PORT ANGELES — Lincoln High School students threw 313 drift cards into the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Thursday to kick off their eighth annual drift card study.
Finders of the green cards are asked to report three things: the number of the card, where it was found and the date it was discovered.
Information is on the card about where to send the data.
Students put the information together to learn about the tides and currents in the Strait.
Ten students traveled in a Coast Guard boat to toss 128 cards at 10 a.m. Thursday.
About 30 students gathered later in the day at about 12:45 p.m. to toss an additional 185 cards into the Strait.
The particular times were chosen to optimize the tide level and to closely repeat the tides during “flings” from past years.
“We want the community to know about the green drift cards,” said instructor Deb Volturno, “so they can be looking for them on their beach walks.”
“A suggestion of a pattern is emerging for cards to initially travel east toward Dungeness Spit, Whidbey Island, then circling around toward the west to the San Juan Islands,” Volturno said.
From there the cards travel on to Vancouver Island, “where they cross over to the south side of the Strait in the vicinity of Freshwater Bay, and then travel out to the Pacific Ocean, rounding Cape Flattery and drifting down the west coast of Washington,” she added.
“We have had cards reported as far away as the mouth of the Columbia River; Tofino, B.C. and almost to Vancouver, B.C.”
