8/16 BC sockeye, Baker ascent, farms vs fish, spill containment spill, red tide, prairie protection, ocean health

Sunflower Star (Laurie MacBride)

Gonna be hot; be cool. Two-day heat wave bringing bad air  

Laurie MacBride in Eye on Environment wrties: “Looking down from our kayaks as we drift along in the shallows, we almost always see plenty of interesting sea life. Even the “common” critters can be pretty amazing – like the Sunflower Star, for instance. These colourful animals are BIG, at least in starfish terms: in the nutrient-rich waters here in the Pacific Northwest, they can grow up to 40 inches in diameter....”  Sunflowers of the Sea

British Columbia's lucrative commercial and recreational sockeye salmon fishery is not likely to open this year, as Fisheries and Oceans Canada says there are simply not enough fish coming back. Although there has been enough returning fish to fill the spawning grounds and open an aboriginal fishery, numbers have actually started to decrease. In order for a commercial fishery to operate, the number of summer run sockeye salmon would have had to be roughly double last week's count.  B.C. sockeye salmon fishery likely closed again

Nearly 145 years after the first documented summit of Mount Baker, made possible with the help of four Lummi guides, a group is celebrating that piece of climbing history with a modern-day version of the journey by sea and by land. Participants on the replica tall ship Lady Washington sailed into the waters off Boulevard Park on Wednesday, Aug. 15, on the first leg of the effort to retrace the route taken by climber and writer Edmund T. Coleman in the Aug. 17, 1868, ascent. "We want to celebrate our connection to the sea and the mountains, and our communities - both Lopez Island and the Lummi Nation," said Cottingham, who noted that, unlike the first ascent when the Lummi guides were left behind on the glacier, the goal is to have all on the summit. Climbers retrace route taken in first documented ascent of Mount Baker in 1868  

The Skagit delta farming system's intricate rotation of some 80 vegetable and seed crops has been 150 years in the making. Dikes to keep the low-lying farmland dry and tide gates to prevent saltwater incursion into croplands are valuable to farmers, but not so much to Natives trying to revive salmon runs on the third largest American river on the contiguous West Coast. The Swinomish Tribe's priority is fish, not farms. And a century and a half of treaty law has put in their hands considerable power to press their case. In 1855, territorial Governor Isaac Stevens negotiated with western Washington tribes, trying to coax them into giving up millions of acres of land and retreat to reservations with prescribed boundaries. The Treaty of Point Elliott, signed by tribal leaders at a place later known as Mukilteo, included a guarantee of perpetual fishing rights. Dick Clever reports. Fish vs. Farms on the Skagit Delta  

Farmer Joe Lemire refuses to fence his cows to keep them off the banks of Pataha Creek and his case heads to the Washington Supreme Court in what is shaping up as a pivotal decision about farmers' obligatios to protect Northwest waterways. Lemire has become a cause célèbre in the countryside, where farm bureaus are soliciting residents to send money to cover the costs of his legal fight. In a related struggle, Indian tribes are charging that farmers such as Lemire are killing salmon. Robert McClure reports.  Agricultural Pollution Draws Scrutiny As Industrial Dumping Declines  

Construction of an oil-containment vessel destined for Alaska has been plagued by minor oil spills in the past few weeks, prompting the state to threaten fines against the builder. Three spills, each releasing about one quart of oil into Whatcom Waterway, came from leaks in pressurized hydraulic systems on July 24, and Aug. 4 and 6. The state's notice of violation was sent to Superior Energy Services, which is building the oil-containment barge Arctic Challenger at the Bellingham Shipping Terminal, 629 Cornwall Ave. Oil-containment barge under construction in Bellingham spills oil

Marine biotoxins that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), also known as "red tide," have been detected in high levels in shellfish samples from north Hood Canal. As a result, the Washington State Department of Health and the Kitsap Public Health District have closed recreational shellfish harvesting in north Hood Canal from Foulweather Bluff south to the Hood Canal bridge, including all bays and inlets, for all species of clams, oysters and mussels. An existing PSP closure for all species of shellfish remains in effect on the eastern shoreline of Kitsap County from Foulweather Bluff south to the Pierce County line. 'Red tide' closure for shellfish harvesting expands

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has given Thurston County a $750,000 grant to develop the South Puget Sound Prairie Habitat Conservation Plan. The grant is part of the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund, a competitive grant program that awarded nearly $33 million to programs and projects in 21 states this year. The county is partnering with the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife and others to develop a comprehensive plan to protect the remaining 3 percent of high quality prairie land that exists in the South Puget Sound region, as well as the numerous plant and animal prairie species that are either endangered, threatened or a species of concern.  Thurston County awarded $750K conservation grant

As the Ocean Health Index makes its public debut, three of its parents describe the moment of ‘Eureka!’ in summing up the well-being of the global ocean and its human dependents.  Is the Global Ocean Healthy? We Can Answer That Now  

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT THU AUG 16 2012
TODAY
SE WIND 10 TO 20 KT...BECOMING E 10 TO 15 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 4 FT AT 11 SECONDS.
TONIGHT
LIGHT WIND...BECOMING S 10 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 4 FT AT 10 SECONDS.

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