3/21 MPAs, public lands, Gas Works Park, aquarium documentary, chem dump, gas pipe safety, poop bugs, King Lysen

Surf Scoter [Daniella Theoret/BridNote]

Surfing with Scoters
Surf Scoters are perfectly at home in the element they’re named for. They swim smack in the middle of what surfers call the impact zone: Just where the waves break with greatest violence. Why risk the harshest waves when there’s calmer water close by? Because the churning action of crashing waves can expose the small clams and crabs that scoters eat. And how do Surf Scoters avoid getting mashed by the sea? When a towering wave is about to crash down, the scoter deftly dives and swims under the crest of the foaming breaker, then pops up on the other side. (BirdNote)

Fish evolve quickly, benefit from marine protected areas: UBC study
Fish can quickly evolve to get more benefit from the protection offered by marine protected areas, according to research from the University of B.C. Variation in the natural range of large fish species means that some fish will spend much of their lives in or near areas protected from fishing, while others will range farther and face capture. Because they are less likely to be harvested, less mobile fish are more likely to survive and pass that trait on to their offspring. Randy Shore reports. (Vancouver Sun)

Hunters And Anglers Cross Political Lines To Fight For Public Lands
Hunters, fishermen and environmental activists: it’s not often these groups are mentioned in the same breath. But recently they’re finding themselves standing shoulder to shoulder over the issue of public lands.  Despite having an avid hunter in Ryan Zinke leading up the Interior Department, which oversees the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service, there’s a sense that calls to sell off or transfer public lands are gaining traction.  Sportsmen and women consider hunting and fishing in these wild places to be their right – one that earlier generations led by President Theodore Roosevelt fought to secure more than a century ago.  Jes Burns reports. (OPB/EarthFix)

Seattle's Gas Works Park About To Undergo Toxic Cleanup 
Kite flyers, picnickers, and Ultimate players treasure Seattle’s Gas Works Park, whose famous towers and pipes were once part of a coal gasification plant on the shore of Lake Union that lit up early Seattleites’ homes. But beneath the grass lies a more insidious legacy of the park’s industrial past: toxic waste. “Just offshore, the sediments are contaminated by oily substances that have oozed from the land into the lake,” says Ching-Pi Wang, with the Department of Ecology. And that’s not all: Benzene, arsenic, lead, and other substances pollute the soil, groundwater, and lake sediment.  Eilís O'Neill reports. (KUOW)

Filmmaker challenges injunction on Vancouver Aquarium documentary 
A man who directed a low-budget documentary critical of the Vancouver Aquarium should not have been ordered to remove five minutes of footage by a judge, his lawyer told an appeal court Monday. But a lawyer for the aquarium called the lower-court judge's decision "balanced" and denied the facility was trying to silence criticism. Gary Charbonneau released the documentary, Vancouver Aquarium Uncovered, online in January, 2016. The 61-minute film examined the aquarium's practice of keeping beluga whales and dolphins in captivity.  Sunny Dhillon reports. (Globe and Mail)

$50,000 fine, two years of probation for Tacoma truck wash owner who dumped chemicals into sewer
The owner of a Tacoma truck washing company will pay $50,000 and spend two years on probation for dumping hazardous materials into the city’s water system, Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office said Monday. Company owner Ryan Lewis pleaded guilty March 9 to gross misdemeanors for polluting water and illegally discharging hazardous chemicals, according to a news release from the attorney general’s office. He also pleaded guilty on behalf of his company, Cleaner Pressure Washing, to the same charges, along with a felony charge of defrauding a public utility. Walker Orenstein reports. (News Tribune of Tacoma)

State fines Cascade Natural Gas $1M over pipeline safety violations
 Cascade Natural Gas has agreed to pay $1 million to settle allegations it broke state and federal pipeline safety rules. The Washington state Utilities and Transportation Commission approved the settlement Monday. Under the agreement’s terms, the company could be fined an additional $1.5 million unless it completes a compliance plan, including validating the maximum pressure on its highest risk pipelines in Washington by the end of the year. (Associated Press)

These bugs could help Seattle's poop spill. But they're hibernating
Workers continue their efforts to get the West Point Treatment Plant in Seattle up and running. The plant was crippled by a flood last month and it continues to spew solid waste into the Puget Sound every day. And restoring the plant's full treatment capacity relies on its tiniest workers – bugs: microorganisms that kill harmful bacteria and help in the treatment process. But there's a problem: These tiny little bugs are hibernating. Kate Walters reports. (KUOW)

King Lysen: A reformer in the Legislature who took on the old boys
King Lysen was a young man despised by his state's powerful old boys. As a state legislator, he challenged an out-of-control nuclear construction program that threatened to melt down the Northwest's economy. Lysen, who died last week at age 75, served 12 tumultuous years in the Washington State Legislature, from 1970 to 1982, eight years in the House and four in the State Senate. He had his district abolished out from under him in 1982. A product of O'Dea High and Seattle University, with a stint at the University of the Americas in Mexico City, Lysen brought a dose of Catholic social activism to Olympia. He was in the group of reformers, nicknamed the "Seattle 10" elected to the House of Representatives in 1970. Joel Connelly reports. (SeattlePI.com)

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA-  239 AM PDT TUE MAR 21 2017  

SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 AM PDT THIS MORNING  
TODAY  E WIND 15 TO 25 KT EASING TO 5 TO 15 KT IN THE  AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT SUBSIDING TO 2 FT OR LESS. W  SWELL 4 FT AT 16 SECONDS. RAIN IN THE MORNING THEN SHOWERS IN THE  AFTERNOON.
TONIGHT  SE WIND 5 TO 15 KT BECOMING E 10 TO 20 KT AFTER  MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 5 FT AT 15 SECONDS.  SHOWERS LIKELY IN THE EVENING THEN SHOWERS AFTER MIDNIGHT.

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

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