2/7 Everett Herald, Budd Inlet, Peter Ross, pipelines, Great Bear Rainforest, rockfish, marine sanctuary, weather, solar

Sound and Vision (Eric Becker/Laura James)

If you like to watch: Eric Becker's film, Sound and Vision: A Film About the Salish Sea and the People that Protect It, is shown this Thursday at the Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2333 San Juan Avenue, Port Townsend. Admission free, donations welcome. Call 360-344-4112.

Buy ‘em, Dano: The Everett Daily Herald is being sold to Canada's Black Press, which operates as Sound Publishing Inc. in Washington. The Washington Post Co., which has owned the newspaper for 35 years, made the announcement Wednesday. Gloria Fletcher, president of Sound Publishing, told Herald employees the transaction is expected to close in early March. Julie Muhlstein and Eric Stevick report. Daily Herald Co. being sold to Sound Publishing    See also:  Washington Post sells The Herald of Everett   And also: NW media mogul buys Everett paper and enters coastal oil debate 

A vestige of West Bay’s working waterfront began to disappear this week, one creosote-soaked piling at a time. By mid-March some 400 derelict pilings and 7,000 square-feet of abandoned docks and piers that represented the last reminders of a lower Budd Inlet shoreline once lined with lumber and plywood mills will be removed and shipped to the Roosevelt Landfill in Klickitat County. It marks the latest step in a slow but steady transformation of West Bay Drive in Olympia from an industrial corridor to a collection of parks, office buildings and shoreline property undergoing hazardous waste cleanup and redevelopment. John Dodge reports. Budd Inlet relieved of creosote pilings  

If you like to watch: Presentations from Orca Network’s Way of Whales workshop feature Dr. Peter Ross on "Of whales and men: Ocean pollution in the 21st Century" - Dr. Peter Ross, Part 1,  and Part 2.  Links to other presentations are found at Orca Network Ways of Whales Workshop presentations – 2013

Read ‘em, Dano: The battle over a big coal export terminal, proposed for Cherry Point north of Bellingham, has become a burning issue across Washington. Agencies drawing up an environmental impact statement (EIS) on the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal disclosed Wednesday that they have received a total of 124,000 comments from citizens on what the scope of that environmental study should be. “Everyone says they want citizens to be engaged, but when 124,000 citizens speak out loudly, the political subculture gets nervous,” said State Rep. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, who leads a group of legislators who want environmental, economic and transportation impacts across the state to be assessed. Joel Connelly reports. A very big deal: 124,000 comments on coal port  

Oil and gas pipelines could be made safer if pipeline operators had clear guidelines for how quickly they must respond to accidents, but federal regulators don't have the data they need to establish those rules, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office, an independent arm of Congress. The first few minutes and hours after a pipeline accident are considered crucial for effective cleanup and damage prevention. But the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which regulates the nation's 400,000-mile network of large volume transmission pipelines, requires only that operators respond in a "prompt and effective” manner.  Lisa Song reports. Safety compromised by missing rules on oil and gas pipelines, GAO says

An environmental coalition will Thursday attempt to push protection of the Great Bear Rainforest onto the already crowded election agenda, issuing open letters to B.C.’s main political leaders, calling for more immediate action. “The people of British Columbia want the Great Bear Rainforest agreements completed,” said letters sent by the coalition to Premier Christy Clark and New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix. Jonathan Fowlie reports. Environmentalists look to insert Great Bear Rainforest into B.C. election agenda  

Real Fish, Rock Fish: In 2011, SeaDoc, NOAA, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife hosted a joint Workshop to highlight what we know about rockfish recovery in the Salish Sea and identify where more science could help us improve our efforts. The proceedings from this workshop are now available. It's 124 pages of state-of-the-art science on the status, history and future of rockfish in the Salish Sea. From SeaDoc Society: US / Canadian Rockfish Symposium Proceedings  

Works in warm waters: A new NOAA research report finds that both fish populations and commercial and recreational anglers have benefited from "no-take" protections in the Tortugas Ecological Reserve in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The report, "An Integrated Biogeographic Assessment of Reef Fish Populations and Fisheries in Dry Tortugas: Effects of No-take Reserves," is the first to evaluate how the 151-square nautical mile Tortugas Ecological Reserve affects the living marine resources of the region and the people whose livelihoods are connected to them. Tortugas Marine Reserve Yields More, Larger Fish

If you like to talk about it: FEBRUARY IN Seattle: It's dank. It's dark. It's windy. You're unhappy. Two words: Boo and hoo. Take a number, Sparky. Line starts over there, next to the Dri-Z-Air dehumidifier products at McClendon Hardware. Ron Judd talks. Washington weather is wacky, diverse

If you like to listen: One of the grayest corners of mainland USA, is slowly going solar, one community at a time. Solarize Washington, a program of Northwest Sustainable Energy for Economic Development (Northwest SEED), couples non-profit know how with grassroots energy. First a community finds interested homeowners, then Solarize Washington hosts a workshop complete with group discounts and know-how from solar installers. Martha Baskin reports. Solar Comes to Washington With Grassroots and Non-Profit Efforts  

President Obama on Wednesday nominated Sally Jewell, the chief executive of Recreational Equipment Inc., to lead the Interior Department, with a vow that she will balance the agency’s sometimes conflicting mandates to promote resource development and preserve the nation’s natural heritage. If confirmed, Ms. Jewell, a former oil company engineer and longtime advocate for conservation and outdoor recreation, will take over a department that has been embroiled in controversy over the regulation of oil and gas on public lands and in the Gulf of Mexico and Arctic Ocean. She also will be the steward of hundreds of millions of acres of public lands, from the Everglades of Florida to the Cascades of Washington State. Ms. Jewell, 56, who also had a 19-year career as a commercial banker, took over as chief executive of REI in 2005. John Broder reports. Obama’s Choice to Lead Interior Dept. Has Oil Sector and Conservation Credentials  

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 612 AM PST THU FEB 7 2013
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 7 AM THIS MORNING TO NOON PST TODAY
TODAY
SW WIND 25 TO 35 KT...EASING TO S 10 TO 20 KT. COMBINED SEAS 9 TO 12 FT WITH A DOMINANT PERIOD OF 13 SECONDS. SHOWERS IN
 THE MORNING...THEN SCATTERED SHOWERS.
TONIGHT
SE WIND 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 9 FT AT 12 SECONDS. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS IN THE EVENING.
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