By JoLENE KRAWCZAK/YachatsNews.com
Adam Altson of Yachats joined the citizen-volunteer Oregon King Tides Photo Project a year ago to show how extremely high tides are affecting the shoreline near his home.
During the year’s highest tides — called king tides — Altson walks across Ocean View Drive from his home to photograph waves surging higher up the rocky shore than he’ll see for the rest of year. From the same spot about 40 feet above the ocean, he takes photos up and down the beach, trying to duplicate the king tide photos he took a year ago and creating a record of the changes.
Later, he’ll upload his photos to the project’s website and join hundreds of Oregon photographer volunteers in making an online database designed to help planners and policy makers shape and protect Oregon’s coast.
“I have a vested interest in documenting, especially the area where the road is protected by riprap because I live just on the other side of that road,” Altson said. “I’m worried about erosion there.”
In a one year, he’s seen a significant deterioration of the riprap below Ocean View Drive. His photos show how big boulders that once helped protect the steep bank have tumbled down.
The Oregon King Tides Photo Project, which started in 2011, is part of a world-wide citizen science effort that documents the annual extreme high tides. The project creates a time-lapse glimpse of how rising sea levels are affecting coastlines around the world.
“We’re documenting the future normal tides,” said Dick Mason of Florence. Mason is a volunteer naturalist at the Cape Perpetua Visitor Center and a participant in the king tides project.
In Oregon, king tides occur several times during winter when the Earth, moon and sun align to produce the highest tides of the year, around 9 feet in Yachats during January’s king tide. The last king tides of the winter are Feb. 18-20
Mason photographs the king tide effects on a number of Cape Perpetua landmarks. He saw the most dramatic tides in December 2018 when king tides combined with huge storm swells to transform the shore’s landscape.
“Spouting Horn was under water, which I’ve never seen before,” Mason said. “And Thor’s Well (a deep hole in the basalt shoreline rocks) was completely under water.”
He also monitors important archeological sites on Cape Perpetua that could be affected.
Mason and Altson, a software developer who has owned his Yachats house for six years and moved here full-time a year and a half ago, are among just a handful of people who have submitted Yachats and Cape Perpetua area photos to the project in the past few years.
Organizers are looking for more.
“Citizens living in or visiting the Yachats area should get involved because they know this area the best,” said Meg Reed, a coastal shores specialist with the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development’s coastal management program, one of the sponsors of the Oregon King Tides Project.
“It’s difficult for coastal managers like myself to be able to capture photographs of the entire Oregon coast during the king tides or major storms,” Reed said. “We also don’t know all the areas that are experiencing impacts of high water – something that local knowledge can contribute.
“We depend on citizens all along the coast to go out and take photos of the king tides and submit them to us using our online form so we can create a library of change over time.”
Mason has seen firsthand how rising sea levels have changed Oregon’s coast. At Cape Perpetual Scenic Area, “we’re seeing some lower trail systems now underwater,” he said. “Another example is the Cooks Chasm stairs, which have been beaten up by logs thrown against them.”
Fawn Custer is a volunteer coordinator for the CoastWatch program of the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, another sponsor of the King Tides Project. She recommends that citizen photographers take photos where the king tide can be compared to a familiar landmark like Spouting Horn, and roads, bridges, jetties, buildings and other structures along beaches and rivers.
It’s especially helpful to the project to focus on areas that might be affected by flooding and erosion, Custer said. Photographing the same spot each year is also helpful.
Altson suggests picking spots that are easy to remember if you plan to photograph year to year. He uses a bench along Ocean View Drive as his anchor point.
Mason sees many people taking photos during the breathtaking king tides. But many of them don’t know about the King Tides Photo Project or don’t know how to upload photos to it. Still, Oregon’s overall response to the project is growing, Custer said.
The program doesn’t require sign ups or training, said Tara DuBois, community coordinator for the Cape Perpetua Marine Reserve.
“It’s so flexible,” DuBois said. “It’s just folks going out with their cameras. They can go anywhere they want to photograph.”
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JoLene Krawczak is a retired editor at The Oregonian, where she worked in features and news for more than 20 years.
How to submit photos
The King Tides Photo Project offers multiple ways to submit photos:
- Upload photos and information directly to the project website. This is the preferred way to submit.
- Post photos and information on Oregon King Tides Facebook page with #orkingtides.
- Post photos and information to Oregon King Tides Instagram with #orkingtides.
- Post to Twitter with #orkingtides and @ORKingTide to alert the project.
- Email photos and information to orkingtide@gmail.com.
The project also appreciates comparison photos that show the difference between king tides and a more typical high tide. Depending on weather and time of year, that’s usually a difference of about three feet.
Other king tide projects include Washington, California, Hawaii, North Carolina, New Hampshire, British Columbia, Australia and more. Photos from those locations can be viewed on the Oregon project’s website.
Find how to get involved in the king tide photo project, including photographing the last king tides of this winter Feb. 18-20, see past project photos, get tips and answers to frequently asked questions on the website.
Other coast volunteering opportunities
If king tides aren’t your passion, CoastWatch has other Oregon citizen science projects that may stir your interest. They include:
- Beached bird survey
- Marine debris monitoring
- Sea star wasting syndrome survey
- Marine mammal stranding
- Beached marine critters survey
- Invasive species monitoring
On YouTube:
Barry Campbell, a registered commercial remote pilot, took drone video around Yachats and Newport during January’s king tides. His video Yachats & Newport OR – High Tides & Rough Seas can be seen on his barryleftyguy YouTube channel.