Coastwatch News Archive

All articles related to Coastwatch

Photo of women recording beached bird data on the beach.
October 19, 2015

Beached Bird Training Available to South Coast

Conducting the beached bird survey. Photo courtesy of COASST. Those of you at the southern end of the Oregon shore who would like to learn about the beached bird survey can gain an opportunity by traveling a bit further south. A training will take place across the border on Sunday, Oct. 25, noon-5 p.m., at the Del Norte County Fairgrounds Board Room, 421 Hwy...Read more
Photo of King Tide at Yaquina River.
September 30, 2015

King Tide Project Preparing to Document Year’s Highest Water

A King Tide swamps the Yaquina River. Photo by John Bauer. Prepare to get out the cameras and visit the coast during the 2015 King Tide Events. This year the project focuses on three sets of extreme tides: Oct. 27-29, Nov.24-27, and Dec. 23-25. For the sixth year, CoastWatch is sponsoring the annual King Tide project. This is the Oregon branch of an...Read more
Photo of Snowy Plover Chicks.
September 15, 2015

Snowy Plover Nesting Season Officially Ends

Nesting season for Western snowy plovers, a federally threatened shorebird that nests on the sandy shore, officially ended Sept. 15. Beachgoers are asked to follow nesting season restrictions on certain Oregon beaches through that date to protect snowy plover eggs and young. CoastWatchers helped by paying special attention to the plover exclusion zones and keeping an eye out for violations. This...Read more
CoastWatch intern Sabrina Ehler takes a selfie on the shore.
September 10, 2015

New CoastWatch Intern Introduces Herself to Mile Adopters

Hey all! Now that I have had the time to settle into my position as CoastWatch intern I wanted to greet everyone and invite you all to contact me. My name is Sabrina Ehler and I’m a senior at Oregon State University. I am studying fisheries and wildlife with a specialization in law enforcement. I became aware of, and interested in the CoastWatch program through a fellow student at OSU and through...Read more
Photo of water quality warning sign.
September 8, 2015

Beach Monitoring Program Announces Impending Changes

The Oregon Beach Monitoring Program (OMRP) is beginning a formal process to adopt a new “beach action value” (BAV) that would be used beginning in the 2017 monitoring season. The BAV is used to determine when public health advisories should be issued for beaches. Up till now, the threshold for advisories has been 158 MPN. (This stands for “most probable number,” and for beach water quality...Read more
Photo of purple tide.
August 28, 2015

Shore Watchers Tracking Purple Tides

Numerous reports have been coming in concerning “purple water” or “a gelatinous purple mass” in the water. There have been sightings at Roads End, Neskowin and elsewhere (for example, see the latest mile report on Mile 253). We’re trying to help track this and discover what it is. CoastWatchers spotting anything purplish on the water or beach are asked to file a Dispatch or mile report if at all...Read more
Volunteers setting up marine debris survey site.
August 6, 2015

Join CoastWatch for Upcoming Citizen Science Activities

Volunteers are always needed for CoastWatch’s suite of citizen science surveys. Several opportunities are coming up to join one of these regular expeditions. You are welcome to come along just to help out on the occasion and learn about citizen science. You are also invited to join the team, or to get involved later at another location. For those in the Coos County area, the team handling our...Read more
The wreck of the Peter Iredale. Photo by H. Kroggins.
June 7, 2015

Photos Shared with Oregon Shores Help Us Illustrate Our Work

As you've likely noticed if you visit this website regularly, Oregon Shores uses numerous photographs of the shoreline and of the entire coastal region. We illustrate articles on this website, and we also use photos in newsletters and e-bulletins and in various other publications, such as CoastWatch handouts. We’re constantly searching for new images of the coast. Some we seek for their sheer...Read more