11/23 Salish Sea News and Weather: Orcas, BPA, poaching, Occupy Xmas, no dumping, road ends, penguins, oil tanker alerts, SnoCo MRC, Blair dredge, tsunami debris

Wild turkey (National Geographic)

Want weather?  Cliff Mass on An Extraordinary Storm To the South: Another storm for Thanksgiving in Washington  To the North:  Metro Vancouver hit with wet weather, but snow causing problems on other B.C. Highways

If you like to watch, read Chris Dunagan’s blog pondering why orcas haven’t been spending as much time in Puget Sound as usual this year— and watch Susan Berta’s video. Resident orcas check out Whidbey, North Kitsap

Read Liz’s comment on the blog, “Occupy Everywhere But Stay On Message”

Eat well this weekend but skip the canned goods if you can. Researchers have found that concentrations of the endocrine disruptor BPA in the urine of canned-soup eaters are 1,221 percent higher than those of fresh-soup eaters. BPA from soup cans shows up in urine 

King County is prosecuting the owner and workers of Quilcene Bay-based G&R Quality Seafoods for poaching and selling $700,000 of shellfish from Hood Canal tidelands. That’s the amount sold in King County alone; the crime may be much larger with sales to other places. Owner of seafood firm charged in poaching

“Occupy gave the world a new way of thinking about the fat cats and financial pirates on Wall Street,” Adbusters says on its website. “Now let’s give them a new way of thinking about the holidays.” Vancouver's Adbusters launches Occupy Xmas; Magazine that inspired Occupy movement promotes anti-consumerist message

Cruise ships won’t be allowed to dump their waste in the 2,409-square nautical miles of the Olympic Coast National Sanctuary come December 1. How about the rest of the Salish Sea? Rule to ban cruise ship discharge in WA sanctuary

Hooray! Volunteers will be improving Bainbridge Island road ends by clearing brush, establishing foot paths and making basic improvements on the city right-of-ways to the shoreline. Bainbridge to pay for permits to help volunteer group improve road ends

Forty-nine penguins rescued after the Rena went aground off New Zealand were released to the wild yesterday after being cleaned and nursed back to health. They are among 343 little blue penguins that have been cleaned of oil since 400 tons of fuel oil spilled. More than 2,000 sea birds died in the spill. Penguins freed after oil spill rescue

B.C.’s Wilderness Committee has taken matters into their own hands by offering to the public ‘oil tanker alerts’ on cell phones and Twitter alerts when tankers pass through Burrard Inlet. The service provides information about the name and size of the tankers as well as information about how to get involved in the campaign to oppose oil exports off the BC Coast. To subscribe to receive the tanker alert text messages, simply text the word ‘Oil' to 604 800 9180. To follow the alerts on twitter follow twitter.com/BurrardInletOil.  Crude Oil Tanker Tracking system for Vancouver

Do you live in Snohomish County? Volunteer before Dec 2 to serve on the county’s Marine Resources Committee. To apply, go to http://www.snocomrc.org or contact Kathleen Herrmann, Snohomish County Marine Steward, at 425-388-6414 or kathleen.herrmann@snoco.org  Snohomish County seeks marine resources volunteers

Puget Sound pilots guiding ships into Husky Terminal on the port’s Blair Waterway warned the port in the summer of 2010 that several high spots on the waterway’s bottom were making it difficult to berth ships at the terminal. Port of Tacoma to spend $1.5M on dredging for Blair Waterway

What happened to the 100,000 tons of debris from the Japanese tsunami  on its way toward the Northwest? Still a threat, but tsunami debris 'invisible'

Now, your thank-goodness-for-tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 844 AM PST WED NOV 23 2011
  SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR HAZARDOUS SEAS IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT
 GALE WATCH IN EFFECT FROM THURSDAY MORNING THROUGH THURSDAY AFTERNOON
  TODAY
 W SWELL 11 FT AT 13 SECONDS. W WIND 10 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 2 OR 3 FT. SCATTERED SHOWERS.
 TONIGHT
 SW WIND 10 TO 20 KT BECOMING S 15 TO 25 KT LATE. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. CHANCE OF SHOWERS IN THE EVENING...THEN RAIN LIKELY AFTER MIDNIGHT.

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