4/7 Lichens, cruise ships, BC Ferries, frozen salmon, Fraser gauntlet, oil overflow, Alberta oil, GBR bleach

Fairy barf [Christian Kelly]

Lichens: Corals of the Forest
You’ve probably walked past them hundreds of times. Devil’s matchstick, frog pelt, lungwort, and, of course, fairy barf. While these sound like ingredients for a fictional witch’s potion, you can find these and more on a walk through the forests of British Columbia. Let us introduce you to a symbiotic relationship like no other—the lichens. (Hakai Institute)


*EDITOR'S NOTE: Access updates on the COVID-19 virus at national and regional print publications like the CBC, the Seattle Times, the Peninsula Daily News, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.


Safe on a 'plague' ship in the time of COVID-19: Community Voices
Bill Dietrich writes: "Our once-in-a-lifetime, 50th anniversary world cruise was sunk by a coronavirus somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Nobody had COVID-19, but our vessel was treated like a plague ship nonetheless. After we were allowed to disembark at Perth, Australia, we were confined to a special bus, shipped to an overnight hotel, and warned we could be fined $50,000 or given a year in jail if we left our room. From there we flew home. Were we afraid of catching the disease while aboard what critics persist in calling “floating petri dishes”? No, and here’s why..."  See also: Carnival and Cruise Industry Scramble to Survive  Carnival and the other big companies have no revenue and face questions over whether customers will return once the threat of the coronavirus passes. David Yaffe-Bellany reports. (NY Times)

B.C. Ferries to screen passengers for COVID-19 as new rules announced
B.C. Ferries will start screening passengers for COVID-19 symptoms or recent international travel before allowing people to board. Anyone who has flu-like symptoms or has returned from abroad within the previous two weeks will be denied boarding, said B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall. Roxanne Egan-Elliott reports. (Victoria Times Colonist)

'A remarkable thing': Salmon fry born from sperm frozen 20 years ago set to be released
Salmon in B.C. have been through a lot over the years — wildfires, overfishing and the Big Bar landslide that cut off access in the Fraser River, to name a few. But now, a new generation of salmon is entering the world amid a global pandemic. Salmon fry, whose origin story begins 20 years ago, are being cared for by biologists in Prince George, B.C. The fry are the result of salmon sperm that were frozen as what biologist Brian Harvey described as a sort of "genetic insurance policy" for salmon. (CBC)

The Deadly Gauntlet Fraser Salmon Must Travel to Come Home
The rockslide at Big Bar just north of Lillooet was a natural disaster that blocked the Fraser last summer, making it impossible for many returning salmon to return to their natal spawning streams. Of the five million sockeye expected to return for example, only about 300,000 made it to their spawning grounds. The Tyee has now learned that natural fish passage on the Fraser River will not be restored in time for the 2020 salmon migration. The only upside of the disaster is that it’s shining a new light on what we call the Gauntlet: the tortuous path that all six species of Pacific salmon must run every year as they return from their migrations on the high seas to fresh water streams across the 21 million-hectare Fraser River watershed. Christopher Pollon and Andrew Walsh report. (The Tree)

Overflowing Oil Tanks Have Traders Eyeing Rail Cars for Storage
Oil companies are turning to rail cars to stash the crude they can’t sell, as the world runs out of places to store a growing glut of cheap barrels. North American producers, refiners and traders are now looking to store excess oil in rail yards in Texas, Saskatchewan and Manitoba amid the crude market’s historic plunge and collapsing demand, according to people familiar with the matter. With oil for May delivery trading at a steep discount to future months -- a structure known as contango -- more firms are hoarding barrels rather than sell at a loss. But crude tanks and supertankers are filling up fast, with the world projected to run out of storage space by the middle of the year, according to IHS Markit. In Canada, tank-tops could be breached within two to three weeks, Goldman Sachs Group said, while U.S. stockpiles last week rose for the 10th week, increasing by the most in three years. Sheela Tobben and Robert Tuttle report. (Bloomberg)

10 things you need to know as a barrel of Alberta oil is valued at less than a bottle of maple syrup
As fears intensify that the benchmark price for Alberta’s oilsands crude could drop below zero, we dig into what’s behind the crash, the phenomenon of ‘homeless crude’ and why new pipelines ultimately won’t solve the problem. Sharon J. Riley explains. (The Narwhal)

Great Barrier Reef Is Bleaching Again. It’s Getting More Widespread
When Terry Hughes surveyed the Great Barrier Reef four years ago from a small plane, mapping the bleaching and death of corals from water warmed by climate change, he hoped such a rare and heartbreaking scene would not be repeated anytime soon. But rising temperatures sent him back to the air in 2017, when the reef bleached again. Then he returned last month, leading to another devastating conclusion: The reef was being ravaged by bleaching yet again, this time across an even wider area. Damien Cave reports. (NY Times)


Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  231 AM PDT Tue Apr 7 2020   
TODAY  W wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 5 ft  at 17 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 5 to 15 kt becoming E after midnight. Wind  waves 2 ft or less. W swell 6 ft at 16 seconds.




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