Winning in Sports Isn’t Everything. It Is Everything

Associated Press

Ichiro on Monday goes from playing for the team with the worst record in major league baseball to playing for the team with the best record.

But that’s not like Rosie the Waitress winning the lottery. Rosie got lucky, good for her. Ichiro’s worked at his craft for his whole life and cashed in on his equity.

Give the younger players a chance, he reportedly said, putting the best spin on past and current seasons of miserable losing seasons brought to us by disappointing player management.

Ichiro now gets a chance to be on a winning team, to play in the league playoffs and maybe the World Series on what’s been called “the best team money can buy.”

Give our Seattle fans credit for showing they are a class act. They gave Ichiro a standing ovation at his first at-bat in Yankee pinstripes.

Sports and baseball aren’t metaphors for life. Sports is a business based on revenue and expenses and returns on investment. Be wary when qualities that we might seek and find in real life — truth, honor, character — are talked about in any business  (“We make money the old-fashioned way... We earn it.”)

Penn State and coach Joe Paterno branded their business of college football as an embodiment of character and honor, thereby making the uncovering of years of child molestation and cover ups all the more disgustingly squalid. But they get to keep their football business by paying a fine and having all the games they won during the years of shame wiped off the record books. Like banks and bankers, they get to play again.

After all, it’s not just a game.

--Mike Sato

The Governor’s Visit to the Samish Bay Taylor Shellfish Farm – Wed. July 18. - An Eyewitness Report

By Pete Haase

About a week ago I got an e-mail from the Puget Sound Partnership (PSP) inviting me to a “small” luncheon and conversation, at the local Taylor Shellfish Farm, with the Governor and some PSP folks and other locals involved with the Clean Samish Initiative (CSI).  I was invited because I have been an active member of the “Storm Team” – a group of volunteers that do intensive watershed sampling for fecal coliform pollution during/right after rain storms.  I have done quite a lot of sampling in the Samish in support of the CSI and have contributed quite a lot of feedback, comments, and suggestions to the effort.

Turns out the “small” luncheon was actually the second of three visits the Governor and her group were making this day – all celebrating some activity in the endless effort to improve Puget Sound.  And it coincided with the first annual “Shellfish-tival”, a moderately attended family-oriented day at Taylor’s, with activities, education booths, food, and a bit of entertainment.  So there were quite a few people there, including plenty of press coverage.  It was also cloudy and cool.  As most know, the Taylor Farm is a small, old, working farm with dismal parking, not at all fancy, but right there on the shores of Samish Bay.  The tide was way out and all in all, it was really a nice setup; informal, great smells of shellfish cooking, lots of nice people and kids and action.  The arrangement for the Governor’s “luncheon” was just some picnic tables out near the bay with a little buffet table, and the Shellfish-tival crowd sort of intermingled with the “official” crowd.

The official group included Governor Gregoire, Bill Ruckelshaus who is Puget Sound Partnership Leader-emeritus, Martha Kongsgaard who is the current Chair of the PSP Leadership Council, Tony Wright who is the brand new Director of the PSP.

Attendees I knew included: Steve Sakuma, who is on the PSP Leadership Council, Tom Eaton who is the local EPA Manager, Ron Wesen who is a Skagit County Commissioner and member of the PSP Eco-systems Coordination Board, Mike Shelby with the local Western Washington Agricultural Association, Jon-Paul Shannahan from the Upper Skagit Tribe, Doug Allen and Mak Kaufman with the Bellingham Department of Ecology Field Office, Carolyn Kelly who manages the local Conservation District,  Kristen Cooley who is with the Outreach effort of the PSP,  Duane Fagergren who is the PSP representative on the Clean Samish Imitative, Rick Haley from Skagit County and the Manager of the Clean Samish Initiative, and Bill Dewey representing Taylor Shellfish and also a member of the PSP Eco-systems Coordination Board.  There were also other representatives from local Tribes and several of our State legislators.   There were about 30 in all.

The Governor then introduced her entourage and thanked us all and made a few brief remarks.  Next, Steve Sakuma welcomed and thanked us and encouraged us and said that when it rains you just have to work around it; a lot of spring rains having caused much Samish Bay pollution.  Then Rick Haley gave a brief recount of the past few months of effort and the disappointing results this spring. He asked the Governor to do all she could to keep various State agencies working on this effort.  He said this spring showed that there are often mysterious pollution sources we don’t yet know about and need to keep working on.

Mak Kaufman, the full-time “in the field” inspector with the Bellingham Field Office of the Department of Ecology, said that, in the fall the ground is not soaked up, so heavy rains that have dissolved the livestock manure in the fields have a good chance to soak in before reaching a ditch or stream,  but by late winter, the grounds are so soaked that new rains just sheet right off into the ditches and streams, carrying heavy loads of manure along. He said this is a Farm Management problem, rarely a septic problem.  The Governor asked Carolyn Kelly from our local Conservation District how they were dealing with that and Carolyn said they have to do a lot of follow-up, a lot of coaching, and that it is usually folks who have some other full time job and when they come home to the “farm” they might not get to the chores of mud and manure management.  Carolyn said there is a lot of “Incentive” money for farmers.

Doug Allen, Mak’s boss, said “Yes, continuing education is important but that we need to ramp up inspection and enforcement – an awful lot of education has already happened and results are not real good yet.”  Carolyn then said that many of the Best Management Practices that they have prescribed can’t be done except in the dry “construction” season (now) so we should see improvements this next fall.

Governor Gregoire gave some closing remarks.  She said the goal for the Samish pollution issue – only one pollution-caused closure of the shellfish harvest during March, 2012 – June, 2012 (there were 10!) – was a tough one but we should feel good about the progress and we would make it next year.  She reiterated that more and sterner enforcement was needed and encouraged continued education efforts and financial aid for farmers needing to make expensive changes.  She stressed that we must clamp down on those who don’t/won’t cooperate in order to keep it fair to those who do and have. She said that, as a private citizen, she will continue to do all she can to protect and improve Puget Sound.

Victoria Sewage: Now Can We Flush?

Mr. Floatie

Twenty years ago, Puget Sound was finally flushed with pride as many of its municipalities were on their way to upgrading to secondary sewage treatment. Victoria, the capital of "Beautiful, British Columbia” (as the province once brand itself in its advertisements) was simply filtering its sewage through a metal screen then piping its raw sewage about half a mile offshore smack into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

They still do but earlier this week there finally appeared some light at the end of that discharge pipe when the federal, provincial and regional governments announced a deal to fund a proposed $782-million secondary sewage treatment plant in the capital region.  (“Three governments announce deal for Greater Victoria sewage plant”)  

Seattle PI.Com reporter Joel Connelly this week recalled the decades-long political refusal of British Columbia politicians to step up to the loo and remedy the festering issue in his column, “Victoria: A sewage treatment plant at last.”

Joel takes us down memory lane by recounting how Puget Sound yachting groups protested and boycotted the annual Victoria Swiftsure Yacht Race in the mid-’90s and by resurrecting the six-foot tall “Mr. Floatie” who ran for mayor of Victoria. Connelly also reminds us how the then-B.C. Environment Minister David Anderson adamantly defended the use of the Strait as a fine dumping ground because of its tidal action.

Well, Mr. Anderson remains an outspoken critic of secondary treatment and defender of dumping raw sewage into the Strait, jumping again into the effluent this week with a guest editorial, “Sewage-treatment plan serves no one well.”

For my part, I’ve always believed that my Canadian friends and Victoria businesses have long wanted to treatment their sewage and be good neighbors. Boycotting Victoria because of poor political leadership unfortunately would hurt the wrong people so in the mid-’90s our protest took the form of the “When you go to Victoria, don’t flush” campaign.

And we’ve held fast to that all these years. Now can we flush?

--Mike Sato
  

Box Jellyfish and Rats in Paradise

We were glad to get all of the family out of Waikiki and Ala Moana waters by July 13, 10 days after the full moon. That’s when the stinging box jellyfish ( Carybdea alata )  begin showing up in local waters.

It’s one more thing to worry about with little grandkids cavorting about in the water, although I don’t recall the prevalence of box jellyfish when I grew up in Hawaii or when my children played in Hawaii waters.

More of a threat when growing up was the prevalence of the Bluebottle “Portuguese man-of-war”  after a patch of rough weather. Get stung by one of those and you’ll always remember to keep your swim shorts dry on the days they’re in the water.

The earth’s climate is changing and jellies are on the increase in the world’s oceans so maybe that’s why box jellyfish are now prevalent in Hawaii waters.

On the other hand, the state has eliminated its rat control program due to budget constraints, leaving the rat abatement policing in Waikiki to the city and citizens. Less control, more Waikiki rats, the local paper reported last weekend ( “Waikiki's rodent woes city, citizens take lead in Rat control “) .

Both box jellyfish and rats are bad for the tourism business— but visitor counts are up both from eastbound and westbound.  And the influx of newly-minted Chinese tourists is on its way.  I think the early Saturday morning crowd at the highly reputed farmers market at Kapiolani Community College was more than 50 percent Japan nationals.

Of course, very little between the Zoo and Ala Moana Center is real. Box jellies and rats are real. Maybe there’s still a bit of the real island under the banyan at the Pink Lady or in a corner of her lobby where for a few quiet moments you can sense what a magical place this south shore was for the natives and the locals and the visitors before tourism became a business.

Las Vegas, Disneyland, Safeco Field, the Washington State Fair— there are lots of places I go that are not real, where I trade some dollars for a few hours or days of entertainment. If I get good value, I’m satisfied. People get paid, investments recouped. I will still watch out for jellyfish and rats.

--Mike Sato

Why Is Watching Grass Grow Interesting?

Who reads this? You do. The Salish Sea News and Weather blog is 10 months old and received 2,001 visits in June. The Salish Sea Communications blog is 9 months old and received 2,456 visits last month.

The most visits by far among the 7,996 total visits to the Communications blog are 2,451 visits to the April 2, 2012 blog about “Watching the Grass Grow,” which featured the web site “Watching Grass Grow: The most exciting/boring web site in the world.”

I find that fascinating, that readers find watching grass grow fascinating.

Time-lapse photography is fascinating.

I grew up watching the Disney film The Living Desert, a 1953 documentary about the plants and animals of the desert of the Southwestern U.S. I remember there’s this big thunderstorm and flood waters, then all the desert plants burst into bloom. That fascinated me and made me an environmentalist.

Bill McKibbon, however, in The End of Nature says that documentaries like that and those that show action scenes of predator and prey spoiled our sense of the natural world. Most of the time, in nature, nothing happens. Nothing you can see really happens— and we get bored. Like some people get bored watching baseball. Or watching grass grow.

On the news and weather blog, something’s happening— or seems to be happening-- every day.

On the communications blog, the second most-read blog was about eating: “Toro, Poke and Ceviche”

Thank you, readers. You fascinate me.

--Mike Sato

Saving the Sound, Saving the Whales

Springer 2002 (Mark Sears)

Martha Kongsgaard, chair of the Puget Sound Partnership’s Leadership Council, gave some powerful opening remarks at last Saturday’s festivities in Seattle celebrating the 10th anniversary of the orphan orca Springer’s rescue in Seattle and reuniting with her Northern Resident family. Here’s an excerpt:


“This had never been done on earth, and to do this we had to learn to work together – across a complex  ad hoc network of scientists, governments, First Nations and tribal communities, NGO’s and legions of concerned citizens, seniors and school children alike on both sides of the border. We had to learn to trust each other, these strangers, in order  to accomplish something audacious and risky, --something that was a matter of life and death for an iconic creature whose beauty and vulnerability made both 6th graders and bureaucrats weak at the knees in awe as the world watched the unprecedented effort unfold.

“’There were risks and unknowns every step of the way,’ said Will Stelle, Northwest regional director of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. ‘In the end, we were successful because we worked as a team.’

“You all shattered obstacles, historical misunderstandings and preconceptions, you listened to science, let go of ego and attribution, and tried the untested because the community shared the same vision – which was to see her safely home, whatever it took,  and every decision and every act served that end.  And in this remarkable process, you all took a great risk together and chose to trust rather than fear because your vision was laser sharp, your love a mile deep.”

“.... But in the 10 years since Springer was reunited with her family, the population  of the planet has grown by a billion to seven billion.  There is an estimated 4.5 million living in the Puget Sound basin alone with another Portland it is estimated squeezing into this four county region within the next 10 to 15 years whether we plan for it or not. (And there are an estimated 7 million that live around the Salish sea  -- from here to Canada -- today…)

“Our Southern Resident killer whales were listed as endangered in 2005 and are teetering around 89 members. But they are still here among us.

“But do we get it:  the astonishing privilege of being able to live here, have all of this, while sharing the ecoregion.… with them, in what’s called Cascadia or Salmon Nation or to paraphrase the author Tim Egan, any place that salmon can get to, (which is where the orcas roam) or what William Dietrich calls ‘a universe in a mountain cradle,’ this geographers’ delight: the Salish Sea.

“Saving the Sound, and the salmon and orcas it sustains will require the same vision, leadership, shared commitment and urgency as it took to help Springer get home. It will require the same kind of laser focus and imagination you all had 10 years ago.  It took hundreds of people working together for a common good to save the life of ONE WHALE in 2002.  There are 4.4 million of us in the basin today – Do you think we together can protect 88 of them?  That’s about 50,000 guardians per orca if you do the math.  What would that look like?  What is entailed?  We’ll have to make decisions to live differently if that is the case. We’ll have to intentionally walk the whale trail, as it were, with consciousness of our impact.

“These magnificent creatures are remarkable but they can’t save themselves or us.  Let us take this reunion, this celebration of the best of what we humans can muster, and remember that these are just decisions we make to either do something or not.  As Bob Lohn said, ‘I am not going to sit around while this young whale dies; not on our watch.’   We know we can do this together because these are just decision: decisions to do the big thing, the difficult thing, the enduring thing, the thing that’s in the public interest, in our grandchildren’s interest, which in the end is in the planet’s interest and in theirs.”

Martha then closed with a recording of an orca’s vocalization...
 

Rio+20 and the Salish Sea

Twenty years ago Washington and British Columbia activist organized themselves as the sans boundary coalition and faxed a declaration to the Rio summit, 1992.

I recounted this Sound & Straits ‘92 “People’s Agreement” in this blog last fall on October 20 and on October 24 in advance of the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference— and, like your crazy aunt, I will bring out the family heirlooms again as Rio+20 convenes.

The “People’s Agreement” averred:

“WE, THE PEOPLE of the Sound and Straits, in pledging to work together to restore the ecological and economic health of our home, DECLARE THAT:

• The salmon shall be the symbol and indicator of the health of our waters, for in saving the salmon we shall save ourselves.
• The most protective environmental standards shall be applied as the minimal standards throughout the region.
• The Sound and Straits shall be a Pollution Free Zone by the year 2011.
• Bold and innovative solutions that protect our resources shall be recognized and rewarded.
• The people of the region shall be informed and involved in all aspects of governance of the region.

And this is what what we thought in 1992 needed to be done to hold "the governments of Canada, the United States, British Columbia and the state of Washington accountable.”

• Timely, effective implementation of all environmental agreements.
• Restoration of salmon habitat, as required by treaty.
• Initiating an International Joint Commission investigation and actions to restore and maintain native salmon throughout the region.
• Applying the most stringent environmental protections on either side of the boarder as minimums throughout the region.
• Involving the public in all decisions which affect the Sound and Straits.
• Creating new jobs for military personnel and redirecting resources to more urgent social, economic and environmental problems.
• Protecting the ecological resources critical to all life in the region through creation of a biosphere/sanctuary regional framework.
• Protecting life and habitat through safe shipping and safe oil transport.

We hadn’t yet become activists around climate change and ocean acidification; we had a pretty full agenda that we wanted federal, tribal, state, provincial and local government— in consultation with their people — to take action on. And we thought in ecosystems, across borders, across political boundaries.

Maybe some would say the progress on the Sound & Straits Salish Sea agenda is a glass half-full; I’d say it was a glass more than half-empty.

I think we let our children down when I listen to Severn Cullis-Suzuki, daughter of David Suzuki. Twelve-year old Severn in 1992 addressed the Earth Summit delegates: “We've come 5,000 miles to tell you adults you must change your ways."

In a Vancouver Sun interview a week ago (Twenty years after Rio warning, we're still in peril ), Craig and Marc Kielburger write that Severn “became known as ‘the girl who silenced the world for five minutes.’”

"’I look back at those documents that came out of Rio, and they were pretty amazing,’ Cullis-Suzuki says. ‘Great promises were made at Rio, then it kind of fell off people's agenda.’

“The hope and promise were short-lived. Cullis-Suzuki recalls that, in the years following the Earth Summit, the global economy slipped into recession and economic constraints meant the environment was no longer a priority.

“Cullis-Suzuki notes the parallels to today, as economic woes again displace the environment as a top concern for world leaders.

“[T]he 2012 Earth Summit will last only three days. U.S. President Barack Obama will not be there, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper has not indicated if he will attend.”

We let them and ourselves down, didn’t we?

The Victoria Times-Colonist reports that “Instead of clean energy, food, the oceans and other topics scheduled for debate at Rio+20, as the summit is known, political focus is attuned to a teetering Europe, turmoil in the Middle East and a presidential campaign in the United States.  (Environment expectations low for Rio+20 )

Without leadership on environmental protection and restoration, we’ll go nowhere. But we also know that when the people lead, leaders follow. I’d like to think that it’s never too late, that maybe we were older then— and we’re younger than that now.

--Mike Sato