crosscut.com : Maritime

Fishing for a family's food

Crosscut — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:00:01 PDT

An Alaskan whose family holds a subsistence fishing permit chronicles their annual trip to the Kasilof River, where they fish for sockeye salmon using set-nets.

Sailing into oblivion

Crosscut — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:00:01 PDT

Seattle's last old Pacific schooner is about to be dismantled. The Wawona's impending "death" this summer offers a lesson in the challenges of maritime preservation. It's a tough end for a landmark ship that people have worked so hard for so long to save.

A Lake Union field trip

Crosscut — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:00:01 PDT

I made the decision last month to pull my seven-year-old daughter from school for field trips of our own. For one day every two weeks, for the remainder of the school year, we are exploring the Northwest's offerings, history, and culture.

The need for cruise control

Crosscut — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:00:01 PDT

An environmentalist explains why better federal regulations are needed to police polluters among the world's fleet of cruise ships: State and local authorities can only do so much. Over six months this year, Puget Sound will see 211 big ships bearing 835,000 passengers call on Seattle.

Northwest travel: Five courses up the Inside Passage

Crosscut — Sat, 03 May 2008 00:00:01 PDT

Many Seattleites have either never traveled the Inside Passage or seen only parts of it, remotely, from the deck of a cruise ship. A trip through on a ferry is well worth the time.

So much talk about so few fish

Crosscut — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:00:01 PDT

The salmon fisheries of the Northwest have spawned a new industry of bureaucrats, lawyers, environmentalists, sport fishers, commercial interests, scientists, and natives, all focused on the absence of fish. Meanwhile, four sockeye returned last summer to a lake in Idaho once teeming with tens of thousands.

Go fish: The government's answer to depleted stocks

Crosscut — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:00:01 PDT

While officials are calling for a moratorium on commercial salmon fishing along much of the West Coast, they're opting for a different tactic in Puget Sound: continued fishing.

Smaller ferries in Admiralty Inlet would be dangerous

Crosscut — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:37:01 PST

A former NOAA officer, otherwise anonymous, has filed an interesting report about weather conditions in Admiralty Inlet, where the Port Townsend-Whidbey Island ferry route runs (when it does). His verdict: the state's plans to replace the current ferry with a smaller boat would risk lives, due to the mighty winds and waves prevalent in the area. The blogger describes, with detailed records, how the wind comes around the Olympics and creates intense pressure and high waves. That calls for boats that are "large, powerful, and sturdy," he writes. Here's his scary weather report:

How to fix the Port of Seattle: Splitsville

Crosscut — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:00:01 PST

The core reason for all the mismanagement is an antiquated structure, argues a former Port Commission candidate. A restructured port needs to serve a multi-county region. And we need to split up the fundamentally different businesses of seaport and airport.

Port in a storm of its own making

Crosscut — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:00:01 PST

The state Auditor's new report on the Port of Seattle finds rats in the rat's nest of local governments.

No ferry tale endings in this fleet

Crosscut — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:00:01 PST

The surprise pre-Thanksgiving yanking of the last two of the old "Steel Electric" boats in the Washington ferry system — the Klickitat and the Illahee — might mean the end for some venerable old friends. The aging ferries have deteriorating hulls. Earlier this fall, the two others in the fleet, the Nisqually and the Quinault — were pulled from service due to corrosion bad enough that the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, critical of the ferry system's slowness to replace the vessels, dubbed the ferries "Washington state's Titanic".

It's a miracle! King County finds money for ferries

Crosscut — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:00:01 PST

King County's leap into the ferry business makes sense politically, maintaining a passenger-only service being abandoned by the state. The big winner is King County Councilmember Dow Constantine, whose district includes West Seattle and Vashon Island. But from one perspective, this news is a head slapper.

A classic Seattle super-yacht, now buried at sea

Crosscut — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 00:00:01 PDT

Dorothea was one of the first, born in the age when private luxury boats were rare — and smaller. But she was a beauty, and the crew and those who worked on her are mourning her loss.

Escaping Scandinavia

Crosscut — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 05:00:01 PDT

Newly displayed at Shilshole Bay Marina in Seattle, the Leif Erikson statue reminds us of those brave though seemingly sullen souls who fled Norway so many years ago. Of course, it should be pointed out that they fled what today is the highest-rated, most-livable country in the world.

Eating our way out of extinction

Crosscut — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 05:00:01 PDT

Bruce Babbitt speaks for a strategy to bring down the Snake River dams and save our wild salmon — all while enjoying the taste of success.

The Northwest Passage: mission accomplished

Crosscut — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:00:01 PDT

A 500-year-old dream that shaped the Pacific Northwest has finally been realized, thanks to global warming. So let's toast the past before fighting about the future of the Arctic.

Barn Again!

Crosscut — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:00:01 PDT

Some of the most interesting and odd-ball historic preservation work is going on outside of Seattle in the land of vanishing farms, strip malls, and "Kung Pao weiner schnitzel."

Seattle is a city flush with forgetting

Crosscut — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 00:00:01 PDT

Historic preservation is tough in boomtowns, but a new push to landmark downtown buildings is a great way to get the city to broaden the discussion about the importance of our past.

The Mic Dinsmore flap reveals deep differences at the Port of Seattle

Crosscut — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:00:01 PDT

The former CEO led the port into a greatly expanded mission of economic development. But that mission and Dinsmore's dealmaking style have provoked a political backlash that has split the five-member commission. The fall election will spotlight these issues and might enable one side to gain a majority.

Just another metropolis

Crosscut — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:00:01 PDT

There remain only hints of Seattle's scrappy, provincial heritage of fish, timber, and frontier commerce — of even the sonic and binary booms that propelled the modern city to greatness. Seattle no longer feels unique.