3/9 BC oysters, Clean Samish, Ericksen pay, EPA lesson, robot mapping, pink scallops

Northern Flicker [Joseph V Higbee]

The Northern Flicker
A Most Unlikely Woodpecker! The Northern Flicker is a woodpecker, but one that hardly looks the part. Where most woodpeckers are a reliable mix of black, white, and bits of red, the Northern Flicker is buffy tan overall. The undersides of its wings and tail-feathers flash with coppery-red, giving the bird the nickname "Red-shafted Flicker." And if all this weren't enough, it's often found on the ground. (BirdNote)

Feds renew B.C. oyster warning as norovirus infections continue
As more people continue to get sick, Canadians are being warned yet again about an outbreak of norovirus and other gastrointestinal illnesses linked to undercooked and raw oysters from B.C. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said 22 more people have contracted the illness since Feb. 24, bringing the total number of cases since December to 289. (CBC)

Clean Samish Initiative Week highlights pollution evaluation
The Board of Skagit County Commissioners has proclaimed this week Clean Samish Initiative Week. The Tuesday proclamation is the latest effort to bring attention to the Clean Samish Initiative, which involves various groups working to reduce fecal coliform pollution in the Samish River and Samish Bay…. The Clean Samish Initiative formed in 2009. The initiative’s goal is to reduce the pollution and achieve an upgrade for shellfish harvest in Samish Bay. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

Sen. Ericksen paid at least $1,993 a week for Trump transition work
Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, is getting at least $1,993 a week for his temporary job as part of President Donald Trump’s transition team, according to a story from ProPublica. The nonprofit investigative news outlet based its story on documents received through Freedom of Information Act requests. Ericksen accepted the job as communications lead at the Environmental Protection Agency on Jan. 21, a temporary position lasting up to 120 days. He was operations director for the Trump’s Western Washington campaign. Kie Relyea reports. (Bellingham Herald)

A Lesson Trump and the E.P.A. Should Heed 
In March 1983, President Ronald Reagan asked me to return to Washington to run the Environmental Protection Agency. I had been the E.P.A.’s first administrator, from 1970 to 1973, and over the agency’s first 10 years, it made enormous progress in bringing the country’s worst pollution problems under control despite resistance from polluting industries and their lobbyists. A worried and outraged public had demanded action, and the government responded. Yet the agency and its central mission came under attack during the 1980 presidential campaign. The Clean Air Act was criticized as an obstacle to growth. The agency was seen as bloated, inefficient, exceeding its congressional mandates and costing jobs. The Reagan administration and its new administrator were going to fix that. Sound familiar? William D. Ruckelshaus writes. (New York Times)

Underwater robots map grey whale habitat off Vancouver Island
Three underwater robots spent weeks listening to grey whales off the west coast of Vancouver Island last month, so scientists can learn more about what the whales are doing in northern waters. The two-metre long yellow gliders travelled together in underwater canyons over the continental shelf near Clayoquot Sound…. Glider pilots talked to the robots through satellites several times a day and gave them commands on where to go next. Researchers are now using the data to figure out what the whales are encountering in our waters as they migrate up the coast from their winter habitat off California, to their rich feeding grounds in the Bering Sea off Alaska. Kirstie Hudson reports. (CBC)

Rare Northwest delicacy making a comeback in Puget Sound
Divers off the shores of Lopez Island are searching the depths of Puget Sound for a rare delicacy that hasn't surfaced here for more than 20 years…. Singing Pink Scallops were fashionable in upscale restaurants all along the West Coast in the 1980s and 1990s. Increased regulation made the harvest too difficult, and the shellfish all but disappeared from people's plates. Pink Singers, as they're known, are considered even more rare than Beluga Caviar. That's because you can only harvest them in the San Juan and Canadian Gulf Islands, and divers have to hand pick them at depths of up to 110 feet. Eric Wilkinson reports. (KING)

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA-  300 AM PST THU MAR 9 2017  

GALE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH LATE  TONIGHT    TODAY  E WIND TO 10 KT RISING TO 15 TO 25 KT IN THE AFTERNOON.  WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS BUILDING TO 2 TO 4 FT IN THE AFTERNOON. W  SWELL 5 FT AT 11 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF RAIN IN THE AFTERNOON.  TONIGHT  SE WIND 25 TO 35 KT. COMBINED SEAS 5 TO 8 FT WITH A  DOMINANT PERIOD OF 13 SECONDS. RAIN.

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