A SEATTLE FISH SCIENTIST by the name of Brian Footen arrives at Shilshole Bay on a drab but dry May morning wearing blue cargo shorts, mud-stained hiking boots and a fossil gray Patagonia jacket with a salmon etched onto the right sleeve. A break in the wet spring weather is affording him a chance to share his quixotic expedition of paddling 1,200 miles in a kayak to digitally map Puget Sound’s nearshore, where the sea meets the land.
Before casting off in water as smooth as polished beryl, Footen attaches a GoPro MAX camera onto an industrial tripod in his Seastream Angler kayak. He fiddles with dials and devices as a group of tribal members ferries crates of geoducks from a boat.
Footen, 56, syncs the 360-degree camera with a multiparameter that measures units of water quality — the gadgets go off simultaneously every 10 seconds. His data collection includes geolocating the route and listing habitat sightings and shoreline conditions to paint a comprehensive…
