8/14 Cricket, summer blast, goat relo, mine pollution, Trump's methane, soil carbon, ferry delays, Adventuress

House cricket [Luis Fernandez Garcia/WikiCommons]

House Cricket Acheta domesticus
House crickets, unlike their cousin the grasshopper, have three tarsal (ankle) segmented body sections and grasshoppers do not. Males are smaller than females. Both sexes have wings that sit on the abdomen and are short when compared to that of the grasshopper. Coloring varies but most are brown or grayish-brown. Females have a long, stiff ovipositor at the tip of the abdomen that looks like a thick stinger-- but crickets do not sting or bite. The ovipositor is used to deposit eggs into moist organic material. (Insect Identification)

Summer's got one more heat blast up its sleeve for Western Washington
...[T]he region is expecting a one-day heat wave this weekend as temperatures soar well into the 90s, with some spots around the region perhaps nearing or reaching 100 degrees.
Scott Sistek reports. (KOMO)

Mountain goat relocations complete
Another 50 mountain goats got a new lease on life this summer after teams of wildlife experts orchestrated their moves by road, boat and air from the Olympic Mountains to the North Cascades. The white animals iconic to Washington’s wilderness areas survived sedation, capture, vet checks and transport by ferry and helicopter to their new homes in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie and Okanogan-Wenatchee national forests. Most were released into rugged landscapes just outside Skagit County, including north of Washington Pass and south of Darrington. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

Contamination from Mount Polley spill continues to affect waterways, study finds
The Mount Polley mine tailings spill that sent more than 24 million cubic metres of mine waste into nearby waterways in 2014 continues to impact lakes, rivers and aquatic ecosystems, according to a new study. Researchers have been monitoring Quesnel Lake since the spill, which is considered one of the largest environmental mining disasters in Canadian history. (CBC) Cleaning up B.C.’s Tulsequah Chief mine will cost $48.7 million A final remediation plan released by the provincial government this week is seen as a positive step in ending six decades of pollution from the mine on the Alaska border — but it's still unclear who'll foot the bill. Matt Simmons reports. (The Narwhal)

Trump's Methane Rollback That Big Oil Doesn't Want
Despite opposition from the oil and gas industry it aims to help, the Trump administration is rolling back an Obama-era rule designed to reduce climate-warming methane emissions. Methane is the main ingredient in natural gas. But when it's released before it burns, say from a leaky valve at a drilling site, it's far more potent than carbon dioxide. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the oil and gas industry is the largest source of methane emissions in the United States. The Trump administration rule would eliminate a 2016 requirement that oil and gas companies monitor and limit methane leaks from wells, compressor stations and other operations. Jeff Brady reports. (NPR)

Global Warming Could Unlock Carbon From Tropical Soil
Humble dirt could pack an unexpected climate punch, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. An experiment that heated soil underneath a tropical rainforest to mimic temperatures expected in the coming decades found that hotter soils released 55 percent more planet-warming carbon dioxide than did nearby unwarmed areas. If the results apply throughout the tropics, much of the carbon stored underground could be  released as the planet heats up. “The loss rate is huge,” said Andrew Nottingham, an ecologist at the University of Edinburgh, who led the study. “It’s a bad news story.” Gabriel Popkin reports. (NY Times)

Lengthy San Juan Islands ferry delays frustrate riders and residents 
The Washington State Ferry system says fallout from coronavirus is to blame for long ferry lines. Eric Wilkinson reports. (KING)  Necessary travel: ferries’ winter schedule in summer brings travel delays for locals, visitors in San Juans  Genevieve Iverson reports. (Salish Current) ‘A very complex issue’: Ramel gives update on San Juan Islands ferry delays  (Salish Current)

Adventuress to be out on water for the first time this year
Schooner Adventuress Capts. Katelinn Shaw and Nate Seward are “cautiously excited” to get the 107-year-old ship out on the water this afternoon — the first time it’s set sail this year. “It’s been a long time coming,” Seward said Thursday afternoon while standing aboard the 133-foot vessel, which has been docked at Port Townsend Boat Haven since May, unable to embark on its usual day and overnight educational voyages during a summer season stymied by the coronavirus pandemic. Nicholas Johnson reports. (Peninsula Daily News)

Google Builds AI to Help Ships and Whales Coexist
Artificial intelligence trained to detect orca sounds in noisy waters is helping protect whales from vessel traffic. Michael Bucher and Janet Babin report. Photographs by Kamil Bialous. (Wall Street Journal)

Now, your weekend tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  253 AM PDT Fri Aug 14 2020   
TODAY  W wind to 10 kt rising to 5 to 15 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. NW swell 3 ft at 9 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 10 to 20 kt easing to 10 kt after midnight.  Wind waves 1 to 3 ft subsiding to 1 ft or less after midnight. NW  swell 4 ft at 8 seconds. 
SAT  E wind to 10 kt. Wind waves 1 ft or less. NW swell 4 ft at  8 seconds. 
SAT NIGHT  Light wind becoming NE to 10 kt after midnight. Wind  waves less than 1 ft becoming 1 ft or less after midnight. NW  swell 5 ft at 8 seconds. 
SUN  E wind to 10 kt. Wind waves 1 ft or less. NW swell 4 ft at  10 seconds.

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