10/4 More farm fish, defending Trans Mountain, cetacean ban suit, Scott Pruitt's EPA

Atlantic salmon [Robert F. Bukaty & Jason Leighton/AP]

Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar
Atlantic salmon are important world-wide in commercial aquaculture and recreational fisheries and are cultured commercially in marine net pens in Puget Sound.... Atlantic salmon are preferred over Pacific salmon for commercial net pen aquaculture. Virtually all of the production in Washington and 80% of the production in British Columbia is Atlantic salmon. Over 10 million pounds of Atlantic salmon are produced annually in Washington. The total economic value to the state is estimated at over $40 million. About 100 million pounds of salmon (80% Atlantic salmon) are produced in B.C., annually. (WDFW)

State approves 1 million more farmed fish for Puget Sound, despite escape 
After one of the largest fish-farm escapes in history, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife has approved a permit for Cooke Aquaculture to rear another 1 million Atlantic salmon in Puget Sound. The approval stoked outrage still simmering after the catastrophic failure in August of one of Cooke’s eight Puget Sound facilities that sent a cascade of Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound waters. The permit for the company corporation was approved even as the more than 100,000 fish that escaped from Cooke’s pen at Cypress Island in the San Juan Islands continue to infiltrate Puget Sound rivers and beyond.... Gov. Jay Inslee has directed that no new permits be issued for new pens in Washington waters while the incident is being investigated. “However current laws and administrative rules do not give state regulators the authority to deny Cooke’s permit to move healthy fish into an existing net pen,” the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) stated in a Tuesday news release. Lynda Mapes reports. (Seattle Times)

NDP to defend Trans Mountain pipeline approval in B.C. Supreme Court
The B.C. government will be in court next month defending its approval of the expansion of the Kinder Morgan oil pipeline – even though it will seek, in another courtroom, to force Ottawa to withdraw its consent for the project. Environment Minister George Heyman said in an interview on Tuesday his government will fight the Squamish Nation in B.C. Supreme Court over the provincial certificate of approval the BC Liberals granted. It is an uncomfortable position for Mr. Heyman's NDP government, but he said he has no legal avenue to avoid defending a decision made by the previous cabinet. Justine Hunter reports. (Globe and Mail) See also: Federal government keen on seeing Trans Mountain pipeline built: Carr  Fred Chartrand reports. (Canadian Press)

Legal challenge to overturn Park Board ban on cetaceans begins in B.C. Supreme Court
The Vancouver Aquarium's legal challenge to keep cetaceans in captivity hopes to prove that the Vancouver Park Board does not have the legal power to enact a ban and that a bylaw amendment made some whales homeless. The case, in B.C. Supreme Court, began Monday, with about a dozen protesters watching from the gallery. Before the proceedings started, protesters placed cardboard tombstones outside the courthouse that bore the names of cetaceans that had previously died at the aquarium. (CBC)

E.P.A. Chief’s Calendar: A Stream of Industry Meetings and Trips Home
For lunch on April 26, Scott Pruitt, the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, dined with top executives from Southern Company, one of the nation’s largest coal-burning electric utilities, at Equinox, a white-tablecloth favorite of Washington power brokers. That evening, it was on to BLT Prime, a steakhouse inside the Trump International Hotel in Washington, for a meal with the board of directors of Alliance Resource Partners, a coal-mining giant whose chief executive donated nearly $2 million to help elect President Trump. Before those two agenda items, Mr. Pruitt met privately with top executives and lobbyists from General Motors to talk about their request to block an Obama administration move to curb emissions that contribute to climate change. Eric Lipton and Lisa Friedman report. (NY Times)

Now, your tug weather--
 West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  254 AM PDT Wed Oct 4 2017  
TODAY  NE wind to 10 kt. Wind waves 1 ft or less. W swell 2 ft  at 10 seconds.
TONIGHT  W wind to 10 kt. Wind waves 1 ft or less. W swell 2 ft  at 10 seconds.

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