4/15 K pod, Kiss The Sky!, Octo-Mom, Mike Bursk, deep canyon, shy porpoise, timber money, debris

What LA saw (Gene Blevins/Reuters)

K pod makes rare spring visit to South Sound
K pod, one of the three pods of orcas that frequent Puget Sound, came south through the San Juan Islands yesterday and were spotted in South Puget Sound late this afternoon (Monday). It’s quite unusual to see K pod coming into Puget Sound this early in the year, noted killer whale researcher Brad Hanson of the Northwest Fisheries Science Center. K pod contains 19 orcas and is often seen with other pods, but not this time. If history is any indication, they will soon be heading back out to the ocean. They are more likely to begin hanging out in the San Juan Islands in late May or early June. Chris Dunagan reports. (Kitsap Sun)

Win 2 Tickets to Kiss The Sky! The Orca Freedom Concert at the EMP April 22 by "liking" Sound Action and entering the drawing here.

If you like to watch: Octopus Life, Death and Birth at Three Tree Point  
Drew Collins and his search for the Real Octo-Mom and her eggs at Three Tree Point.

Whale Researcher Mike Bursk at Welcome the Whales Festival www.orcanetwork.org
Mike Bursk of the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, CA, speaks about "The Friendly Whales of San Ignacio Lagoon - Early Research" at 3 PM on April 19 at the Langley United Methodist Church, 3rd and Anthes, on Whidbey Island. Mike is the captain of the institute's 71-foot research vessel, the Sea Explorer. Nearly 20,000 students annually board the Sea Explorer for an adventure at sea. Presented by Orca Network and Whidbey Watershed Stewards.

Scientists say a deep canyon feeds Puget Sound
University of Washington researchers said they are astounded by the volume of deep sea water that is flowing through an underwater canyon at the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. They say it’s enough to fill Century Link Field every second.  Twenty to 30 percent more water comes up through that canyon than all of the rivers and streams that feed Puget Sound combined.  Scientists at the UW School of Applied Sciences said today that results from a machine they lowered into the canyon on a research mission last year, measured those massive flows. They describe it as an underwater river as big as the Columbia and Amazon combined that flows uphill from the depths of the Pacific and into the Strait. Gary Chittim reports. (KING)

Expert finds shy harbor porpoises off Anacortes
Small, dolphin-like creatures frequent the marine waters here, but they are so shy compared to their extroverted, tropical cousins like Flipper that little is known about them. A marine biologist who spent 10 years swimming with energetic bottlenose and spotted dolphins in the Bahamas moved to the Pacific Northwest on a mission to change that. The Pacific Biodiversity Institute’s Anacortes-based Harbor Porpoise Monitoring Network hired Cindy Elliser in January to take the five-year research project to the next level. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

State lands chief breaks vow, takes timber-industry money
During his successful 2008 campaign to become state lands commissioner, Peter Goldmark pledged not to accept timber money. But he has collected about $100,000 from those companies, and environmental supporters are concerned he is growing too close to the logging industry. Mike Baker and Jim Brunner report. (Seattle Times)

Tide of Japanese tsunami debris ending: scientist
The threat to the B.C. shoreline from Japanese tsunami debris is over, says Jan Hafner, a researcher at the International Pacific Research Center at the University of Hawaii. B.C.’s shoreline and beaches were expected to be hit with everything from corpses to radioactive material coming in with the tide, but have seen much less debris than anticipated. The March 2011 tsunami, the result of a devastating 9.0-magnitude earthquake, swept an estimated five million tonnes of debris into the ocean. About 70 per cent was believed to have sunk off the Japanese coast, leaving about 1.5 million tonnes floating in the Pacific Ocean. Sandra McCulloch reports. (Times Colonist)

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT TUE APR 15 2014
TODAY
SW WIND 10 TO 20 KT...EASING TO 10 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 8 FT AT 11 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF RAIN
 THIS MORNING...THEN RAIN LIKELY IN THE AFTERNOON.
TONIGHT
S WIND 5 TO 15 KT...BECOMING SW 10 TO 15 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 6 FT AT 10 SECONDS. RAIN
 LIKELY.

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