7/25 Diarrhetic shellfish, baby seal, drift cards, Tacoma water, coastal erosion suit

PHOTO: Laurie MacBride

Laurie MacBride in Eye on Environment writes: Can there be anything that lifts one’s spirits more than watching a wide-eyed little fawn starting to explore its big new world?... The Little Spirit Lifters

Washington’s Department of Health closed some shellfish beds in South Puget Sound Wednesday for the first time because of elevated levels of diarrhetic shellfish toxin. The biotoxin, which can cause diarrhea and vomiting, appears to be spreading in Puget Sound. It made three people sick after eating mussels harvested in Sequim Bay in 2011. Ashley Ahearn reports. Diarrhetic Shellfish Toxin Closes Beaches In South Puget Sound For First Time  

Brandy Garcia spent the last three days listening to the cries of a hungry baby. By Tuesday, the crying had stopped. "It's heartbreaking," Garcia said of a weeks-old harbor seal pup left without a mother just 50 yards from her waterfront home north of Woodard Bay. "It cried and cried all day and night Saturday, all day and night Sunday, into Monday morning. I haven't slept in two days. Morally and ethically, I feel horrible watching that poor thing starve to death. How can you sleep through something like that?" Tony Overman reports. Olympia mom seeks help for starving motherless seal pup

When a group of science students from Port Angeles' Lincoln High School cast 500 green wooden cards into the Strait of Juan de Fuca in May, they had no idea they would travel farther from Port Angeles than ever before. The 11th annual drift-card experiment is designed to track surface currents in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Strait of Georgia, inland waterways and along the Pacific coast. This year, cards have reached Vargas Island, 225 miles northwest of Port Angeles on the western shore of Vancouver Island, “the most north ever reported,” and arrived early in Tofino, B.C., said Deb Volturno, science teacher at Lincoln High, whose class disperses the drift cards. To Tofino and beyond: Drift cards travel far and wide

Tacoma’s water will be sold to a bottling company that plans to move to East Pierce County in spring of next year. The Tacoma City Council approved a contract Tuesday between Tacoma Water and Niagara Bottling, LLC, a California-based company that plans to start construction on a $50-million bottling plant in Frederickson this fall. Niagara hopes to open its 311,111-square foot plant in about April 2014, said Tony Lindgren, Tacoma Water’s distribution engineering manager. Melissa Santos reports. Bottled water company's deal with Tacoma is done

In what is being called a landmark lawsuit, the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority–East filed suit today against more than 100 oil and gas companies claiming they have put the New Orleans area at risk through contributing to coastal erosion. The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority East (SLFPA-E) that governs levee districts in Orleans Parish, East Jefferson Parish and the Lake Borgne Basin filed the suit in the Orleans Parish Central District Court. Land loss has been noted by scientists, environmentalists and conservationists as an ever present problem on Louisiana’s coast for numerous years, according to the suit.  It also says that a study released by the U.S. Geological Survey in 2011 reveled that the state is losing nearly 17 miles of coastal marshland per year, which has more than tripled during the last decade. Kyle Barnett reports. Flood protection agency files massive lawsuit against oil companies over land loss  

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT THU JUL 25 2013
TODAY
W WIND TO 10 KT...RISING TO 10 TO 20 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS...BUILDING TO 1 TO 3 FT. NW SWELL 4 FT AT 7 SECONDS. AREAS OF FOG THIS MORNING.
TONIGHT
W WIND 10 TO 20 KT...BECOMING SW 5 TO 15 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. NW SWELL 4 FT AT 7 SECONDS. PATCHY
 FOG AFTER MIDNIGHT.
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