USGS Divers Steve Rubin and Reg Reisenbichler laying out a survey transect.

Scuba-diver scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, with support teams from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, and Washington Sea Grant, are returning to the mouth of the Elwha River to explore and catalogue effects of released sediment on marine life following the nation’s largest dam removal effort. Scientists expect dam removal to cause short-term adverse effects to marine life, followed by large-scale ecosystem resurgence once the river’s sediment load returns to a more normal state. Read more about it here; also, check out this NYTimes blog post about the “biological boomerang” effect on the Elwha.