Valentine’s Day special section, pages 7 to 10
SOUNDER THE ISLANDS’
Serving Orcas, Lopez and San Juan County
WEDNESDAY, February 6, 2013 VOL. 46, NO. 6 75¢ www.islandssounder.com
Vikings head to play-offs Mystery of the blackmouth
Researchers are asking for help from local fishermen by MADRONA MURPHY
Kwiaht’s Botanist and genetic technician
Colleen Smith Armstrong photo
Above: The girls after their win against Darrington. Left: Jake Zier jumps for the shot during the Darrington game at home. Both the girls and boys teams won against the Loggers. Melanie Flint photo
by MARTY ZIER Sports contributor
The Viking girls and boys basketball teams ended the final stretch of the regular season last week with losses to LaConner but two wins against the Darrington Loggers at home games with ecstatic Orcas fans in the bleachers. Both Viking teams advance to the 2B Bi- District Playoffs next week at Chief Leschi High School in Tacoma, Wash. The Viking girls (6-6) lost a close contest to the LaConner Braves (15-4) in a fight that came down to the wire on Jan. 29. Tied at 22 at halftime, the Braves edged ahead 32-29 at the end of the third quarter. With 2:58 left in the fourth quarter and leading 42-35, the Braves appeared to have the game under control, but a late run by the Vikings ended just short, with a 42-39 loss. “We lost by only three and at the end of the game our shots weren’t dropping, but it was a good game,” said Coach Gregg Sasan. Scoring was led by Bella Nigretto with 15 points, Hanna Brunner-Gaydos 8, Shelbi Rogers 7, Alicia
Susol 6 and Lana Bronn 4. The Viking boys (5-7) faced a LaConner boys team (18-1) that has dominated 2B basketball for the last few years. The Vikings kept it close in the first quarter, down only six points credited to good defense, but the Orcas team could not keep pace with the well-tuned Braves, losing 92-35. Orcas scoring was led by Jack Gates with 17 points, Devon Stanzione 10, Jack Russillo 6, and Daniel Briggs 2. Opening “Senior Night” at Orcas Island High School, the Viking girls (7-6) faced a tough Darrington Loggers team (17-3) that beat Orcas in December. In the first quarter Bronn and Nigretto combined for nine early points while defensively Garcia blocked two shots, ending the quarter behind 11-10. Despite most Viking shots rolling off the rim and trailing 15-10 with 5:12 in the second quarter, Susol kept the Vikings in the game. She knocked out nine points in the quarter along with a threepointer from Bronn, ending the half ahead 24-23. An Orcas run in the third quarter, helped with five points from Shelbi Rogers, gave the Vikings a 29-23 lead with 5:09 left, but the experienced Loggers ended the quarter tied 31-31. Tied again at 37-37 with 5:22 left in the game, the Vikings cranked up an amazing team effort for the remainder of the fourth quarter to put away the Loggers. Brunner-Gaydos wrestled in the paint for seven physical fourth quarter points along with two three-pointers from Susol and two layups from Nigretto, icing the game 54-39. Orcas scoring was led by Susol with 17 points, Bronn 11, Brunner-Gaydos and Nigretto both with 9, Rogers 7 and Garcia 1. The Viking boys (6-7) coming off two losses faced an improved Darrington Logger team (3-17) looking to avenge their home loss against Orcas. The Vikings stumbled a bit in a low scoring, defen-
SEE SPORTS, PAGE 3
Every summer, hundreds of thousands of juvenile chinook salmon visit San Juan County on their way to the ocean, feasting on the islands’ herring, sand lance, larval crabs and insects. Why do some of these fish remain in the islands and become blackmouth salmon, a critical resource for recreational anglers? Although it is Washington state policy to use hatcheries to increase the supply of blackmouth for anglers, and most of the blackmouth caught today began life in a hatchery, there is no simple genetic basis for this lifestyle choice by individual salmon. Some clues have been discovered by a longterm salmon food-web study by the Lopez-based conservation laboratory Kwiáht, which just issued a report summarizing five years of research sampling over two thousand juvenile chinook in the islands’ nearshore waters. On the whole, says Director Russel Barsh, juvenile chinook prefer to eat oily herring or sand lance, but about one in six juvenile chinook prefers insects and other invertebrates even when baitfish are plentiful. Both wild and hatchery chinook exhibit this behavior. Biologists call this a “portfolio strategy” and believe that it makes efficient use of all available resources. The Kwiáht team has discovered that juvenile chinook leave the islands quickly after a few calorie-rich meals of herring or sand lance, but stay in the islands for weeks or months if they are eating crustaceans or insects. “Fishy years should produce very few blackmouth,” Barsh says, “but there will always be at least some blackmouth because of individual food preferences at this stage in chinook life histories.” Barsh adds that there is some evidence for a genetic basis for food preferences in salmon, but preferences may also be learned. Kwiáht scientists need the help of
local anglers to learn more about the biology of the islands’ blackmouth. If you catch and keep a blackmouth this winter, set aside a tail fin clipping the size of a dime and freeze it in a plastic sandwich bag. If possible save the gut contents as well in a separate plastic bag, place it inside the bag with the fin clip, and freeze them all together. Frozen fin clips and gut contents can be dropped off at the Indian Island Marine Health Observatory office in Eastsound (in the Post building) and the Kwiaht office on Lopez (#9 Lopez Plaza). The DNA in the fin clip can be compared with DNA from the thousands of fish already sampled as juveniles by Kwiáht scientists and volunteers, and the gut contents of course will identify the resources that blackmouth rely on as adults. The blackmouth study is co-sponsored by the Wild Fish Conservancy and Long Live the Kings. For further information contact: kwiaht@gmail.com.
Sounder deadlines Display advertising: Friday at noon Classified advertising: Monday at noon Legal advertising: Thursday at noon Press releases, Letters: Friday at 3 p.m.
How to reach us Office: 376-4500 Fax: 376-4501 Advertising: advertising@ islandssounder.com Classified: 1-800-388-2527, classifieds@ soundpublishing.com Editor: editor@ islandssounder.com