10/8 Elwha, big port, Bainbridge shore, Chinook smells, fish passages, artificial reef, microscopy

Mouth of the Elwha (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)

If you like to watch: The Peninsula keeps on growing: Stunning photo of new spits, sandbars at mouth of Elwha River
Silt released during the removal of the Glines Canyon and Elwha dams on the Elwha River continues to show up as new beaches and spits at the river's mouth as the river empties into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. (Peninsula Daily News)

Seattle, Tacoma link up to create North America’s third largest port
The Ports of Seattle and Tacoma, after lengthy secret talks, plan to combine management of their marine cargo terminals and form a single Seaport Alliance, so Puget Sound waters can better attract marine cargoes that have a choice of destinations. The Seaport Alliance will manage marine cargo terminal investments plus marketing, planning and operations, while existing government structures, taxing authority and ownership of assets remain in place.  For instance, the Port of Seattle will still own and run the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Joel Connelly reports. (SeattlePI.com)

Environmentalist groups challenge Bainbridge's new Shoreline Management Program
A coalition of environmental organizations is challenging the city of Bainbridge Island's new Shoreline Management Program, and claims the updated rules open up the entire shoreline of Bainbridge to aquaculture. The groups — Bainbridge Alliance for Puget Sound, Association of Bainbridge Communities and Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat — announced Tuesday they would file a petition for review of the updated plan. "We have no alternative but to act to protect the shoreline environment, meet the [Shoreline Management Act] mandate of 'no net loss' and ensure the public’s right to the use of our public waters,” said Maradel Gale, a beach naturalist and member of the Bainbridge Alliance for Puget Sound. Brian Kelly reports. (Bainbridge Review)

Back In Lake Washington, Chinook Stop Feeding, Rely On Smells To Find Way Home
One of the most intriguing questions about Lake Washington chinook is the mystery of how they survived after we replumbed the region with the construction of the Ship Canal, which was completed in 1916. It dropped the level of the lake by nearly 10 feet and cut it off from what used to be its southern outlet, the Green River. Bellamy Pailthorp reports. (KPLU)

Army corps ordered to improve fish passages
Federal fisheries biologists told the Army Corps of Engineers it must improve dam operations on the White River to protect endangered salmon, a report released Tuesday shows. NOAA Fisheries found that too many migrating fish, including endangered Chinook salmon, can’t make it safely down the White River or to spawning habitat upriver above Mud Mountain Dam near Enumclaw, Washington. The agency is requiring the corps by 2020 to build new fish passage facilities near Buckley to comply with the federal Endangered Species Act. It said the current structures are outdated, unsafe and routinely injure and kill endangered salmon, steelhead and other fish. Phuong Le reports. (Associated Press)

Group against sinking ship to create artificial reef off Sunshine Coast files petition in court
A group opposed to artificial reefs has filed a petition in court in a bid to stop a group from sinking a 115-metre warship off Gambier Island on the Sunshine Coast. The petition, filed in B.C. Supreme Court Aug. 3, by the Save Halkett Bay Marine Park Society asks the court to stop the provincial government from issuing a permit that would allow the former Canadian warship HMCS Annapolis to be sunk off the more than seven-hectare park, located about 10 kilometres north of Horseshoe Bay. Tiffany Crawford reports. (Vancouver Sun)

High-powered Microscopy in the Palm of Your Hand
That smartphone in your hand acts as many things—a telephone, a computer, a calculator, a social media enabler and now, thanks to 3-D printing, it can also be a high-powered, high-quality microscope. Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have used a 3-D printer to develop a sleek, inexpensive way to turn a cell phone’s camera into a microscope, for just pennies on the dollar…. The cell phone microscopes have also found a home at another PNNL facility, the Sequim Marine Research Operations (MRO). … [W]hen volunteers go out to collect samples, they can take photos of the phytoplankton blooms along their route. These images can be instantly sent back to the Sequim MRO lab, and the volunteers can carry on with quantifying and identifying changes in the marine area. Citizen science at its best. Michelle Taylor reports. (Laboratory Equipment)

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 824 PM PDT TUE OCT 7 2014
WED
LIGHT WIND...BECOMING E TO 10 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 4 FT AT 10 SECONDS. AREAS OF FOG IN THE
 MORNING.
WED NIGHT
LIGHT WIND. WIND WAVES LESS THAN 1 FT. W SWELL 4 FT AT 9 SECONDS.

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