7/16 Tribal climate, Navy mitigation, Tulalip hatchery, Nisqually shellfish, coal comments, Burfoot naturalists

(Photo: Grant Lawrence)

Just when you thought it was safe to go swimming in West Vancouver . . . along comes a massive, prehistoric fish to throw a bony dorsal fin at the plan. This was driven home for Grant Lawrence, a CBC radio host, when he came face-to-face with one of the most ancient creatures to inhabit local waters as he prepared to take a dip near Dundarave early this week.  Radio host finds a sea monster in West Vancouver  

If you like to watch: The 2012 International Conservation Photography Awards exhibit at Seattle's Burke Museum mixes an environmental-activism message with some utterly transportive camera work. Michael Upchurch reviews. Conservation-photo award winners at the Burke: beautiful, brutal, complex  

If you like to watch: Northern Lights over Metro Vancouver, North America

A national symposium on climate change and possible ways to adapt and slow the effects will be hosted by North Olympic Peninsula coastal tribes beginning Tuesday. The inaugural First Stewards symposium, which will continue through Friday at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., is expected to be attended by some 300 coastal indigenous tribal elders, leaders, scientists, witnesses and other scientists and policy leaders from around the nation. The Hoh, Makah and Quileute tribes and the Quinault Indian Nation created the symposium, saying tribal coastal people are among the most affected by climate change.  Peninsula tribes host national climate change conference  

The Navy has agreed to pay nearly $9 million for fish and shellfish enhancement projects to compensate Indian tribes in the Hood Canal region. The projects are designed to reconcile a loss of tribal fish and shellfish resources related to Naval Base Kitsap's $715-million explosives handling wharf at Bangor. It is the first time the Navy has compensated tribes in the Hood Canal area for any construction project, according to Jeromy Sullivan, chairman of the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribal Council. Christopher Dunagan reports.  Navy to pay $9 million to tribes in mitigation for wharf project  

The Tulalip Tribes released 12 million salmon from their hatchery this year -- including a record 1.3 million coho -- and are raising a bumper crop of fingerlings to be released in 2013. These salmon help preserve wild fish by providing other salmon for people to catch and eat. But when it comes to salmon survival, the tribes are swimming upstream, Tulalip officials say. The ocean survival rates for both hatchery and wild salmon in the Puget Sound region have taken a nosedive the past few years, according to the tribes. Bill Sheets reports.  Salmon survival plummets  

When the Nisqually Indian Tribe purchased a Henderson Inlet commercial shellfish farm from Puget Sound pioneer oysterman Jerry Yamashita early in 2010, the tribe gambled that water-quality problems plaguing the South Sound inlet could be reversed. The $2 million gamble appears to be paying off. The 122 acres of tidelands has had two water-quality upgrades from the state Department of Health in the past two years, expanding the tribe’s ability to put its only commercial shellfish-growing ground to work. John Dodge reports. Tribe bet that water issues could be fixed; it paid off  

Health authorities have closed shellfish beds along the eastern shoreline of South Kitsap because of high levels of paralytic shellfish poison, sometimes called "red tide." Some of the highest levels seen this week were in Clam Bay near Manchester, where the PSP toxin was measured at 226 micrograms per 100 grams of shellfish tissue, nearly three times the closure level of 80.  Shellfish poison closes South Kitsap beaches

The public comment period for the proposed coal-export terminal north of Bellingham has been tentatively delayed until fall, as the agencies heading up the environmental review process try to find the times and places to hold the public meetings.  The three co-lead agencies for the environmental review — Ecology, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Whatcom County — are currently working with a company contracted to help perform the review to determine where and when to hold public meetings, state Department of Ecology spokeswoman Katie Skipper said.  Comment period for coal terminal moved to fall  

Those who took time to spend their Sunday morning at Priest Point Park or Burfoot Park likely ran into several volunteers along both beaches who were busy pointing out various sea creatures and wildlife as part of a beach naturalist program. The program was launched by the South Sound Estuary Association and is now in its third year. So far it has trained 49 people as beach naturalists, volunteers who can explain to children and adults the natural habitat at parks that abut Budd Inlet or other parts of Puget Sound.  Not just another day at the beach  

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 230 AM PDT MON JUL 16 2012
TODAY
VARIABLE WIND 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT. NW SWELL 7 FT AT 10 SECONDS. CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND TSTMS.
TONIGHT AND TUE
W WIND 10 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. NW SWELL 6 FT AT 9 SECONDS. CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

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