Miscellaneous Items - 11/8/08

Noise From Gillnetters. We had reports from some Midwest people that is sounded like it was pheasant hunting season in Illahee on Friday with all the shotgun blasts. It was also reported there were a few less seals on the area floats on Saturday morning. Evidently the shotgun noise was coming from the gillnetters protecting their catches from the seals.

People Passing Away. We haven't always known what to do when local Illahee residents pass away. Do we wait for the obituary to show up in the paper, which sometimes can be weeks, or do we just pass on whatever we know? There will be a website advisory group meeting soon that will discuss what should be reported. We have decided to pass the information on when we receive it as sometimes neighbors aren't always aware or they may be on travel.

Helga Wright Passing. We were notified Friday of Helga Wright's passing. It doesn't seem like it was very many years ago when her husband died. It was quite sudden. The following was received from one of her neighbors:

Helga Wright passed away yesterday afternoon. She was admitted to Harrison Tuesday for stomach problems, operated on Wednesday and because of severe complications wasn't expected to survive much longer. Her family decided to take her off life support 2 PM yesterday. We'll miss her.

CAG Near Final List. We have completed compiling the list of Citizens Advisory Group (CAG) members that were involved with the Illahee Community Plan between 2006 to 2008. The county supplied the 2008 list, and the community supplied the names from 2006 through 2007. Since the names will soon be listed in the Plan we have printed the list here. If you helped and your name isn't on it, please let us know asap as the names will be sent to the county on Monday, 11/10/08.

John & Marilyn Adair, Elysa Aho, Kay & James Aho, Irene & Jack Aylward, Vicki Bartlett, Barney Bernhard, Audrey Boyer, Emily Boyer, Dale Boyle, Cynthia Brackstad, Jim & Kathy Brady, Tom Brittell, Bob & Julie Brooke, Michael D Brownell, Steve Bryant, Hugh Coe, Terry & Julie Cox, Delores Crist, Gwen Detweiler, Don Dietch, Dolores Doninger, Dedrick & Deloris Easely, Merrill Evans, Kathleen & Martin Francom, Michael Greer, Barb Gutierrez, David Haynes, James & Sabine Hazel, Bob & Carol Henning, Cindy Holben, Steve Jackson, James & Sandy Jacobson, Don Jahaske, Robert H & Doris B Jarvis, Berni Johnston, Laurie Jones, Teresa Jones, Bill Kettenring, Irwin & Judy Krigsman, Merilee Kuklinski,Laural Kuklinski, John & Peg Lesser, John R. & Arlene Lind, Sharon Looper, Lynn Lund, Rodney & Marina Mansfield, Mike Mantzke, Dennis M May, William & Pat McCauley, Danya McConnell, Wayne & Jan Morris, Larry Newton, Michael Nicolaus, Arden Norvold, Nancy Nystrom, Joe & Joyce O'Hara, Tom & Katie Proteau, Tom Rutter, Steve Ryder, George Schaefer, Christie Schultz, Dennis Sheeran, Lenny Smith, Lynn Smith, Jim & Judy Stelson, Cathy & Paul Stensen, Chris & Lynn Stone, Anthony Strickland, Jim & Alice Trainer, Hazel Witte, Rob Woutat, Dan & Mary Ann Wright

Jim Aho

Miscellaneous Items - 11/6/08

Frustrated Gillnetters in Illahee Waters. We have a couple of reports about some gillnetter boats in the Illahee waters. The first was on Wednesday when a sea lion was seen taking salmon from the gillnet. The sea lion would splash the salmon on the surface of the water and the fisherman were seen trying to scare it away with their flare gun. On Thursday evening there must have been a seal or a sea lion bothering another gillnetter because there were two shotgun blasts about 5 pm. The fisherman have told us they can defend their nets with shotguns and they evidently sometimes have to.

Seals on Area Floats. The seals are back on area floats, with one float along Illahee having numbers in the mid teens nearly every morning.

Break-in Email. We have received a number of responses thanking us for sending out Ed Hamilton's information about the break-in at his mother's house and reminding us to watch out for each other's homes. Thank you Ed for the email.

Dock Outfall. There is progress being made on a possible settlement to the outfall at the Illahee dock. A settlement agreement document was in the process of being prepared by the Illahee Community Club, when another much more detailed document was being prepared by the attorney for MT Illahee. Now it looks like it will take some time to work on settling on the agreement writeup. We think the attorneys must love this all the way to the bank. The good news is we have the potential to have settlement that can be a win-win situation for all parties, if we can now settle on the writeup.

Sewer Hearing on November 17th. The Illahee Community Club (ICC) has retained a wastewater expert to watch out for the Illahee Community's interest when the Timbers Edge project runs a sewer line over a mile long over Illahee Creek and through the historic section of Illahee. New notices were reportedly received by residents within 200 feet of the shoreline where the sewer line will be run, but they were not sent out to other residents along the route, even though the Kitsap County Code says residents along the sewer line are required to hook up. The ICC's lawyer complained to the Hearing Examiner (HE) about this but evidently the Examiner is not concerned, and the hearing seems to be going ahead for November 17th. For those close to these issues, they are upset with the county and the HE on the notice situation.

Citizens Advisory Group List. The final Citizens Advisory Group (CAG) list needs to be completed this weekend and turned in early on Monday. We need to hear from everyone regarding how you want your name listed, and if you want your name on the list. We just reached the number 90 and need to hear from the rest of you soon.

Keep those reports coming in!

Jim Aho

Gillnet Photos - 11/4/08

Thanks to John Lind for these additional photos taken from shore of the gillnetting that took place north Illahee on Monday.

Wildlife Update - 11/3/08

Squid Fishing. Squid fishing is a nightly event at the Illahee Community Dock. We are attaching some photos of squid taken this weekend.

Juvenile Salmon Jumping. Along the near shore areas juvenile salmon approximately 12 - 15 inches in length were seen in schools with some of them jumping completely out of the water. They were assumed to be salmon rather than cutthroat because they were in schools and because of their silvery color.

Dog Fish, Sand Sharks, Spiny Dogfish Sharks. We watched a gill netter take small sharks from his net today. We attended a lecture recently by Vincent Gallucci of the UW fisheries department who sited some interesting statistics about the small sharks that are so abundant in our waters. They don't get very big with a maximum length of 54 inches, but they are long lived approximately 80 - 100 years with documented ages from 85-107 years. Local females don't reproduce until age 35 and have live litters of from 6-12 pups. Their gestation period is nearly 2 years, longer than elephants. They have essentially been fished out on the east coast and there is concern by some for their numbers on the west coast. They were originally caught for oil for lamps in the 1800's, and then for vitamin A in the 1940's, and now are caught for fish and chips in England with their bellies to Germany where they are pickled and sold in bars. This is from memory from the lecture so we're hoping someone will check this out on the Internet.

Gillnetter Success. We have long wondered how the gillnetters are doing when they set their nets in Illahee waters. We went out in a kayak today to watch the operation and have a few photos of the Sea Spirit out of Suquamish. The salmon were all chum with some dark and some still bright. They had a small pellet gun to try and discourage a seal from raiding their catch. They found the chum were running more on the Bainbridge Island side than towards Illahee. The one set we watched the total catch after about a half hour, was 7 chum salmon and one dogfish. They had done better earlier they said.

We have some other photos of the gillnetter boat taken from the shore and will semd them out when they come in.

Jim Aho

Ship and Salmon - 10/25/08

Anchored Ship South of Schutt's Point. We have had several inquires about the ship anchored just south of Schutt's Point. One email said the name of the ship is the Rogue and it is out of Seattle. Let us know if you have any other information. When we had a large ship anchored in Illahee last year someone went out to the ship in a kayak to get the information. We are attaching a photo of the ship taken by George Schaefer for those who haven't seen it yet.

Chum Coming In. We received the following report about chum in Johnson Creek:

We found two apparently spawned out dead male chum salmon in Johnson Creek yesterday afternoon (Friday, Oct. 24). The salmon were splashing in and up Johnson Creek all night. Apparently the run is on early. Based on this report we will start watching for spawning salmon in Illahee Creek.

Gill Netters. The gill netters have been out at night for at least the last week and we are told they usually leave about 4 am. Today, Saturday 10/25/08, they were also out during the day. We had a report of salmon jumping in the bay which confirms the report that the chum seem to be coming in early this year. In case your aren't familiar with this type of fishing we have attached a definition and a picture of a typical boat.

Gillnetting is a harvesting technique employing fine-filament nets that are set like a giant badminton net across the path of migrating salmon. The top edge is held up by floats, and the bottom is pulled down by a heavy lead line forming a wall in the water that entangles fish by their gills.

Reports Received. Attached are a some reports to pass on from your Illahee neighbors.

Thanks for the link on the cougar siting. I live between the Cheney Estates and the park, and I certainly will be more cautious with my evening walks! I have noticed a drop off in raccoons here, and that could be the answer......... something big is eating them. Can they jump a 6 foot fence?

A week ago, we saw a sea lion heading from Illahee State park, north toward Illahee dock, he had not yet passed, what to me as a child was Scutts Point. There was also one seal in the bay that we could easily see. I am also hearing the barking, and to me it seems to be coming from the private docks on Bainbridge, across from the Point.

We also have deer or had deer on our property, and in the past 3 months have seen very large scat, perhaps it was cougar, certainly not any common droppings that we usually run across. Our geese are thinning out leaving a two groups that occasionally merge together to form 17 geese. .....

Keep the reports coming. We will pass them on.

Jim Aho