1/21 Seahawk, Orion, quakes, BC LNG, China pollution, oil train spills, sea star survey

PHOTO: Mark Schiffler/BirdNote

What Is a Seahawk?
The first Seattle Seahawk to storm the field during home games isn’t the head coach or the quarterback -- it isn’t even human. It’s Taima, a captive-bred Augur Hawk that has accompanied the team before every home game since 2007. She is a beautiful representative of a species from the aridlands of East Africa, hardly a hawk of the sea. So, what is a “Seahawk”? Adam Sedgley ponders.

If you like to watch: The Unknown Sea: A Voyage on the Salish
By Deep Green Wilderness, a sailboat-based education program that introduces students to the biological and cultural diversity of the Salish Sea through voyages on our historic ship Orion and documentary filmmaking.

How Smaller, Off-Coast Quakes Could Badly Shake BC
A new scientific study indicates that southwestern B.C. faces some little-understood threats from earthquakes -- not just from the Big One, but from weaker quakes occurring within 100 kilometres of Vancouver. The implications for construction safety codes could be important, especially for the seismic retrofit program that's been strengthening B.C. schools. The report, published today in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, finds that the geology of the Georgia Basin tends to slow down waves from nearby crustal earthquakes, causing longer, more intense shaking. The basin underlies the Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca, as well as Puget Sound, and much of Greater Vancouver is built on it. Crawford Kilian reports. Also see: Earthquakes amplified in silty Vancouver basin: study

B.C. First Nations warns Premier Clark to consult aboriginals on LNG development
A British Columbia First Nation says the provincial government is dragging its feet when it comes to consulting with aboriginal people about proposed liquefied natural gas developments, including revenue sharing.

China’s exports include pollution to Western U.S.
Filthy emissions from China’s export industries are carried across the Pacific Ocean and contribute to air pollution in the Western United States, according to a paper published Monday by a prominent U.S. science journal. The research is the first to quantify how air pollution in the United States is affected by China’s production of goods for export and by global consumer demand for those goods, the authors say. It was written by nine scholars based in three nations and was published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which last year published a paper by other researchers that found a drop in life spans in Northern China because of air pollution. The latest paper explores the environmental consequences of interconnected economies. Edward Wong reports.

More oil spilled from trains in 2013 than in previous 4 decades, federal data show
More crude oil was spilled in U.S. rail incidents last year than was spilled in the nearly four decades since the federal government began collecting data on such spills, an analysis of the data shows. Including major derailments in Alabama and North Dakota, more than 1.15 million gallons of crude oil was spilled from rail cars in 2013, according to data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. By comparison, from 1975 to 2012, U.S. railroads spilled a combined 800,000 gallons of crude oil. The spike underscores new concerns about the safety of such shipments as rail has become the preferred mode for oil producers amid a North American energy boom. The federal data does not include incidents in Canada where oil spilled from trains. Curtis Tate reports.

Feiro Marine Life Center of Port Angeles seeks help for Sunday sea star survey
The Feiro Marine Life Center is seeking volunteers to help monitor a disease affecting sea stars on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The sea star wasting disease survey is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, with volunteers meeting at the Freshwater Bay boat ramp for training. Volunteers will be told how to identify different sea stars and given instruction on conducting the survey, which is expected to take two or three hours, before spreading out to the east and west to look for infected sea stars. Arwyn Rice reports.

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PST TUE JAN 21 2014
TODAY
E WIND 15 TO 25 KT...EASING TO 10 TO 20 KT EARLY THIS MORNING THEN 5 TO 15 KT THIS AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4
 FT...SUBSIDING TO 2 FT OR THIS AFTERNOON. W SWELL 9 FT AT 16 SECONDS.
TONIGHT
LIGHT WIND. WIND WAVES LESS THAN 1 FT. W SWELL 7 FT AT 15 SECONDS...BUILDING TO 9 FT AT 14 SECONDS AFTER MIDNIGHT. A CHANCE
 OF RAIN OR DRIZZLE.
--
"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato@salishseacom.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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