3/6 Gravel, First Nation treaty, Lummi coal, fish boat sinking, orca tag, GM salmon, climate fight, shark face, clean water

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Dan McShane blogs about the Hood Canal Pit-to-Pier gravel extraction project, the supposed impetus to Senate Bill 5805 which bill sponsor Senator Hobbs says "is trying to assist Thorndyke Resources, which has spent a dozen years seeking approval to mine gravel and sand in Shine on the west end of the Hood Canal bridge."   A Bit More on Pit to Pier

Provincial politicians in B.C. have ratified a treaty that will give a Sunshine Coast First Nation thousands of hectares of land and millions of dollars. The Tla’amin (Sly-ah-mon) Nation Final Agreement still has to be ratified by the federal government before it becomes law. But the deal will give the Powell River nation $29.7 million, economic development funding of $6.9 million, a fishing vessel fund of $250,000 and more than 8,000 hectares of land. Aboriginal Relations Minister Ida Chong says the Tla’amin have become the ninth First Nation in B.C. to have their treaty passed in the last 13 years. B.C. ratifies treaty with Tla’amin First Nation  

Jay Julius is a fisherman and a member of the Lummi Nation tribal council. Lummi people have lived on the shores of Puget Sound north of Bellingham for thousands of years. Not far from their reservation lies Cherry Point, the proposed site for the largest coal export terminal in North America. Katie Campbell and Ashley Ahearn report. Tribal Fisherman Sees Coal Threat Looming  

A fishing boat has gone down in Georgia Strait, off Point Grey, west of Vancouver, but its two crewmembers are safe. The Rescue Co-Ordination Centre in Victoria says a mayday call was picked up at 5:15 a.m. and numerous coast guard, RCMP and commercial boats raced to the scene. By the time the first ship, a tugboat, arrived, the fishboat had already sunk but the two crewmembers were spotted in the water. 2 rescued from sinking fishing boat in Georgia Strait

A research team led by Brad Hanson of NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center has been tracking K and L pods off the coast of Oregon and California, most recently offshore of Washington’s Willapa Bay. The team left Newport, Ore., on Friday aboard the 209-foot research vessel Bell M. Shimada. The crew caught up with K pod the following day with the help of a satellite transmitter attached to K-25, according to reports. Most if not all of L pod was seen swimming with the K pod whales near Cape Blanco, off the southern coast of Oregon. The research team attached a new satellite tag to L-88, a 20-year-old male named Wave Walker. The new tag will provide another method of following the whales if the tag attached to K-25 should fall off, as expected sooner or later. It has already stayed attached for more than two months, about twice the average life of the satellite tags. Chris Dunagan reports. Researchers attach new tag to orca in L pod

The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether AquaBounty, a Massachusetts-based company with a lab on Prince Edward Island in Canada and growing facilities in Panama, may sell genetically engineered salmon to consumers in the United States. More than 33,000 fishermen, environmentalists, food safety advocates and others have written to the FDA with concerns about the agency's preliminary findings. Among the worries is that the genetically engineered fish might escape and mix with wild salmon. The company says that's unlikely, not only because the fish are sterile but also because of its production process. Activists fight FDA approval of genetically engineered salmon

Gov. Jay Inslee urged a legislative committee on Tuesday to take quick action to authorize an independent review of the state’s options for reducing carbon pollution. In his testimony on House Bill 1915 before the House Environment Committee, Inslee framed Washington as a state with the right mix of entrepreneurship, technological know-how and innovative talent to emerge as the global leader in the clean-energy field. Inslee also testified last month in the Senate on a similar proposal to invite the Legislature’s four caucuses to join him in a working group that can hire a consultant and consider what might be the state’s best, most cost effective strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But this time the skepticism of some Republican members of the committee came through more clearly. Brad Shannon reports. Inslee: ‘We need to move' on climate  

Two vessels moored at a Guemes Channel pier at the west end of Seventh Street may be taken over by the state because of their instability and the instability of the pier they are tied to. Heavy winds on Monday, Feb. 25 caused part of the pier to break up. Some of the debris ended up on the beach at the Kiwanis Waterfront Park next to the Guemes Island ferry dock. Two pilings were floating some distance away from the pier. Joan Pringle reports. State may take over vessels moored at old cannery site  

Researchers in Idaho say they've finally solved a mystery surrounding a 270-million-year-old shark. After a century of guessing, scientists have put a face to the giant animal that once swam the region, back when the Northwest was underwater. The problem was that sharks are mostly made of cartilage, which doesn't keep well over millennia. So all scientists had from Helicoprion was a curious spiral of thin, serrated blades – which various scientists imagined to be from its dorsal fin, its tale, its nose ... Jessica Robinson reports. Idaho researchers reveal the terrifying face of prehistoric shark  

After two years of construction, Anacortes’ new Drinking Water Treatment Plant is preparing to go online after a series of systems tests are performed. Anacortes Public Works Director Fred Buckenmeyer said the $56 million plant should be operational by mid-April or as soon as late March, when the current water treatment plant would shut down. Buckenmeyer said the current water treatment plant was built in 1970. He said it has experienced reliability problems in the past because there was no back-up power supply. Mark Stayton reports. Testing begins at Anacortes’ new water treatment plant  

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 730 AM PST WED MAR 6 2013
REST OF TODAY
NE WIND 5 TO 15 KT BECOMING NW. WIND WAVES 1 OR 2 FT. W SWELL 6 FT AT 14 SECONDS. CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
TONIGHT AND THU
NW WIND 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 1 OR 2 FT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 14 SECONDS. CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
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