6/27 WA budget, Ken Ward, Karl Kruger, hantavirus, crow attacks, steelhead, bycatch, carbon rise, orca ride

Black-backed woodpecker {Paul Bannick/BirdNote]

Instrumental Bird Sounds
Feathers and bills make fascinating music! Birds communicate with a fascinating array of instrumental sounds, and nearly all are made with their feathers or bills. The territorial drumming of a woodpecker - like this Black-backed Woodpecker - is one example. American Crows clatter their beaks to make rattling sounds. And the remarkable drumming of a Ruffed Grouse is produced by a rapid beating of its wings. (BirdNote)

After Marathon Weekend, Washington Lawmakers Inching Closer To Budget Deal
It’s do-or-die week in Olympia. It's cliché to say, but if lawmakers don’t pass a budget and send it to the governor for his signature before midnight on Friday, state government will go into partial shutdown. Washington lawmakers are optimistic that won’t happen. They hunkered down through the weekend heatwave and in the words of one lawmaker “things are really progressing.” House Democrats and Senate Republicans need to get agreement on how much the next budget will spend, where the money will come from and how the state will comply with a Supreme Court mandate on school funding.  (Northwest News Network)

Valve-Turning Activist From Oregon Won’t Serve Prison Time
A climate activist from Oregon will not serve jail time for his part in an oil pipeline protest last fall. A Washington judge instead sentenced the so-called “valve turner” to a month of community service and six months of probation. Ken Ward of Corbett was one of five activists who turned valves off on several pipelines bringing oil from Canada to the United States. A Skagit, Washington, jury convicted him of second-degree burglary earlier this month. Jes Burns reports. (OPB/EarthFix)

Wow, Just Wow: Puget Sound To Alaska Alone On A Standup Paddleboard
An Orcas Island, Washington, man has become the first person to complete the Race to Alaska on a standup paddleboard. Karl Kruger stroked 750 miles solo from Port Townsend up the Inside Passage, crossing the finish line in Ketchikan Sunday evening.  A crowd came down to the harbor in Ketchikan to see Kruger accomplish an athletic feat that quite a few people had called crazy, nutty or foolhardy.  Tom Banse reports. (Northwest News Network)

Hantavirus case reported in Skagit County
A Skagit County resident has contracted hantavirus, according to Skagit County Public Health on Monday. It is the first case in the county since 2003. Hantavirus, which is carried by deer mice and is found in their waste, can be deadly. Brandon Stone reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

Canada Post suspends mail delivery after crow attacks 
Canada Post says it will only resume mail delivery to three addresses in East Vancouver when it's safe, after a mail carrier was attacked by a well-known neighbourhood crow. Shawn Bergman and his neighbours haven't received mail for more than a month after Vancouver's famous Canuck the crow repeatedly attacked a carrier. On one occasion, the carrier was left bleeding. Alex Migdal reports. (CBC)

Study reveals strong juvenile trout drop in the ocean
A new study tracking 35-year trends for more than 40 steelhead populations determined that declining numbers of steelhead trout in the rivers flowing through British Columbia, Washington state, and Oregon are linked to poor survival of young fish in ocean environments. The research study, carried out by scientists at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (CJFAS), reveals that declining survival of juvenile steelhead in the ocean is strongly coupled with significant declines in the abundance of adults. (Fish Information & Services)

10 million tonnes of fish catches dumped back into oceans: study
Fishing fleets dump about 10 per cent of the fish they catch back into the ocean in an "enormous waste" of low-value fish despite some progress in limiting discards in recent years, scientists said on Monday. A decade-long study, the first global review since 2005 and based on work by 300 experts, said the rate of discards was still high despite a decline from a peak in the late 1980s. Discarded fish are usually dead or dying. Almost 10 million tonnes of about 100 million tonnes of fish caught annually in the past decade were thrown back into the sea, according to the "Sea Around Us" review by the University of British Columbia and the University of Western Australia. Industrial fleets often throw back fish that are damaged, diseased, too small or of an unwanted species. A trawler with a quota only to catch North Atlantic cod, for instance, may throw back hake caught in the same net. (CBC)

Carbon in Atmosphere Is Rising, Even as Emissions Stabilize
On the best days, the wind howling across this rugged promontory has not touched land for thousands of miles, and the arriving air seems as if it should be the cleanest in the world. But on a cliff above the sea, inside a low-slung government building, a bank of sophisticated machines sniffs that air day and night, revealing telltale indicators of the way human activity is altering the planet on a major scale. For more than two years, the monitoring station here, along with its counterparts across the world, has been flashing a warning: The excess carbon dioxide scorching the planet rose at the highest rate on record in 2015 and 2016. A slightly slower but still unusual rate of increase has continued into 2017. Justin Gillis reports. (NY Times)

Seattle father, daughter cycling cross-country to save Orcas
A Seattle father and daughter will pedal in a 3,400-mile, cross-country bike ride — all in an effort of raising awareness and funding to protect northwest Orcas. Orcas are critically endangered in the Puget Sound area and despite recovery efforts, their numbers are dwindling. Fourteen-year-old Olivia Carpenter, a lifelong enthusiast of whales and the Salish Sea, says it's her goal in life to protect and save them. (KIRO)

Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  220 AM PDT Tue Jun 27 2017  
TODAY  Light wind becoming NW 10 to 20 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves less than 1 ft becoming 1 to 3 ft in the afternoon. W  swell 6 ft at 8 seconds.
TONIGHT  W wind 10 to 20 kt in the evening becoming light. Wind  waves 1 to 3 ft in the evening becoming less than 1 ft. W swell  5 ft at 8 seconds.

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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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