8/23 Rough keyhole limpet, Atlantic salmon escape, BC salmon streams, island trash, kelp futures

Rough keyhole limpet [Ivar Dolph/Friends of Skagit Beaches]

Rough Keyhole Limpet Diodora aspera
The Rough Keyhole Limpet lives low on rocky beaches around Puget Sound. Shaped like a tiny volcano, the Limpet shell is 2 to 3 inches long and ridged with a hole in the center. The keyhole, used to eject water and waste, separates this limpet from the so-called "true" limpets, which look similar but whose biology is quite different. This hat-shaped critter is in the class of creatures called "Gastropods," which includes land snails and slugs. Limpets travel on a muscular foot and have a tongue-like "radula" studded with many tiny teeth. With this radula, they graze algae and colonial animals such as bryozoans and crust-like sponges. As the Limpet's front teeth wear out, back ones move up to replace them. (Friends of Skagit Beaches)

Solar eclipse's tides blamed for broken net, up to 305,000 Atlantic salmon dumped into waters near San Juans 
It’s open season on Atlantic salmon as the public is urged to help mop up a salmon spill from an imploded net pen holding 305,000 fish at a Cooke Aquaculture fish farm near Cypress Island. Lummi fishers out for chinook on Sunday near Samish, south of Bellingham Bay, were shocked to pull up the spotted, silvery sided Atlantic salmon — escapees that turned up in their nets again on Monday. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is urging the public to catch as many of the fish as possible, with no limit on size or number. The fish are about 10 pounds each. No one knows yet how many escaped from the floating pen, but the net had some 3 million pounds of fish in it when it imploded about 4 p.m. Saturday, said Ron Warren, fish program assistant director for the WDFW. Lynda Mapes reports. (Seattle Times) See also: Officials try to blame eclipse, tides for Atlantic salmon spill in Puget Sound  Courtney Flatt and John Ryan report. (KUOW/EarthFix) And also: A fishy excuse? Tribes say eclipse didn't cause Atlantic salmon escape  Mark Yuasa reports. (Crosscut)

DFO does not adequately monitor B.C. salmon spawning streams, study suggests
A new study suggests the Canadian government may not be doing enough to monitor its Pacific salmon stocks. The study from Simon Fraser University researchers found that visits by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to spawning streams have been steadily declining since the 1980s. But it's more than just budget cuts. Michael Price, a fisheries biologist at SFU and co-author of the study, says the DFO's approach has been inconsistent and poorly targeted. "Even given whatever budget they have, they haven't really taken a very strategic approach to monitoring," Price said. Matt Meuse reports. (CBC)

What do San Juan islanders do with their trash?
When writer Knute Berger was a kid in the 1960s, vacationing on Shaw Island, his family had a creative way of dumping some of their trash. “We’d take the cans and bottles, put them in our rowboat, row out into the middle of San Juan Channel and dump it overboard,” Berger said. “It was sort of justified in terms of saying we’re creating habitats for sea creatures, you know, places for crabs and barnacles to live.”  They also used a pellet gun. Caroline Chamberlain reports. (KUOW)

Scientists Hope To Farm The Biofuel Of The Future In The Pacific Ocean
The push for renewable energy in the U.S. often focuses on well-established sources of electricity: solar, wind and hydropower. Off the coast of California, a team of researchers is working on what they hope will become an energy source of the future — macroalgae, otherwise known as kelp. The Pacific Coast is known for its vast kelp forests. It’s one of the fastest-growing plants on Earth, and farming it requires no fertilizer, fresh water, pesticides, or arable land. “It can grow 2 to 3 feet per day,” says Diane Kim, one of the scientists running the kelp research project at the University of Southern California. Ari Shapiro and Monika Evstatieva report. (NPR) But see: Vanishing Kelp: Warm Ocean Takes Toll On Undersea Forests  Michael Casey reports. (Associated Press)

Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  230 AM PDT Wed Aug 23 2017  
TODAY  Light wind becoming NW 5 to 15 kt in the afternoon. Wind  waves 2 ft or less. W swell 4 ft at 9 seconds. A chance of  showers in the morning then a slight chance of showers in the  afternoon.
TONIGHT  W wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell  5 ft at 10 seconds. A slight chance of showers.

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