6/15 June snow, orcas and salmon, climate milestone, BC action, student action, sand shrimp

June 14, 2016 (Grouse Mountain Resort/CBC)

It's snowing on the North Shore — in June!
Photos and videos posted to social media on Tuesday show snow falling — and sticking to the ground — at Grouse, Seymour and Cypress Mountains. Tamara Baluja reports. (CBC)

The Great Salish Sea: Double Jeopardy - Endangered Orcas and Endangered Salmon
A long time ago there were thousands of orcas, as legend has it, with salmon and herring spawning by the million. Today southern resident whales who migrate through the Salish Sea and up and down the west coast foraging for salmon, number just 83. A recent baby boom offer some hope but diminishing runs of salmon and a toxic stew of pollution and noise point to a different outcome. Martha Baskin tells the story. (GreenAcre Radio)

The atmosphere has hit a grim milestone — and scientists say we’ll never go back ‘within our lifetimes’
Scientists who measure and forecast the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere said Monday that we may have passed a key turning point. Humans walking the Earth today will probably never live to see carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere once again fall below a level of 400 parts per million (ppm), at least when measured at the iconic Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, where the longest global record of Co2 has been compiled. Chris Mooney reports. (Washington Post)

B.C. lags behind provinces on climate-change actions: report
British Columbia is a climate-change laggard despite its eight-year-old tax on carbon emissions from fossil fuels, says a new report by the Pembina Institute. It said B.C. has fallen behind Alberta, Ontario and Quebec in the fight against global warming as those provinces seek ambitious emission reduction targets, the institute’s director Josha MacNab said Tuesday. The report included information from the international Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project, which has 16 member countries, including Canada. It concluded B.C.’s greenhouse gas emissions could rise by 39 per cent above 2014 levels by 2030. Dirk Meissner reports. (Canadian Press)

Students Saving Salmon deliver stream, marsh monitoring report to City Council
After months of monitoring water quality in Edmonds, the Edmonds-Woodway High School-based Students Saving Salmon group presented their results to the Edmonds City Council study meeting Tuesday night. While the report was interrupted by a downtown Edmonds power outage, the students were able to convey most of the results of its citizen science project, called the Edmonds Stream Team, to monitor water quality in the Edmonds Marsh, Shellabarger Creek, Willow Creek and Shell Creek. From October 2015 to May 2016, during the first two weeks of each, four teams of two to four students visited 16 sites in Edmonds, collecting water quality measurements. The stream team’s work was initiated because water quality data from Edmonds streams and the Marsh is lacking and there are concerns about the health of the streams and how stream water quality, including stormwater, may be affecting aquatic organisms and salmon. (My Edmonds News)

Research shows ample supply of sand shrimp
Finding a balance between sand shrimpers and whale watchers will be the million dollar question moving forward for the Washington Department of Natural Resources. That was the theme presented by a representative from the state agency at a recent public meeting conducted by the Island County Marine Resources Committee. The meeting was a precursor to sand shrimping resuming on tidelands around Saratoga Passage Monday, June 13. Under rules passed by the department, commercial fishers Wahoo Enterprises and Morgan Enterprises are permitted to harvest sand shrimp from June 10 to Feb. 1. Research conducted by the department, Cascadia Research Collective and two state universities showed an ample supply of ghost shrimp for both gray whales and harvesters. It was a determining factor in the lifting of a shrimping ban, which was in place for two years. Langley city leaders and whale advocates successfully lobbied the state to close the fishery, arguing that harvesting may be having adverse ecological and tourism related impacts. Evan Thompson reports. (Whidbey News-Times)

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA-  302 AM PDT WED JUN 15 2016  

TODAY  SE WIND TO 10 KT IN THE MORNING...BECOMING LIGHT. WIND  WAVES 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 6 FT AT 10 SECONDS. SHOWERS.
TONIGHT  W WIND TO 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 5 FT  AT 10 SECONDS. ISOLATED SHOWERS IN THE EVENING.

--
"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato at salishseacom.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Salish Sea News: Communicate, Educate, Advocate

Follow on Twitter.

Salish Sea Communications: Truth Well Told