9/30 Salish Sea News & Weather: Hood Canal, Dick Goin, spotted frog, orca rules, Moving Planet, climate & jobs, Brightwater, BC critters, fishy news, ESA condoms

PHOTO: Pat Lynch/Kitsap Sun

Thirty days hath September...and here we are at the 30th. Come Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 3 and 4, the Puget Sound Partnership begins public meetings on revising its Action Agenda in Mill Creek and Poulsbo, respectively.  Schedule here.

Chris Dunagan in the Kitsap Sun reports that, for now, we’ve dodged the bullet of a massive fish kill as oxygen levels have improved in the upper levels of Hood Canal. Oxygen conditions improve in Hood Canal

Dick and Marie Goin were honored yesterday by the Port Townsend Marine Science Center as this year’s winners of the Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award, but it just wasn’t the kind of attention Dick likes to be the center of and he chose not to attend. But he was celebrated anyway for his “significant contributions in the protection and stewardship of the North Olympic Peninsula's natural environment.” Port Angeles couple receive environmental award

More heroes: John Dodge in The Olympian reports on yesterday’s helping hands provided to imperiled Oregon spotted frogs by students enrolled in the New Market Skills Center’s Environmental Explorations program. The students worked at Salmon Creek north of Littlerock to kill invasive reed canary grass and to set traps for non-native bullfrogs. Students aid endangered Oregon spotted frog

How did the first summer of enforcing rules about boats maintaining increased distance from orca whales in the San Juans go? Sgt. Russ Mullins speaks. Orca enforcement officers witness violations of new federal law, no citation issued; Department of Fish & Wildlife says it wanted to take an educational approach this season

Last weekend thousands of King County residents came together to demonstrate local alternatives in the worldwide effort to wean the planet off fossil fuels. Martha Baskin of Green Acre Radio reports on the local aspect of the “Moving Planet” international event organized by ‘350.org’ Listen to Moving the Planet Beyond Fossil Fuels

My friend Colin Wagoner of Ridolfi, Inc., wrote a thoughtful piece in the Daily Journal of Commerce about how we can turn the lemons of climate change into the lemonade of reviving our economy. Our changing climate can be a job generator; More scientists, engineers, planners and contractors will be needed to address rising sea levels and diminishing snowpacks. 

Seattle Times editorial writer Lance Dickie likes the Brightwater sewage-treatment plant and heralds it as a “testament to the vision, tenacity and talents of elected King County officials, employees and citizens who recognized the need, and the contractors who designed and built it.” Brightwater sewage-treatment plant more than a passing fancy

From the not-so-far North: On Vancouver Island, Four cougar sightings in capital region in two days  and, in the resort land of Whistler, Black bear burglarizes Whistler pizza parlour   What are we doing to our wildlife?

Friday fish news: Dr. Giacomo Bernardi at UC Santa Cruz has a video showing a tuskfish digging up a clam out of the sand, carrying it to a rock, and repeatedly throwing the clam against the rock to crush it. Fish Uses Tool to Dig Up and Crush Clams   Jonathan Armstrong, a UW doctoral student, finds fish able to expand their gut capacity in order to eat enough during good times to grow and build energy reserves to survive the bad times. Binge-eating fish with 3x the guts

Marketing Ploy of the Month: Grist reports that the Center for Biological Diversity is promoting its ‘ 7 Billion and Counting’ campaign about how population growth threatens species by giving away 100,000 Endangered Species Condoms. Come and get your Endangered Species Condoms            
   
Now, your weekend tug weather:
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT FRI SEP 30 2011
  TODAY
 W WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 1 OR 2 FT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 11 SECONDS. CHANCE OF RAIN.
 TONIGHT
 NW WIND 10 TO 15 KT IN THE EVENING... BECOMING LIGHT...THEN BECOMING E 10 KT LATE. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W
 SWELL 6 FT AT 10 SECONDS. CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
 SAT
 SE WIND 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT. W SWELL 6 FT AT 9 SECONDS. SCATTERED SHOWERS.
 SAT NIGHT
 W WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 1 OR 2 FT. W SWELL 5 FT.
 SUN
 E WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 1 OR 2 FT. W SWELL 3 FT.

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