2025.10.20, 23, 24. One Ocean week

One Ocean Week in Seattle. I went to 3 events.

10/20, Sound Check at Seattle Aquarium

I first heard of Quiet Sound was a talk at last November's Marine Expo. Was very impressed. It's a voluntary program, encourages and facilitates captains to lower their speed (hence noise) when entering puget sound during winter. It's a small team of 3, and made an impact. This Monday is its annual update, see this PDF.

• Rachel Aronson showed the summation of last 3 years' adoptation, map.
• Sara Adams talked about her master thesis on motivating container ship participation in the Quiet Sound Slowdown.
• Gonzalo Banda-Cruz talked about orca spotting and alert system, from an app for everyone, and the backend, and broadcast.
• Capt. Will Kelly also spoke briefly.

Afterwards, I talked to an employee by the octopus tank. He showed me an octopus beak. I learned that all the arms of a female has sucsion cups, while the male has one arm free to mount the girls.

Then, I walked to the new Ocean Pavilion to see the "habitat". It's quite lovely. Wooden benches in front of the huge tank for you to slow down and enjoy. There're also a few very small windows on the side to showcase certain species.

10/23. Working Waterfront Day

Part 1 - ports and cities authority

• Dan Strauss, Councilmember, City of Seattle
• Marit Warncke, Mayor of Bergen, Norway
• Fred Felleman, Commissioner, Port of Seattle
• Ryan Calkins, Commissioner, Port of Seattle
• Michael Forland, Director, Port of Bergen
• Koji Shirahase, Deputy Director, Port of Kobe
• Kristin Ang, Commissioner, Port of Tacoma

My notes of no particular order

• Seattle
  • Career path for young people. The first maritime highschool's first graduation last year. Maritime certification.
  • City of Seattle funds school district. All other WA cities get funding from the state.
  • Port of Seattle and Port of Tacoma plan together, instead of competing. The only competitor is BC, Canada (Vancouver and Prince Rupert, Vancouver has a bridge that prevent largest vessel from entering.)
  • 20% cargo used locally, the rest go to midwest. Some of midwest's cargo also came in through Canada.
  • Shore power, 3 sites. In 2027 only plugged curise ships are allowed into Seattle.
• Tacoma
  • deepen the waterway.
  • Maritime Skills Center, parnered with Tacoma Public Schools.
  • Zero-Emission trucking/cargo handling equipment.
  • US-Korea Green Shipping Corridors Project
  • Partnership with local tribes.
• Bergen
  • 300k population. 1M tourists. 40K studetns. 6k researchers.
  • 60% cruise use shore power (9M kWh), 2026 all cruise ships must use shore power.
  • Mostly passenger (cruise, ferry), some service and cargo. Otherwise, 1500 Liter desel per day per ship.
  • 2018 visible pollution igniteed city council decision: limit of 4 ships and 8000 pax per day, build shore power.
  • Buying land outside of the city, which caused some object of those communities.
• Kobe: filled land in the ocean (Not filling more land.) They are creating some bridge-like crane to access cargo ships. Space to grow kelp in the ports. 2040 vision of the integrated port.

I have trouble understanding the director of Port of Kobe (during the panel discussion, there was a translator). Bergen's port director made an interesting comment: we are picking the cruise industry because they are most visible, which only counts for about 5% traffic. Most are cargo ships and overland lorries (cheaper), which the public is not paying attention to.

Part 2 - >Green Manufacturing and Diversified Workforce

• Kirk Desler, Site Director at Bellingham, Corvus Energy (battery)
• Dan Tucker, Executive Director, Whatcom Working Waterfront Coalition (need more industrial land)
• Jamila Gordan, Principal, Maritime High School (in Des Moines, 120 students -> growing to 400, no grades, no credit. Competency check.) More hispanic, less Asian less girls than KC demographic. Multiple pathway (construction, ocean science, ...)
• Erica Spiritos- Mass Timber Accelerator
• Kyle Rowe- Electric Era
• Daniel Lokic- Sound Industrial Alliance
• Tuuli Snow- Snow and Company Boat Building (100% medical insurance)
• Dr. Alex Parker- Astraeus Ocean Systems
• Savannah Smith- Sea Potential

Part 3 - Argosy Tour of Seattle Waterfront
More people joined the cruise. We walked from Pier 66, and the sailed south along the shore to Harbor Island, and then into Duwamish River. Various short speeches about cargo operations, tribal fishery, community benefit program.
My notes:

• Puget Sound has deep waterway, can host very large container ship (up to 18k TEU. To accommodate THE largest (24K TEU), need to extend the piers further out.
• Port of Seattle's biggest container content is hay, second is potato.
• Our biggest trading partner is import from China, export to Japan (followed by Korea)
• Harbor Island is man-made, over 100 year old.
• Canadian ports don't charge Harbor Maintenance Tax (0.125%), making Prince Rupert the upcoming competitor.
• Many barges and smaller container ships along Duamish waterway. Many from Alaska.
• Port of Seattle/Tacoma is much smaller than LA/Long Beach.
• I was getting sicker and sicker on the cruise. I'm only good on solid ground.
• Native people are allowed to fish in Duamish River.

10/24 Norwegian tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl

Statsraad Lehmkuhl is on its Seattle visit (10/22-26) during a year-long One Ocean Expedition. The ship is also open for public access on tomorrow (10/23).

This Friday afternoon The Vast and Deep Ocean hosts many talks and demonstration tables and UW student posters, and many short presentations in the dinning room below deck.

It was pouring cats and dogs when I walked to Pier 66. I missed the welcome by the capital, University of Bergen Rector, and some UW officials, as well as the research being done onboard the ship.

• ​2:00 Deep Sea Science
  • ​Maja Jæger, Department of Earth Science, UiB: “Uncovering the mysteries beneath the Arctic Ocean”
  • ​Håvard Stubseid, Researcher, Department of Earth Science, UiB: “Hidden deep-sea landscapes in the Arctic”
  • ​Sissel H Eriksen, Senior Geologist, Norwegian Offshore Directorate: “collaboration between Science and Resource Management”
  • ​Mariela White, OOI and Regional Cabled Array, UW: “Wiring the Ocean: NSF's Ocean Observatories Initiative Regional Cabled Array”
• ​3:00 Ocean Biogeochemistry & Biology
  • ​Jodi Young, Associate Professor, UW School of Oceanography: “Studying the role of microalgae in polar regions”
  • ​Jan Newton, Principal Oceanographer and Professor, UW Applied Physics Lab and Washington Ocean Acidification Center: “Ocean Acidification: A global condition with local effects”
  • ​Anuscheh Nawaz, Principal Research Scientist/Engineer, UW Applied Physics Lab: “Innovation for Scalable Oceanography”

During the breaks, I visited some of the demo tables: air pockets in ice, deep-sea mud. These are set on the deck, under a canvas canopy (raining). Thankfully the rain tapered off gradually. Of course, I walked around the ship. It's a good looking ship. Very tall masks, with fuzy protection on the cord where the sail may strike. It's bowel is composed of 2 sections. The lecture room on one end, and you have to get upstairs, over some (engine?) and down a different set of stairs to the dining area. Big tubes of air vent here and there.