pier behind Steamers on the waterfront downtown there's a little parking lot and then some picnic tables that don't seem to belong to any particular business. They're just there, free to be used by Steamers patrons, sack lunchers or Seattlest. It's a nice little area to hang out in for a few minutes if you think that sitting next to the water and watching the ferries go by might do some good. We generally only stay for a few minutes, staring into the water until the head-explodiness recedes and while it's pretty ok for an afternoon business district escape the spectrum of wildlife we've seen goes from jellyfish to seagulls with nothing in between. Now, as someone who often visits this place on lunch breaks or I-gotta-get-away-from-this-damn-desk-or-my-head's-going-to-explode breaks we were more than a little surprised to learn that 1) the Muckleshoot throw nets in the water downtown near the Edgewater and 2) they caught a gray whale this morning.

From the Seattle Times:

Those on the tribe's boat originally thought the whale was dead and were trying to cut it from the net, when it sprang to life, said Gorman. They sped up their attempts to free the whale, and it eventually swam off with some fishing gear still attached.

The gear could pose a problem for the whale, depending if it managed to free itself from it or not, he said.

"The whale has skedaddled," said Gorman. "We don't know where it is, nor do we know if it is in danger."