Results tagged “salmon”

     

A baker's dozen of Seattle eateries are featuring Bristol Bay sockeye this week, to call attention to the dangers the fish will face from a proposed open pit mine. Save Bristol Bay's salmon by eating salmon, they say! But a woman in Alaska thinks you should boycott those restaurants.

UW was awarded $126 million from the National Science Foundation to build an ocean observatory to study the Pacific Ocean. The $126M is part of $385 million being parcelled out by the NSF over 5½ years as part of its ocean observatories initiative, which is intended to build an underwater network to study climate variability and issues in circulation and acidification. UW will get $35 million in 2010 to install about 500 miles of cabling and sensor nodes on the sea floor, which will give researchers real-time access to oceanic data. They'll have their hands full.

John is renting a cabin a few miles outside of Leavenworth that he found on the internet. If it isn't filled with spiders or a meth lab he will probably consider the experience a success.

Anchorage is just about the same distance from Seattle as Chicago, yet it falls to Seattlest to chronicle not the latest Obama puppy story but an Alaska fish tale.

We're reluctant to spend this absolutely glorious sunny Monday morning writing about this weekend's horrific murders down in Graham, Washington. What Seattlest would rather do is watch web cams of Northwest wildlife, and we bet that's what you'd rather think about, too. The Hancock Wildlife Foundation has two live streaming web cams of bald eagle nests in British Columbia, and a handful of other recorded segments from years past of such wonders as the Chehalis salmon run. When will Dreamworks make a movie about talking, singing bald eagles and Chinook salmon? We'd buy that DVD/BluRay combo pack. Mornings and webcams like these remind us that we have the privilege of making our home in one of the world's most bountiful, beautiful areas. Sunshine, please stay!

The Yukon keta salmon carpaccio comes on a frosty plate, thinly sliced, with fennel and red onion salad, drizzled with lemon oil and smoked sea salt. In the glass, chilled Willamette Valley Vineyards pinot gris. Sublime.

"you daft prick" by Taylor Hain

Salmonzilla was found dead at Battle Creek in California recently. It weighs 85 lbs and the speculation is that when it was alive and beginning its trek in from the ocean it would have weighed 90 lbs--a few pounds heavier than the largest chinook ever sport fished from California, but several pounds shy of the Alaskan record of 97 lbs. The record for the state of Washington is a paltry 70 lbs 8 oz.

The fall run of keta is coming in now from the high seas (well, any day now; we haven't had quite enough rain yet); follow their progress here.

At the Port of Seattle's "Ship Canal 101" tour last week (the tour so nice we're posting it twice) they handed out a little quiz that you were supposed to be able to complete by the time the boat returned to the dock. Questions like "What was the name of the woman who founded one of the featured companies over 115 years ago? (Hint: She was the inspiration for the movie Tug Boat Annie)" only scratched at the surface, though. The candid and all-knowing salts narrating the tour actually revealed so much more. Here's what we took away:

                 

Admittedly, we were skeptical. We thought about turning back. In fact, we felt almost forced to turn back by the smoke in the casino.

In Gourmet's excellent "Politics of the Plate" series, Barry Estabrook reports today on Alaska's Clean Water Initiative. It would have protected salmon by capping pollutants from the proposed Pebble Mine on Bristol Bay. But the measure went down to defeat in an election last month. Biggest winner: the mining industry. Biggest loser: the Bristol Bay salmon fleet. Biggest opponent of the Clean Water Initiative: the state's sitting governor, Sarah Palin, whose (ahem, pregnant and unmarried) daughter happens to be named Bristol.

    

This Seattlest is heading east for a long trip that will ultimately end in Nova Scotia—which is famous for lox. And that reminds us of the salmon-filled dinner that Oceanaire Seafood Room recently prepared for us. Nice setting, nice people, and a nice variety of preparations. We enjoyed all the dishes, but interestingly, our favorite was uncooked; the sashimi offered the best salmon taste, and the pickled vegetables were a great accompaniment. On either coast, it seems we like our salmon, but hold the heat!

• My Ballard has lots of tasty news, reporting on Paseo's first day in a new location, Rachael Ray shooting an episode of Rachael's Travels at Volterra, and lots of fat salmon going through the Locks.
• Phinneywood reports and shares photos of an adorable knit crosswalk pedestrian flag that's popped up in Greenwood. We are all for guerrilla knitting projects, especially those that benefit your community, so we say hooray!
• The Belltowner shares, in two posts that should have been linked to each other as proof, how tourists should stay out of Belltown and on the homecoming of Daniel Stoy (an out-of-towner who was beaten unconscious on his visit to Belltown).

ARTISTS X-ING, WITH CAMERAS: A motley crew of photographers are gathering down at the Market tonight to explore the area through their camera lenses for the evening. They're meeting at that brass pig by the fish throwers (could this event get any more Seattle?) and will be snapping photos around the Market, downtown, Pioneer Square, the waterfront, and more. It's open to anyone who wants to join in the spirit of discovery and photography.

There will be no Yukon Kings this year.

              

We recently had an opportunity to head out to the Hood Canal for an overnight stay at Alderbrook Resort & Spa. It’s a nice escape less than two hours from Seattle, either driving by car, or hopping on the Bremerton Ferry part of the way (which we recommend eastbound for the return view of the city). As grand as the lodge is, the view from behind is even better, especially when the sun—and therefore the mountains—are out. The spa offers all kinds of relaxation packages, but you can also simply relax on your room’s “window box” day bed, your balcony chair, or a waterfront chaise lounge.

Remember how we wrote yesterday that six sea lions were found shot in traps in the Columbia River? Turns out they weren't shot. According to a NOAA press conference held this morning regarding the sea lion deaths, necropsies of the animals showed no evidence of recent gunshot wounds. X-rays did show metal fragments in the soft tissue of two of the sea lions, and another had a metal slug in its blubber. Another one of the sea lion victims had several shallow puncture wounds, consistent with a sea lion bite. Now that shooting as a cause of death has been ruled out, investigators say the possibilities are wide open.

This weekend, the carcasses of six sea lions were found shot to death in traps on the Columbia River. Now investigators from local law enforcement and Oregon and Washington's Departments of Fisheries are looking for the sea lions' executioner.

Nothing fishy about this breaking news. Yesterday, the Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to ban Chinook salmon fishing off the California coast and most of Oregon for this year. The regulations ban commercial salmon fishing outright for the season, but do allow for limited sport fishing of Coho salmon. The regulations approved are the most severe in the history of Pacific Coast salmon fishing.

The popular sayings are, "women and children first" and "age before beauty," but a lesser-known saying is "cakes before fish." So, in the spirit of cakes before fish, we give you today's leading food stories:

Old guy: "I'm sick of this shit!"