5/17 Nooksack levees, Penn Cove spill, oyster drill, Pt Wells, Elwha Love, porpoise Jack

PHOTO: Laurie MacBride

Laurie MacBride writes: "Our hellebores have outdone themselves this spring – which is surprising, since just a few months ago our resident deer family worked their snouts under the protective netting and mowed them down, along with the Sarcococca, fern and winter jasmine." Hellebore Abundance  

Whatcom County would need to spend lots of money seeking permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to keep trees on its Nooksack River levees, under draft federal policies. Its other options: remove the trees, putting the county at risk of getting sued for running afoul of environmental laws, or forgo federal levee repair funding. Whatcom County, feds' dispute over Nooksack River levees could be costly

There's no more oil leaking from a sunken fishing boat in Penn Cove, but it will be at least two weeks before the country's oldest and largest mussel farm is back in business there. The owners of Penn Cove Shellfish are crossing their fingers that the spill won't do any lasting damage to their operations — but it could hardly have come at a more sensitive time.  Oil from sunken crabber drags Penn Cove mussel farm into limbo    See also: State expects moving sunken boat from Penn Cove to cost $500,000  

Imagine you’re an oyster laying snugly in your bed in Willapa Bay, filtering in nutrients while growing to two and a half inches in diameter. And then you feel a weight on your quarter-inch thick shell and a short time later you begin to hear a grinding sound.  Slowly, inexorably over the next few hours the drilling continues as the radula (a sandpaper-like tongue) of an Atlantic or Asian oyster drill snail takes away debris that its secretions of hydrochloric acid has created on your shell. When the snail inevitably pokes through your shell, its proboscis makes you its next meal.  Combating Snails To Save Oysters

The town of Woodway has drawn up an alternative vision for Point Wells, the waterfront industrial site where an international developer wants to build 3,100 high-rise condos. Under Woodway's plan, the buildings would top out at 12 stories, rather than 17. That plan also has about two-thirds the number of homes as Blue Square Real Estate's proposal.   Woodway pitches smaller plan for Point Wells  

The Glines Canyon Dam, the upper dam on the Elwha River, will be completely removed ahead of schedule between spring and summer 2013, federal officials said this week. The last remnants of the lower dam, the 108-foot Elwha Dam, which formed Lake Aldwell 5 miles upstream from the river's mouth, were removed in March.  Dam removal ahead of schedule: Glines gone in a year

A harbour porpoise found near death in Horseshoe Bay last September will be calling the Vancouver Aquarium home.  Jack, a five-week-old porpoise, was found stranded on the beach Sept. 16 and was rescued by the aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre. Despite six months of intense rehabilitation, the porpoise was recently deemed unfit to survive in the wild by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Jack will reside in the aquarium’s porpoise habitat. Vancouver Aquarium becomes permanent home of rescued porpoise

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT THU MAY 17 2012
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM PDT THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH LATE TONIGHT
TODAY
W WIND 5 TO 15 KT...RISING TO 15 TO 25 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 1 OR 2 FT OR LESS...BUILDING TO 2 TO 4 FT IN THE
 AFTERNOON. NW SWELL 8 FT AT 9 SECONDS.
TONIGHT
W WIND 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. NW SWELL 7 FT AT 9 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

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