2/23 Ravens, streaked horned lark, gray whale, Tacoma methanol, salmon recovery, fish radiation

Tony Angell's ravens

Tony Angell on the Raven
Tony Angell reflects: "It's a cloudless summer day as I listen to ravens behind me in the woods. There's an endless repertoire of croaks, krawks, barks, yelps, and yodels. Other ravens across the bay respond in kind, and I imagine that this is a day of poetry and perhaps a few jokes shared between clans of these birds." There's more to learn at TonyAngell.net. (BirdNote)

WDFW reviews status of endangered larks
Birders who attend the Port Susan Snow Goose and Birding Festival on Feb. 27-28 should keep their eyes looking out for a streaked horned lark. The rare lark, found only in western Washington and Oregon, has been on the state’s endangered species list since 2006, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife has launched a periodic review of that status. The public can comment through March 27. The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider comments at its April meeting. Sarah Arney reports. (Stanwood/Camano News)

Gray whales return to Puget Sound in annual migration
Local whale watching crews have reported the first sighting of gray whales for 2016, according to the Pacific Whale Watch Association. The whales migrate to Puget Sound every spring to feed on ghost shrimp in the waters off the south end of Whidbey Island. Each year, gray whales undertake the longest journey of any mammal on earth, travelling between 5,000 and 6,800 miles from Mexico's Baja Peninsula to the Bering Sea. (KING)

Opponents of Tacoma methanol plant to take fight to state Capitol
A plan to build the world’s largest methanol plant in Tacoma may be on hold, but the same can’t be said for efforts to oppose it. At the state Capitol, legislation to keep the proposed plant from qualifying for a sales-tax break will receive a public hearing Wednesday, and is expected to draw many critics of the project. That’s even after the company behind the methanol plant asked the city of Tacoma to “pause” the project’s environmental review last week, citing “the vocal opposition that has emerged.” Melissa Santos reports. (Tacoma News Tribune)

To help Washington’s salmon, let local experts lead
….Salmon recovery efforts should give people with local knowledge the flexibility to experiment and the accountability to learn from those experiments. That combination — local knowledge, flexibility and accountability — is what is needed to revive efforts that have been too slow and too bureaucratic. Todd Myers writes. (Crosscut)

No radiation found in B.C. fish after Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster
Nearly five years after a massive earthquake resulted in the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, researchers in B.C. have found no detectable levels of contamination in fish along the West Coast. Contamination in fish had been expected to increase, as levels for radioisotopes cesium-134 and 137 are getting higher in offshore sea water, according to Jay Cullen, a chemical oceanographer at the University of Victoria. But models showing how ocean circulation will carry that contamination suggest there is little reason for concern in B.C. "While we expect the contamination in fish to increase ... we don't expect those levels to approach levels that will be a danger to human health," Cullen said. Those projected contamination levels won't be harmful to the fish, either, he added. Bethany Lindsay reports. (Vancouver Sun)

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA-  233 AM PST TUE FEB 23 2016  

SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT  

TODAY  E WIND 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 8 FT AT  14 SECONDS...SUBSIDING TO 5 FT.

TONIGHT  SE WIND 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 4 FT  AT 13 SECONDS.

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