Environment: San Diego, Seattle, Vancouver

 

As part of its mission to create a dynamic and active waterfront, the Port of San Diego is pleased to present Sojourner, a temporary immersive artwork by artist Adam Belt.

 

Commissioned as part of the Port Spaces curatorial initiative, Sojourner will be on display and free to the public from April 13 through April 29, 2018, at the end of Broadway Pier, 1000 N Harbor Dr., San Diego, CA 92101. For this work, San Diego-based artist Adam Belt has constructed a structure that offers a sensory experience influenced by our coastal areas, wetlands, parks and piers.

 

Inside Belt’s temporary art room, visitors experience an alternate, meditative world, enveloped by a visual orchestra of reflections. The structure features a reflecting pool and opposing floor-to-ceiling mirrors that cast the effects of rippling light on the water’s surface out to an infinite horizon. Visitors can pass through the space or sit on interior seating to experience the work, and have a quiet reflective moment.  

 

Belt is a San Diego-based artist whose work incorporates the experiences and phenomena of natural forces. He states of Sojourner: "I am looking to create an experience that is both intimate in its small scale and movement of water while also expansive in its reflection." Belt is represented by Quint Gallery in La Jolla and has exhibited widely in the United States. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

 

A recent report compiled by the Puget Sound Maritime Air Forum – a committee of seven ports, including the Port of Seattle, six government agencies, and three industrial partners – shows maritime-related air pollutant emissions decreased in nearly every sector between 2005 and 2016. Results showed that air pollutant emissions decreased by up to 97 percent, depending on the type, including 69 percent for fine particles, which are harmful to human health.

 

The emission reductions resulted from voluntary investments by the maritime industry and efforts by government agencies in cleaner engines, fuels and operational efficiency, as well as regulations that stipulated more stringent emission standards for new engines and cleaner fuels.

 

The first inventory was conducted in 2005, with updates performed every five years (2011 and 2016) to track emission reductions over time and ensure that emission estimates remain current.

 

The Puget Sound Maritime Air Emissions Inventory (PSEI) is an accounting of air emissions from maritime-related equipment operating in the greater Puget Sound region. The inventory was conducted voluntarily to provide a strong technical foundation for future environmental programs, initiatives and policy decisions. Data summarizing maritime operations and equipment use were collected from ports, individuals, agencies and maritime companies that use vessels and equipment.

 

This inventory includes black carbon emissions for the first time. Black carbon is a ‘short-term climate pollutant,' meaning it only stays in the atmosphere for days to weeks as opposed to carbon dioxide, which has an atmospheric lifetime of more than 100 years. Although it does not remain in the atmosphere long, its short-term climate potency is far greater than carbon dioxide. Recent studies have highlighted black carbon’s impact on climate change: for example, black carbon that settles on snow packs absorbs heat from the sun, increasing the rate of melting. More research is needed on estimating black carbon because there are few widely agreed upon emission factors for mobile sources.

The inventory results will be used to help guide and focus future emissions reduction efforts and investments. These initiatives include updating the Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy, a formal plan among The Northwest Seaport Alliance, a partnership of the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, and the Port of Vancouver, B.C., to reduce diesel and greenhouse gas emissions.

 

These results will be used for further community outreach in areas historically disproportionately impacted by air pollution from multiple sources. Feedback and involvement from community stakeholders is expected in the coming months, as continued reduction goals are identified.

 

Find more information about the emissions inventory and its results at www.pugetsoundmaritimeairforum.org.

 

 

The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority applauds the Fisheries and Ocean Canada’s announcement to invest more than $12 million in new science funding and research projects to study the impacts of reduced prey availability and underwater noise on marine animals, including the southern resident killer whale, as part of the Oceans Protection Plan.

 

An underwater listening station in the Strait of Georgia, part of the port authority-led Enhancing Cetacean Habitat and Observation (ECHO) Program, is one of four projects receiving this funding. The port authority was awarded $200,000 to continue operating the underwater listening station in the Strait of Georgia for a third year.

 

"A key focus of the ECHO Program is supporting the recovery of southern resident killer whales, and the listening station is critical to our understanding of how underwater vessel noise might be affecting these and other at-risk species," said Duncan Wilson, vice president, corporate social responsibility at the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.

 

The listening station is helping scientists to understand how the noise levels of ships destined for the Port of Vancouver, as well as other vessels including ferries, recreational vessels and whale watching boats, may be impacting whales, which use sound to locate their prey. The station can also be used to test possible mitigation solutions, such as the impacts of cleaner hulls, new propeller technologies or different operating conditions.

 

Data collected from the Strait of Georgia underwater listening station and two additional listening stations in Haro Strait was central to the research of the ECHO Program during a vessel slowdown trial in the Haro Strait last summer, a study that also received federal funding support. The trial, which relied on the voluntary participation of commercial shippers, compared noise levels for vessels at standard and reduced speeds to better understand the relationship between vessel speed and sound. Thanks to a high voluntary participation rate among shippers, the study is yielding meaningful results. Interim results are now available on the port authority website, and final results will be released later this spring.