Alfredo Garcia is an Astoria high school student working this summer through the Portland Chapter's Blue Water Task Force Prgram to collect data for his senior project. Alfredo will be following up on his data from throughout the summer with a research project, comparing local BWTF data to beaches in other areas. We're stoked to work with such great youth volunteers in our programs and Alfredo is a fine example. Alfredo and teacher/mentor Tim Roth are pictured at right learning the ropes of sterilization. With the new equipment, the program will be able to reuse glass containers, rather than disposable plastics. Additionally, this fall, the project will begin partnering with the watershed council to begin investigating Ecola Creek water quality. Over the past few years, the Oregon Beach Monitoring Program has begun detecting large volumes of bacteria at the outfall of Ecola creek (where many children play). Stay tuned for more to come from this partnership this fall!

Celebrating their 8th year of surf clinics, Pro surfer Kim Hamrock and Cannon Beach Surf bring you this year's top notch surf clinic for beginners to intermediate surfers July 11-13 in Cannon Beach! Three days of surf instruction by Kim Hamrock and other instructors including a clinic group BBQ on the Saturday. The surf clinic will also include a beach ecology presentation with Surfrider Foundation. Cost is $350 and all equipment needed is available for rent each day or bring your own. Visit http://www.cannonbeachsurf.com/ or call (503) 436-0475 for more details.

Of lately, some concerns have been raised regarding recent infections surfers have been contracting in the Seaside area. Rumors of contaminated water and surfers hospitalized with staph and MRSA cases have left some folks surfing for answers and raising more questions. So what's going on here? I checked in with one Seaside affected surfer (foot pictured with lanced staph infection) and the local health and human services to find out more. Here's what I find out:

Currently, the health department has received very limited information regarding the recent infections (I was the first person to contact). This is in part due the the fact the these cases aren't necessarily "reportable" from an epidemiology perspective. Many doctors which see these cases do not culture the infections, so the type of staph infection (MRSA being an antibiotic- resistant strain and one of the worst) isn't reported to the health department. With limited information to link cases, it's extremely difficult to categorize this as an "outbreak", and at this point it's probably safest to say that this could have come from just about anywhere and is not an "epidemic" or "outbreak". If you or someone you know has had a recent infection, they themselves can report this to the health department and find out more information:
Clatsop County Health and Human Services 820 Exchange St, #100 Astoria, OR 97103 (503)325-8500. Additionally, attached below is a background fact sheet on staph and MRSA from the Hawaii Department of Health:
mrsa%5B1%5D.pdf

This fall the Surfrider Foundation Portland chapter moved their Blue Water Task Force to Astoria High School's Applied Science Center. Over the course of the first semester, Astoria High science teacher Tim Roth worked to get the lab up and running and develop the program into his cellular biology unit's curriculum. With the assistance of local volunteers, Astoria high school students will be running water quality samples for some of the most popular recreational beaches from Oswald West to Astoria. Volunteers are needed to help pick up samples! Water sampling is a fun and easy way to volunteer. Samples are collected on Monday mornings and dropped off at Cold Water Surf Shop by Noon. Contact and further volunteer information can be found at: http://www.surfrider.org/oregon/volunteers.html#PORTLAND. Major kudos to Mark "Finger" Taylor and Cold Water Surf for this great partnership!