A study of the number of boats in the San Juan Islands on summer days
Here's a bit of trivia that might be of interest to Pacific NW
boaters, and to others outside the area as well. Recreational boaters
are being counted by a variety of scientific and environmental
organizations, and this piece illustrates just how they are going
about it in this area:Quantification of Peak Season Marine Vessel Traffic Pressure in the
San Juan Islands Jeffrey Dismukes, San Juan County Jonathan Riley, Western Washington University The marine waters surrounding the San Juan Islands appear to
communicate high levels of vessel traffic, especially during the sunny
summer days of peak vacation season. This perception is corroborated
by several factors: 1. international commercial shipping lanes serving
two major North American ports; 2. Alaskan Marine Highway, Washington
State and several international ferry routes; 3. a plentiful sport and
commercial fishery with 4 major game fish providing year round
opportunities; 4. an extremely popular yachting and pleasure cruising
environment featuring several nature parks accessible only by water;
and, 5. Orca pods and numerous sea-foul rookeries providing very
appealing on-water tourist attractions. However, prior to this study,
there have been no published attempts to quantify vessel pressures in
the San Juan Islands. In this pilot study we develop methods for
deriving statistics on vessel traffic utilizing spotters and digital
photography from fixed wing over-flights during the peak tourist
season (August-September 2006). Samples were stratified by weekend/
holiday days and week days. Data was collected for 4 week days and 9
weekend/holiday days. Results indicate average total of 953 vessels
on water at any given daylight time for weekend/holiday days and 659
for week days. Vessels were also identified by general type as:
power, sail, commercial fishing, cargo and ferry. Rough location
markers were plotted in a GIS yielding relative concentration
gradients. |
Chuck
Mar 14
|
| Make sure the person dies before the end of time? |
Calif
Mar 16
|
| Not to get all metaphysical on you here, but doesn't death kind of
imply that time had ended? |
Short
Mar 17
|
| Ended for them, but time still rolls on for the rest of the universe as we
know it. |
Calif
Mar 17
|
| Which topping(s)? |
CalifBill
Mar 16
|
| Floor sweepings. |
Tom
Mar 16
|
| Or just report local temperature. That's always thought-provoking. --Vic |
Vic
Mar 15
|
| Yes Vic....as we all know the weather has absolutely nothing to do
with boating. |
JimH
Mar 15
|
| Like starting a discussion on unions......eh? ;-) |
JimH
Mar 15
|
| Hey, I never said that. Your weather reports always get me thinking
about boating. But I like gfretwell/Wayne report more, because that's
my boating location - when I get there, and when I get a boat.
I do admit that lawn mowers leave me totally limp.
That's why I said what I said, to push you more to temp reports and
away from lawn mowers. Did it work? --Vic |
Vic
Mar 15
|
| Since I was a Seafarer, unions always remind me of boating.
Used to do Erie in 300 footers. But I *did* mark it OT anyway. --Vic |
Vic
Mar 15
|
| NP. Ore carriers? What ports would you visit? |
JimH
Mar 15
|
| You spend any time at Piney Point? I took a few courses there. |
Harry
Mar 15
|
| I wonder why no one has thought about putting up a web page where you
could check local and national weather. One would think there would be
a big demand for such a service. It would make it much easier than
having to come to rec.boats for weather forecasts. |
RJSmithers
Mar 15
|
| Tankers only. Toledo and Cleveland on Erie, maybe Erie.
Hit a lot of ports on them all, except never was on Superior.
Orion was the tanker's name.
Cleveland Tankers (Ashland Oil) was home ported in Toledo,
and I was with them most the time, but did a stint on the Standard
Oil tanker Illinois out of Whiting.
Only did it one season. Lonely existence unless you like bar girls
for companionship. I don't. --Vic |
Vic
Mar 15
|
| No. I was a grunt in the fireroom. Fireman/Watertender.
Not officer or even deck material. Color deficiency kept
me from ever becoming a gentleman, even if that was possible.
BTW, I was Steelworker, Autoworker, Seafarer, Autoworker,
Teamster in that order.
Might have been Machinist somewhere in there too.
Thought I'd mention that since Jim brought up unions. --Vic |
Vic
Mar 15
|
| What's a web page? What's a web? Damn kids and their terminology... |
Short
Mar 15
|
| Speaking of weather, I ran into a neighbor when I filled up the truck
this morning and he has this theory about bad weather forecasts. He believes that it's a conspiracy between convenience store owners,
those that report the weather and the baking and dairy industries. His reasoning is that when the forecasts are written, they emphasize
the worst possible scenario so that people will run out and buy five
loafs of bread and three gallons of milk at convienence stores. :>) |
Short
Mar 15
|
| Convenience stores don't sell real bread. They only sell the mushy soft
crap Americans think is bread. |
Harry
Mar 15
|
| Did you know that captive deer kill more humans than any other captive
animal? |
JimH
Mar 14
|
| I didn't know that. Did you know that 100% of all people who died last year are still
dead? |
Short
Mar 15
|
| So nice that with the 360° obstructed view anywhere within the Island
set, you can't see 95% of them at any given time. Even on the 3-4 sunny
weekend days per year in the San Juans, it appears virtually and
pleasingly deserted, except for the rush from Friday Harbor back to
Puget Sound Sunday evening.
JR
|
JR
Mar 14
|
| ??????? Sorry, JimH. I guess I should have posted something about buying a
new lawnmower. :-) |
Chuck
Mar 14
|
| Another useless fact..statatistics repeated often enough, even
when false, will eventually cause many people to believe them. I have several sources that show dead people are not really
dead......proving you not only a liar but a human hater. |
JimH
Mar 14
|
| That's what's surprising to me about the results of this study. I
wonder how they define "on the water"? Tied up at Friday Harbor
Marina, Roche Harbor, etc? If there are 659 vessels underway on any
given summer weekday, we'd have some pretty ridiculous crowding.
Anything more than a couple of boats per square mile borders on
congested, IMO. I'd have to get out a chart and measure, but I'd bet
the entire San Juan archipelago isn't over 400-500 square miles, and
that *includes* the landmasses. 953 vessels in the remaining couple of
hundred square miles of navigable waters would seem like a lot more
boats than encountered there, even on a busy summer weekend. |
Chuck
Mar 14
|
| *Lawn Tractor*......not lawnmower. But if you actually read the
information in the link I provided about the new lawn tractor I purchased
you would have understood that. One can also break it down to a matter of
reading compression...but I will not go there as you seem to be a
pretty smart sailor with minimal experience of living on real land. Enjoy your evening Chuck. PS I continue to appreciate reading the monthly issues of your magazine.
Keep them coming. ;-) |
JimH
Mar 14
|
| If a plane traveling from Mexico City to LA, crashes on the Mexico/US
border, will the survivors be buried in Mexico or the US? |
RJSmithers
Mar 14
|
| Cite? |
Calif
Mar 15
|
| You do't bury survivors dumbass. :>) |
Short
Mar 15
|
| Of course you do. |
Short
Mar 15
|
| Pizza? |
Tom
Mar 15
|
| Why didn't you tell me this earlier? |
RJSmithers
Mar 15
|
