5/10 Sailfish sculpin, lumpsuckers, GasLink stop work, Tideflats train, killing geese, apex predator control

Sailfish sculpin [D.W. Gotshall]

Sailfish sculpin Nautichthys oculofasciatus
The sailfin sculpin is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Hemitripterinae of the family Agonidae. This sculpin is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean from St. Lawrence Island, Alaska to San Miguel Island off southern California. (Wikipedia)

Pacific spiny lumpsuckers
Yesterday's profile brought forth reader comments: "Lumpsuckers are one of my favorites. Out of the water, they just look like a pile of goo." And "Rogue used to brew a Spiny Lumpsucker Ale.  Just thought you should know." And, a last word: "Someone needs to make a spiny lumpsucker wine. I don't drink beer but I might buy a bottle of that and pour it out just for the label."

Coastal GasLink hit with more stop work orders over water pollution concerns
Coastal GasLink has been issued stop work orders on a stretch of pipeline construction for the second time in just over a week, the latest in a pattern of environmental violations for polluting sensitive waterways. The pipeline project crosses about 625 lakes, rivers, creeks, wetlands, and streams in northern B.C. Betsy Trumpener reports. (CBC)

Man arrested after causing oil-train derailment on the Tacoma Tideflats, police say
A 65-year-old man was arrested Tuesday in Tacoma after police said he tampered with railroad equipment, causing several train cars carrying oil to derail in the Tideflats industrial area. There was no oil spill as a result of the derailment. Peter Talbot reports. (Tacoma News Tribune)

Vancouver Park Board approves 'lethal removal' plan to control Canada goose population
On Monday, the board adopted the plan in an effort to get the city's growing goose population under control. The plan includes measures already employed by the board such as addling — switching out viable goose eggs from the nest for frozen duds — and also supports the "lethal removal" of geese if required.  According to a staff report, there were a minimum of 2,200 geese in Vancouver in 2022 and the population is estimated to be growing by 18 per cent every year. (CBC)

To aid the killer whales, the real apex predator gets some pushback
Danny Westneat writes: "....I suggested in [a] column that we simply stop fishing for king (Chinook) salmon for a few years. During that time, the government could instead pay the various fishing interests not to fish, kind of like how we pay farmers to let fields lie fallow...Four years later, the federal courts are saying it’s such an emergency we ought to try this exact thing....Another recent environmental struggle followed a similar story arc. Seattle City Light, after decades of refusing to acknowledge the harm its three Skagit River hydroelectric dams had done to salmon, finally agreed to pass spawning salmon around the dams....The headline subjects of these latest cases were the endangered fish and whales, and the good news is, they won. The verdict’s out on a more hardheaded and unruly species. (Seattle Times)

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Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  237 AM PDT Wed May 10 2023   
TODAY  W wind to 10 kt becoming NW 5 to 15 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 3 ft at 10 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell  2 ft at 9 seconds.

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