Editor’s Note: This article is a follow-up to two other TCS articles on the Great American Eclipse of 2017.
OREGON
Meg Reed | Oregon Coastal Management Program, Newport, OR
Newport, OR – The morning of the total solar eclipse started out the way many mornings on the coast in the summer do, foggy. I worried that I wouldn’t be able to fully experience the solar eclipse and that if I chose to drive further inland, I would be stuck in traffic and crowds. Instead, I decided to wait it out. By 8:30 am, the mist was burning off and by the time I brought my chair to the backyard at 9 am, the sun was fully out and there was barely a cloud in the sky! I couldn’t believe our luck!
My excitement intensified when I put on my solar eclipse glasses and saw the first sign of the eclipse starting around 9:04 am – a small chunk missing from the top right side of the sun, like someone had taken a small nibble out of a cookie. The moon was starting its movement across the sun and it was so exhilarating to see it happening right before my eyes! Over the next half hour, I continued to watch the sun disappear slowly behind the moon through my viewing glasses. After about 40-minutes or so, I noticed that the light was getting dimmer and the air temperature was getting colder. I had to put on more layers as I sat watching the light continue to dim and the temperature continue to drop.
Finally, around 10:15 am, the last sliver of the sun went behind the moon and I could take off my glasses to fully witness totality. The sky was instantly dark – comparable to the last moments of twilight – and the sun’s glow was shining around the moon. It was so incredibly wonderful! I wasn’t prepared for how amazing the moment of totality would be. It was truly awe-inspiring. While I was with only my husband in our backyard, we heard whoops and shouts of excitement across the neighborhood from others watching the event. Small fireworks starting going off nearby as people celebrated. You could feel the excitement in the air as we all stopped to observe this event.
And then, just like that, the sun started shining through the other side as the moment of totality ended and I put my glasses back on to watch the moon continue its journey the other way. The sunlight came back and over the next hour, the temperature got warmer and the light got stronger until the eclipse officially ended around 11:36 am in Newport and it was a normal sunny day again.
“My excitement intensified when I put on my solar eclipse glasses and saw the first sign of the eclipse starting around 9:04am…”
SOUTH CAROLINA
Rebecca Love | Coastal Management Specialist at NOAA Office for Coastal Management
I watched the eclipse with my family and neighbors at the end of our street. The street ends at the Ashley River so the view was great – plenty of open sky above and marsh below. It was a cloudy afternoon with a thunderstorm threatening to move in, but we were able to see the eclipse and totality through the clouds and the occasional gap in the clouds. My two daughters were so excited. We talked about what we might see and feel and how to watch safely. That morning they made eclipse cupcakes to share with fellow on-lookers.
Totality was 94 amazing seconds! Not only was it awesome and a little eerie, but it was a sort of bonding experience with those around you. As the sky grew darker, everyone became silent. Street lights came on, the temperature dropped a few degrees, a few stars became visible and everyone was in awe. Afterwards some people clapped, some left and went home, and my 8-year-old said “that was awesome!” I feel so lucky to have experienced this with my family from my own front yard.
Hanging with the neighbors at the end of the streetKids and me in the yard.
Margaret Allen | The Baldwin Group at NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management
I should have stayed close to home. I missed the whole darn thing. As I was driving out to the eclipse party, the sky was getting darker (weather-related, not eclipse-related) and it started raining. Booo. The coast (where I came from) had some clouds, but stayed pretty clear. Inland (where I went), was stormy and cloudy the whole time. Eclipse-viewing-location fail.
But even though I didn’t see it, I did have a cool eclipse experience. Actually, I did get to see one little glimpse when I made a stop and whipped out my eclipse glasses on the way out to the party–that was cool. And even though the weather was a mixture of cloudy, sprinkling, and/or pouring the whole time, at the moment of totality, we still got to experience the “everything got dark” moment. Nighttime dark, not just overcast dark. And the temperature dropped what seemed like 15 degrees. We were all a little wet from the rain, and we all were freezing. It’s a strange feeling to get the chills outside in Charleston in August. To make it even more exciting, we were looking out over the Ashley River, and you could see the lightning bolts over the water and the thunder was rumbling. Spooky. We had fun talking about what people in ancient times must have thought when something like that happened. We decided they must have thought the world was ending. Even Lizzie and Ellie weren’t sure about the whole thing, and my lap was full of chilly and slightly freaked out little girls. Actually I think their biggest concern was that they might have to go to bed since it was dark. Haha.
So I didn’t see it, but I ‘experienced’ it. And it was a fun party, we grilled out, splashed around in the puddles, roasted marshmallows, and had fun looking up when and where we could see the next total eclipse. And my kids still have their eye sight. So that’s a plus. Maybe in 2024 we’ll head to Texas or New York and try again.
By Erik Swanson, Oregon State University TCS Student Chapter
Editor’s Note: This article is a follow-up to two other TCS articles on the Great American Eclipse of 2017.
From atop Dimple Hill, part of Oregon State University’s (OSU) McDonald Research Forest, a crowd of more than a hundred people enjoyed a vantage point stretching from the Cascades through the Willamette Valley and to the Oregon Coast Range. As totality drew closer, nearly all in attendance now had donned their paper protective eye-wear. A thin speck of sun shone from behind the moon before all went black; the cosmic signal to rip off those funny glasses. The crowd cheered as the total eclipse burst on display for about two minutes. As many in attendance had migrated from all over the world to share in the wonder of the eclipse, simultaneously, millions of Pacific Ocean zooplankton in range of totality strangely migrated to the surface of the ocean.
More than just awe-inspiring, a monumental event such as blotting out the daytime sun not surprisingly impacts the natural world in many curious ways. Birds have been reported to respond by singing songs reserved for dusk, but less obvious are the impacts to the oceans. OSU, a partner with the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), was uniquely positioned this year in the line of totality, an exciting opportunity for oceanographers to observe how a cosmic event like the 2017 eclipse can affect the oceans.
Ocean Observatory group recovering one of our surface moorings. These are the moorings that make the meteorological and fixed water column measurements shown in the graphic below.
Photo Credit: Jonathon Fram
Dr. Jonathan Fram, an oceanographer at the OSU operated Ocean Observing Center, in Corvallis, Oregon, facilitated those observations. He predicted that the daily zooplankton migration event would be affected, as it is dependent on the amount of sunlight penetrating the ocean. During the daylight hours, these millions of tiny creatures can be found in the deep, dark, depths of the ocean. At dusk, they begin a long migration to the water surface, where they spend the night before dawn marks a return to the deep. Fram, using bioacoustic sonar equipment stationed off the Oregon coast, found that the zooplankton responded to the eclipse and the reduction of light in the water column by beginning their daily migration to the surface. Before reaching the water surface, totality was complete and the slow increase of light signified a sort of false alarm for the tiny creatures and a return to the ocean depths.
The bioacoustic sonars located 10 miles off the coast of Newport, Oregon, and 40 miles off the coast of Waldport, Oregon, are connected to shore via hundreds of miles of cable. The University of Washington OOI team laid and maintain these cables that encase a power cord and fiber optic cable for data transmission. Connecting these data-capturing instruments directly to shore allows scientists to observe the data capture in real-time, download the data in a short amount of time, and provide results to the public with little delay. Results of this experiment were available only 12 hours following the eclipse.
“Scientists make predictions all the time but often cannot share their results in a time frame that captures the public’s interest,” said Fram. “This event was a unique opportunity to provide the public with the results of a large scale experiment on the same day it occurred.”
Shelf bioacoustic sonar instrument before deployment
Photo Credit: Jonathon Fram
Two offshore surface moorings, part of the Endurance Array, were uniquely positioned in the line of totality and captured data such as air and water temperatures and shortwave radiation during the eclipse. Air temperature on the beach and further inland was significantly reduced, as many people experienced during the eclipse, but water and offshore air temperatures were not impacted much. This is not surprising, according to Fram, as offshore air temperature is more dependent on ocean temperatures. The amount of sunlight—shortwave radiation—penetrating the ocean was also greatly reduced during the eclipse event.
Shelf bioacoustic sonar instrument while it was being deployed via ROV.
Photo Credit: Jonathon Fram
Fram’s work is one of many experiments and research projects currently underway at OSU made possible by the OSU’s operation of the Endurance Array portion of OOI. The OOI allows scientists throughout the world to access oceanographic data by tapping into an array of instruments deployed offshore to capture a vast multitude of oceanographic variables. At least one thousand instruments are located in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada. Fram said, this year he hopes to improve the accessibility of data his center manages for scientists and the public.
As a NASA Space Grant, Sea Grant and Land Grant university, OSU works to bring scientists and students from a wide range of backgrounds together to confront the major challenges faced by the oceans now and in the future. The Hatfield Marine Science Center located in Newport, Oregon, is an additional OSU resource that welcomes these diverse scientists and students. It serves as a marine and oceanographic laboratory and classroom for seven OSU colleges and six state and federal agencies. The visitor center also provides educational opportunities for K-12 and the public.
The Oregon Coast provides many exciting opportunities for students and professionals in the fields of oceanography, marine biology, marine fisheries and others. An added benefit to studying or working in Oregon is that beaches are legally public lands. Within those approximately 363-miles of public beachs, bays, and estuaries there are endless scientific wonders left to explore and environmental vulnerabilities to confront for future stewards of the coasts.
Meteorological and fixed water column measurements taken during the eclipse.
While researching the coastal effects of the Great American Solar Eclipse of 2017 for TCS Blog article “Coasts in Shadow“, I reached out to fellow TCS members in Oregon and South Carolina to find out about their eclipse plans. Oregon will be the first state to experience the eclipse and South Carolina the last.
Below are their responses.
We will be following up with these TCS members post-eclipse to capture their experiences. Please share your own plans or experiences in the comments section below.
OREGON
Oregon State University’s TCS Student Chapter
The Chapter (a.k.a “Fisheries and Wildlife Science Club”) will be attending a lecture by Associate Professor Jonathan Fram on the offshore Endurance Array and the measurements it will be collecting before, during, and after the solar eclipse. We will be broadcasting the lecture live on the TCS Facebook Page on Saturday, August 19th at 2:00PM PST:
The lecture description by Associate Professor Fram is:
View from the Coast: During the eclipse, a vast network of sensors on oceanographic moorings off the Oregon Coast will be measuring its effect on the ocean through tides. Hear from oceanographer/professor Jonathan Fram about how bioacoustic sonars will measure fish and the zooplankton they eat, while other sensors will detect how the eclipse affects light and temperature at the sea surface.
David R. Perry | So. Coast Regional Representative. Department of Land Conservation and Development. Ocean and Coastal Services Division
We live within the path of totality. There is a ton of hype coming from the local chamber of commerce about visiting the coast to view the eclipse. The cost of a room or campsite on August 21st can be 5 or 10 times the usual rate. Even so, we expect to be inundated with tourists coming for the event. The problem is, meteorological records indicate that there is a 50/50 chance that a marine layer will prevail along the coastline at mid-morning when the eclipse will occur, so the sun may not be visible at the beach during that timeframe! If the marine layer is evident that day, my wife and I will head inland with some friends to higher ground in the Siuslaw National Forest where we hope to get above or beyond the cloud layer. For us, the total eclipse presents an opportunity to see one of nature’s most rare and awesome spectacles from our own back yard!
Meg Reed | Oregon Coastal Management Program, Newport, OR
Oregon is expecting about 1 million more people to be here to view the eclipse. I work with emergency managers coast-wide who have been planning and preparing for this event for a year or more. I will be heeding their advice to locals to “shelter in place!” I plan to watch the eclipse from my backyard, but if it’s cloudy or foggy, I will probably just watch NASA’s live stream. It will be exciting, either way, to experience this once-in-a-lifetime event and the sudden darkness that will occur when the moon covers the sun.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Rebecca Love | Coastal Management Specialist at NOAA Office for Coastal Management
I’m going to avoid hitting the roads and stay local to watch the eclipse. My family and I will walk to Hampton Park (in Charleston, SC) with some neighborhood friends. I’m looking forward to the period of totality and being able to experience this event with my two daughters. I’m curious to see how dark it will get and whether we’ll feel a brief drop in temperature.
Margaret Allen | The Baldwin Group at NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management
I am definitely planning to watch and do something fun! There are so many fun events here to choose from. I was thinking I’d stay close to home, but I might go out to my family plantation to watch. Wherever I am, I am just excited to see the look on Lizzie and Ellie’s faces (5 and 3), and I want to make sure they wear their glasses (don’t care to blind my children at this point).
If not out there, we’re going to our local pool club with a bunch of other families. They have a special event with eclipse themed cocktails and food.
Anyway, it is a HUGE deal here. All the local schools are closed. (they start next Thursday, go for 2 days, then are off for the eclipse). Everyone from the county parks, to county libraries, to neighborhood associations, to private clubs/restaurants are hosting events. There’s a yoga event, all kinds of things.
The other funny thing is watching/hearing about everyone trying to get their eclipse glasses–lots of places here are selling them, local libraries are giving them away, but there are a ton of places (esp online) selling fake ones that don’t really work, and that’s been a problem.
By Kasey R. Jacobs, Communications Chair, The Coastal Society. This article is also published on Marine Science Today as part of a TCS-MST Collaboration.
Photo Credit: Kasey R. Jacobs
Minutes before any eclipse observer can see the moon commandeer the light of the Sun on August 21st, the Pacific Ocean will perceive the changes first.
A serendipitous event for Jonathan Fram and the array of scientific sensors he manages off the coast of Oregon. Though not designed nor deployed for measuring how the Great American Solar Eclipse affects the ocean, Associate Professor Fram, of Oregon State University, is taking advantage of their location in the path of totality. And he is not the only one. Physical scientists on the coasts of Oregon and South Carolina are gearing up to deploy data-collecting instruments, anglers are scouting for the best fishing spots, universities are looking to draw people into the joy of science, and coastal managers are preparing for the inundation of people in parks and conservation areas.
Most eclipse observers are thinking about the bizarre occurrences they might witness on land and in the sky, and not what they can expect on the coasts and in the ocean. As the entire nation looks up to the heavens and around the land on August 21st, what will be happening off the coasts?
History of ocean-focused eclipse studies
Scientists and eclipse observers for centuries have eagerly observed land-based effects, at least as far back as a total eclipse in 1544, but very few have asked the coastal question. Surprisingly, the published literature remains meager today.
The Boston Society of Natural History conducted an extensive observation project to document the behavior of wild and domestic animals during the 1932 New England total solar eclipse, including coastal and marine wildlife. Their eclipse, like ours, took place in the month of August. In today’s terminology, we would call their survey a large-scale “citizen science” project. The Society partnered with media outlets to publish announcements prior to the eclipse to elicit observations for the survey. The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald and Traveler, The Boston Transcript, The Boston Post, The Boston American, and the Christian Science Monitor all gave important space, often on the front page, and mentioned the study in radio broadcasts. They combined these citizen observations with official reports by game wardens in the northeastern states, and reports submitted by naturalists. They mapped the observations and a special eclipse committee analyzed all 498 data points and published their findings in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Science of 1935.
The 1932 Eclipse Committee found that harbor seals were unaffected by the eclipse while wild fish were more active. Wild brook trout, white perch, and small-mouthed black bass were eating more during the eclipse and stopped when the light returned. A Mr. H. Bowley in Massachusetts reported that Common Pickerel “always jump out of the water in this part of the river at dark, began jumping out during the darkness of the eclipse.”
Shore birds, like fish hawks, lesser yellow-legs, gulls, terns, willets, and roseate terns may act differently than land birds during an eclipse. Rather than go quiet or roost, they become more active, vocal, and exposed, as is the case for other nocturnal birds. Solar eclipses tend to cause diurnal (day-time) birds to go quiet and nocturnal (night-time) birds to emerge. The committee noted that gulls showed less reaction than the terns and most other shore birds, as some did respond as though night was coming by returning to the mainland to roost. They stressed that reactions appear individual and not species-specific.
In the latter part of the 20th century, scientific instruments began to be used in coastal eclipse studies. A deep scattering layer in the North Atlantic was monitored during the 1972 total solar eclipse using an echo recorder. In 2006, an oceanographic cruise on board a Hellenic Center for Marine Research ship measured, and later modeled, effects on marine zooplankton during a total solar eclipse in the Eastern Mediterranean. The research team found underwater profiles of temperature and salinity remained almost constant yet most zooplankton reacted similarly to the changes in light. Different species responded at different rates and intensities. Ciliates responded to the decreased light intensity by adopting night-time behavior, spreading themselves vertically within the water column. Some copepodites showed a vertical migratory movement while others displayed no significant differences. Previous studies showed the free-swimming larvae of shrimp, clams, snails and barnacles vertically redistribute themselves and/or migrate upwards during total solar eclipses.
Fishermen prepare
As these planktonic crustacea swim to the surface, it would follow that the marine life that feast on them also rise. The night-time behavior of fishes and marine mammals during solar eclipse events could be due to the movement of their food sources or triggered by the decreased light. Not enough research is available on the subject to make this determination. Measuring rapid changes in a short amount of time in the ocean water column simultaneously with changes in animal distributions is no small undertaking.
Photo Credit: Kasey R. Jacobs
Fishermen have a propensity to already know about phenomena scientists stumble upon to study. In their renowned nonchalant manner, it seems they are already aware the fish will be biting on August 21st. For over a month, recreational fishermen have been sharing with one another the best fishing spots in the path of totality. Anglers are hoping to fish night-time species during the day. Though the Sportsman Channel reports some fishermen think there won’t be any effect being the change is so brief.
Anglers in partial eclipse areas shouldn’t be discouraged at the missed opportunity. In 1906, in a letter to the editor of Nature, an A. Mosely wrote about the partial eclipse of August 30, 1905 seen in England. “All the morning the sport had been indifferent, but as the eclipse neared its maximum the fish suddenly became ravenous, and I took more in that hour than all the rest of the day. My experience was also that of all the other boats out there at the time.”
There is still little information on deep-sea or coastal fishing as most of the fish-spot-sharing online has been focused on rivers and freshwater species.
Gary Lewis, host of Frontier Unlimited TV and book author, wrote in an article on The Register-Guard, “When the light goes down and the caddis pop, the fish, like the rest of us, will be looking to the sky.”
“From physics to fish.” Ocean observation during eclipse
Jonathan Fram is hoping the massive network of sensors on oceanographic moorings he helps manage, called the Endurance Array, will be able to collect data useful for fisheries and other ocean subjects. The array is operated by Oregon State University and the University of Washington for the Ocean Observatories Initiative. Bioacoustic sonars will measure fish and their prey, zooplankton, while other sensors, like gliders and profilers, will detect how the eclipse affects light and temperature at the sea surface. Fram tells The Coastal Society it can “measure everything from physics to fish.” These sensors are part of a twenty-five-year NSF-funded project that became operational in 2015. The array can monitor parameters at depths inaccessible to satellites, like oxygen, water velocity, and chlorophyll. Associate Professor Fram’s job is to keep the non-cabled infrastructure functioning, refurbishing and calibrating the sensors, and ensuring the data stream is continuous and available to any interested researchers, free of charge.
The array’s engineer will present two lectures on the capabilities of the array for observing eclipse effects during a three-day eclipse celebration by Oregon State University. His goal is to make sure researchers know about the array, the partnerships that make it function, and the existence of the data. He doesn’t analyze the data himself, but points researchers or collaborative teams to the data so they can make discoveries and write papers to further science. (Eclipse-related data can be found on a special eclipse webpage of the Endurance Array.)
Photo Credit: Kasey R. Jacobs
Fram’s excitement over the possibility of collecting ocean data on the eclipse began twenty-six years ago when he traveled to the Big Island of Hawaii and was wowed by the 1991 solar eclipse. When he found out the Endurance Array was in the path of totality for the 2017 eclipse he started thinking about what instruments could capture the effects. The instruments today are sensitive enough to observe reactions not previously documented in past solar eclipses.
The instruments measure three different frequencies and can distinguish between different size classes of fish. If fish follow the zooplankton upwards and begin feeding as though it was night the sensors will be able to perceive this behavior. If a whale passes through the array, “we can see that as well.” The array has great potential for use in fisheries research. Instruments normally mounted on the bottoms of ships are now moored in place with cables in the portion managed by the University of Washington. The extra power allows for long-term monitoring not previously attainable.
The next closest thing
While the Endurance Array collects Pacific Ocean data during the eclipse, Dr. Cassandra Runyon, Planetary Geologist with the College of Charleston, will be observing the moon’s shadow as it crosses South Carolina from 80,000 to 100,000 feet. Dr. Runyon is leading a team of six students from the College of Charleston to conduct a high-altitude balloon flight, sending live video and images from near-space to the NASA website. This will be the first time she has remotely sensed a total solar eclipse. Her launch is part of a network of launches being conducted across the country in the path of totality.
Graphic: NASA
A team of students from Oregon State University and Linn-Benton Community College will also be launching a balloon. Their flight will take place 30 miles offshore from onboard OSU’s research vessel Pacific Storm. For NASA, these coordinated balloon flights are also a first. Live coverage has never been done, nor has live footage been recorded across a continental network.
Motivating the College of Charleston’s Dr. Runyon to participate is “In short…curiosity” and the fact that she is not able to witness the eclipse from the International Space Station. “This is the next closest thing for me.”
The tides during the total solar eclipse
Dr. Runyon told The Coastal Society that the eclipse is not expected to affect the geomorphology of the coasts. However, there will be coastal flooding as the eclipse falls on a King Tide day in South Carolina. King Tides are exceptionally high tides that occur naturally and are predicted beforehand. Twice a month, during new and full moons, the moon, earth, and sun are aligned and the gravitational pull of the sun adds to that of the moon causing the ocean to bulge a bit more than usual. This means that high tides are higher than normal and low tides are lower than normal. For coastal areas in the path of totality this means that these bimonthly Spring Tides will be at their maximum Sunday, August 20th, and Monday, August 21st. The solar eclipse may cause the King Tide intensity to be “slightly higher, but not significant,” according to Dr. Runyon.
In 1932, the Boston Society of Natural History emphasized how the tides affect shorebird behavior during a total solar eclipse. When making observations of abnormal eclipse behaviors in wildlife you first need to know what is their normal behavior. For coastal organisms, this means an observer also should know what their non-eclipse behaviors are during low and high tides. In 1932, for instance, some gulls were observed to return to the mainland to roost, while others flew to feeding grounds exposed by the receding tide. Was this unusual behavior? During the eclipse the tide was falling and so some gulls decided to feed rather than return to their roosting areas because of the quick onset of darkness.
Inundated by eclipse observers in Oregon and South Carolina
The coasts of South Carolina will be inundated not only with water during the eclipse, but also eclipse chasers. Millions of people will flock to the coasts of Oregon and South Carolina on August 21st, 2017 to witness the first time in the nation’s history a total solar eclipse with a path falling entirely above the continental United States. The coverage has been intense and the enthusiasm is skyrocketing.
Universities are capitalizing on the excitement by organizing educational events and watch parties. The motivation is to enhance the public’s science literacy and showcase the capabilities of university researchers and labs. The College of Charleston will be hosting NASA’s national eclipse broadcasting. These university activities have been in the works for a while. “Members of the Oregon State University NASA Space Grant team, Astronomy Club, and other interested faculty and staff began planning for an OSU eclipse event” well over a year ago, according to Jill Peters, Eclipse Event Manager for the University Relations and Marketing department of Oregon State University. “This is like a dream come true for the scientists, engineers and astronomers on our Corvallis campus and [Hatfield Marine Science Center in] Newport to be directly in the path of a total solar eclipse.”
Photo Credit: Kasey R. Jacobs
For coastal managers, the eclipse might be bittersweet. Managing the large influx of people is proving to be a challenge for both emergency management, traffic control, and conservation.
Margaret Allen, a member of The Coastal Society, reports that Charleston developed an emergency safety plan and South Carolina emergency officials issued a warning about crazy heavy traffic. “I guess they are worried that people will be driving and not paying attention and wreck. They’re saying locals should do their best to stay off the roads (which makes me prefer to stay at my local pool club). They expect upwards of 1 million out of state folks to come to SC!”
The high tides are one of the big concerns for government officials. “We’re going to have visitors who have no idea what our waters are like or even, as crazy as it sounds, that we have tides,” said Jim Kusz, North Lincoln Fire & Rescue spokesman told the Oregonian/Oregon Live. “We’re probably going to do a sweep the evening before and tell people if you are planning on being on the beach that night you might want to consider being higher up or off the beach completely.”
Oregon State Parks and Recreation warns in an official statement that the new moon on August 21st will bring very high and very low tides. Not sugarcoating the dangers, they continue: “A very low tide exposes a lot of beach, which is deceptively dangerous when the high tide rolls in. This will happen late on the night of Aug. 20 into the early morning of Aug. 21. Don’t camp on the beach because the high tide of more than 9 feet will cover most of the normally dry sand. The best scenario is that you and your sleeping bag will get wet. The other scenarios are far worse.”
Eclipse observer safety is not the only safety concern during total solar eclipses. In 2012, visitors from around the world headed to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park around Cairns, Australia to view the total solar eclipse. Because many islands offshore of Cairns were predicted to be the best locations to view the event there were concerns about disturbance to nesting seabirds. At the time, the Marine Park Authority Director John Day said it was “important visitors were aware of the environment around them when making the most of the rare opportunity”. For the 2017 eclipse, TravelOregon.com asks observers to “keep Oregon safe and beautiful” and provides tips for how to be a good steward while watching the eclipse.
Oregon State Parks and Recreation told The Coastal Society they are warning observers not to climb or dig into cliffs, to comply with posted signs and officials/volunteers, and to protect rocky shore habitats and sensitive wildlife areas. There are sensitive coastal habitat areas (marine reserves, rocky intertidal areas, bird nesting areas) within the path of totality. “It is important to not harass wildlife and be a good steward while enjoying these special places. The general message is to be safe – the Oregon coast is beautiful but can be dangerous if you’re not paying attention. Especially with large crowds, it is important to be aware of your surroundings, be prepared, and be a good steward.”
Jonathan Fram, and his oceanographic array that will observe the eclipse first before the rest of the nation, welcomes the masses. He reminds us that the eclipse is about experiencing the world around us. “I am looking forward to thousands of people coming to Corvallis and millions of people coming to the whole path of eclipse that are excited about science because of the eclipse. The people coming to Corvallis and our whole weekend of events will be exposed to not just eclipse-related stuff but all the neat science done here. Places all across the country are doing the same types of events are great opportunities to engage people in science.”
For those coastal enthusiasts who want to observe and report on bizarre occurrences of coastal and marine wildlife on August 21, 2017 the California Academy of Sciences is taking a page from the book of the Boston Society of Natural History’s 1932 Eclipse Committee. They are soliciting citizen scientists to record their observations of any animals they see using the academy’s iNaturalist app.
Perhaps scientific and citizen observations recorded during the Great American Solar Eclipse of 2017 will solve the mystery of how solar eclipses affect our coasts and oceans.
~Meg Reed contributed to the reporting and editing for this story.
Night dive looking up at water column and bubbles with a dive torch. Photo Credit: Kasey R. Jacobs
Sources
M. Allen, personal communication, August 10, 2017
Economou, G., E.D. Christou, A. Giannakourou, E. Gerasopoulos, D. Georgopoulos, V. Kotoulas, D. Lyra, N. Tsakalis, M. Tzortziou, P. Vahamidis, E. Papathanassiou, and A. Karamanos. 2008. Eclipse effects on field crops and marine zooplankton: the 29 March 2006 total solar eclipse. Atmos. Chem. Phys.
J. Fram (Oregon State University), personal communication, August 10, 2017
J. Peters (Oregon State University), personal communication, August 9, 2017
M. Robertson (College of Charleston), personal communication, August 9, 2017
C. Runyon (College of Charleston), personal communication, August 9, 2017
Oregon State Parks and Recreation, personal communication (by Meg Reed), August 15, 2017
Wheeler, W.M., C.V. MacCoy, L. Griscom, G. M. Allen, and H.J. Coolidge Jr. 1935. Observations on the Behavior of Animals during the Total Solar Eclipse of August 31, 1932. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Vol. 70, No. 2 (Mar., 1935), pp. 33-70
