10/27 BC sea lice, Bowman Bay, fracking, Mukilteo terminal, F for FOIA

(PHOTO: Larry Hubbell)

If you like to watch: Trick or Treat
Larry Hubbell photographs and blogs: "This week I was attracted by the loudest cacophony of crow calls I have ever heard. It was not the usual sound of a dozen of crows harassing a perched predator. Nor was it the peaceful sound of crows gathering to roost for the night. The pine trees in the Arboretum were full of forty or fifty crows, calling chaotically. The noise was almost deafening…." (Union Bay Watch) [Thanks to Dan Pederson for the link.]

If you like to watch: Transient orca punts a seal 80 feet into the air near Victoria, BC!  (Roll.Focus. Productions)

B.C. salmon farmers to publish monthly sea lice numbers
B.C. salmon farmers will publish sea lice counts and treatment information monthly for every farm on the coast, according to the industry’s 2015 sustainability report released Monday. Sea lice are natural parasites of salmon that can be passed between fish in net-pen farms and wild stocks and make the fish more susceptible to infection and disease, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). Juvenile wild salmon that acquire sea lice while migrating from fresh water to their ocean habitat may suffer increased mortality, studies show. Randy Shore reports. (Vancouver Sun)

Beach at Bowman Bay to close for restoration
The beach at Bowman Bay in Deception Pass State Park will be closed to the public Tuesday for a three-week shoreline restoration project. The beach area was developed into a fish hatchery in the 1940s and then crushed and buried on site in the 1970s, Deception Pass State Park Manager Jack Hartt said. The Northwest Straits Foundation is leading a project to restore 540 linear feet and about an acre of shoreline on the beach, according to a state parks news release. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

Fracking, landslide blamed for contamination of Northern B.C. creek
A relentless landslide that's contaminated a source of drinking water near a community in northeastern B.C. has residents blaming oil and gas exploration's effects underground for causing the slide that's contaminating the creek with silt and heavy metals. Farmers and ranchers near Hudson's Hope say they've lost their sole water source and blame landslides on changes to underground aquifers and land stability because of nearby fracking and the effect of two nearby hydro dams, but officials say there is no proof of this. Betsy Trumpener reports. (CBC)

Feds kick in $10M for new Mukilteo ferry terminal
The state learned Monday it will be getting a $10 million federal grant that should be the final piece of funding required for the new Mukilteo ferry terminal. “These funds cement our ability to get a good project for the community,” said state Sen. Marko Liias, D-Lynnwood. He, other lawmakers representing Snohomish and Island counties and state transportation officials have been trying for years to secure money to pay for the $129 million project that will put a new passenger terminal on the former tank farm site, one-third of a mile east of the existing facility.
Lawmakers earmarked chunks of dollars in the past two transportation budgets and then allocated $68.6 million in proceeds from the gas tax increase approved this summer. Jerry Cornfield reports. (Everett Herald)

B.C. government gets an F in freedom of information audit
An organization representing Canada's newspapers says the B.C. government is failing to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests in a timely manner.  "They're basically operating outside of both the spirit and the letter of the law," said Fred Vallance-Jones a project leader with Newspapers Canada's audit. The audit was taken before the office of the B.C. privacy commissioner released its own report into the provincial government's practice of deleting emails. The report states: "British Columbia, with its 30-business-day legal standard, received an F for speed of responses and a B for completeness of disclosure." (CBC)

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT TUE OCT 27 2015
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT
TODAY
E WIND 15 TO 25 KT...BECOMING 20 TO 30 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT...BUILDING TO 3 TO 5 FT. SW SWELL 5 FT AT 15 SECONDS. AREAS OF FOG IN THE MORNING.
TONIGHT
SE WIND 15 TO 25 KT...EASING TO 5 TO 15 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT...SUBSIDING TO 2 FT OR LESS AFTER
 MIDNIGHT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 16 SECONDS...BUILDING TO 8 FT AT 16 SECONDS AFTER MIDNIGHT. RAIN AFTER MIDNIGHT.
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