Fish are ectothermic, and so, by definition, cannot hibernate because they cannot actively down-regulate their body temperature or their metabolic rate. However, they can experience decreased metabolic rates associated with colder environments and/or low oxygen availability (hypoxia) and can experience dormancy…. Other animals able to survive long periods with no or very little oxygen include the goldfish, the red-eared slider turtle, the wood frog, and the bar-headed goose. However, the ability to survive hypoxic or anoxic conditions is not the same, nor closely related, to endotherm hibernation. (Wikipedia)
Billions of litres of raw sewage, untreated waste water pouring into Canadian waterways
More than 205 billion litres of raw sewage and untreated waste water spewed into Canada's rivers and oceans last year, CBC News has learned, despite federal regulations introduced in 2012 to try to solve the problem. Toilet paper washes up on beaches near small towns in Newfoundland and Labrador. In Victoria, B.C., divers report sick kelp and polluted scallops near sewage discharge pipes. In fact, the amount of untreated waste water, which includes raw sewage and rain and snow runoff, that flowed into Canadian rivers and oceans last year would fill 82,255 Olympic-size swimming pools — an increase of 1.9 per cent over 2014. Elizabeth Thompson reports. (CBC)
Gov. Inslee names Jay Manning as Puget Sound Partnership Leadership Council Chair
Governor Jay Inslee has named Jay Manning as Chair of the Puget Sound Partnership’s Leadership Council. Originally appointed to the Leadership Council in 2013, Manning succeeds Martha Kongsgaard in the lead role. The Puget Sound Partnership is a non-regulatory state agency charged with mobilizing community, regional, state and federal efforts to protect and restore Puget Sound. The Leadership Council serves as the state agency’s seven-member governing body. (San Juan Islander)
State raises endangered species status of bird
A seabird that could soon disappear from Puget Sound was granted top-tier status on the state's endangered species list. The state Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday unanimously approved moving the marbled murrelet from "threatened" to "endangered" species status. Efforts to save the tiny seabird have had little success…. The "uplisting" raises the murrelet's profile but it comes with no added protections or funding. Tristan Baurick reports. (Kitsap Sun)
Endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales: Species in the Spotlight
The Whale Trail presents Lynne Barre, NOAA Fisheries in a talk about Species in the Spotlight, focusing on the Southern Resident Orcas at C&P Coffee on Dec. 15…. Lynne will highlight some recent recovery and conservation efforts for Southern Resident killer whales called for in the Species in the Spotlight Action Plan. This is the first of the 2016/17 Orca Talk series hosted by The Whale Trail in West Seattle, with help from Seal Sitters. $5 suggested donation; kids free; tickets at brownpapertickets.com (West Seattle Herald) See also: Oil tankers could doom Puget Sound’s orcas Nick Turner reports. (Crosscut)
From Standing Rock to Trans Mountain, dissent is in the pipeline
The high-profile protest at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline has galvanized Canadian indigenous communities, who watched as one community stood up against an oil company and its powerful backers. The Standing Rock tribe was empowered by thousands of allies – indigenous and non-indigenous alike – who flooded into the area from both sides of the border to stand with the Sioux. They faced threats of rubber bullets, attack dogs and water cannons in frigid weather. Shawn McCarthy and Justine Hunter report. (Globe and Mail)
David Suzuki says economy cannot trump environment
David Suzuki is not hiding his displeasure with the federal approval of the Trans Mountain and Line 3 pipeline expansion projects. The renowned environmentalist told CBC's The Early Edition the economic arguments for the projects don't make sense. "We always allow the economy to be the determining factor that limits or allows certain activities to go on. It makes no sense," he said…. Suzuki compared the building of the pipelines to cod fishing in Newfoundland after the cod ran out, or the continued selling and exporting of asbestos despite evidence showing it was a dangerous material. Roshini Nair reports. (CBC)
Trump's potential Interior Secretary pick worries environmental groups
Washington Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers met with President-elect Donald Trump for the second time in recent weeks, as national media reports she’s Trump’s top pick for the Secretary of the Interior. Her office has not confirmed nor commented directly on the reports, but Rep. McMorris Rodgers told NBC she walked away from the meeting reminded Trump is “a man of action.”… Reports of McMorris Rodgers as the Interior Secretary choice has drawn mixed reaction from local environmental advocates and concern from progressive environmental groups. “Hopefully she’ll represent the values of our state, and people in the state care about the environment. But, her record, so far, doesn’t show a good record in terms of public lands,” said Joan Crooks, CEO of Washington Conversation Voters. McMorris Rodgers, the fourth-ranking Republican in the U.S. House, received a score of only 4% from the League of Conservation Voters, based on her congressional record. That includes her support of a proposal to sell certain federal lands, as well as a past vote to expand drilling off shore and on public lands. Natalie Brand reports. (KING)
It’s Our Land. Let’s Keep It That Way.
The Statue of Liberty stands on a piece of federal land, but “federal” doesn’t mean it belongs to Washington…. The National Park Service administers it, but it doesn’t belong to that agency. It belongs to a schoolteacher in Vermont, a coal miner in West Virginia, a waitress in Las Vegas, a tattooist in San Francisco, and to you, and to me, and to every other American citizen. Liberty Island is public land. Those facts are worth remembering now amid the postelection clamor about shrinking the federal government and — among other constrictions — its role in land stewardship. Sell off the federal lands, some critics urge, or give them away to the states! Unload, transfer to local control, privatize! David Quammen comments. (NY Times)
Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PST TUE DEC 13 2016
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON
TODAY E WIND 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 12 SECONDS.
TONIGHT E WIND 15 TO 20 KT BECOMING 15 TO 25 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 3 FT AT 16 SECONDS.
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