12/27 Hagfish, salmon fry, Trump's retreat, climate costs, NOSC celebrates, Murray Morgan books

Hagfish [Visuals Unlimited/naturepl.com]

Southeast Alaska fishermen target hagfish as winter catch 
Consider the hagfish. Maybe you’ve never heard of these deep ocean creatures, also called “slime eels” for their eel-like appearance and ability to secrete huge amounts of opaque slime. Not exactly a mouth-watering description at first glance; yet over the past two years, a small-scale effort has developed in Southeast Alaska to harvest these fascinating uggos as a fledgling Alaska fishery. That’s unusual news in a state where most fishery resources are already developed. Annie Zak reports. (Associated Press)

State replaces nearly half of 6.2 million chinook salmon fry killed at Gig Harbor hatchery
The state will be able to replace nearly half of the 6.2 million chinook salmon fry that died earlier this month when a windstorm knocked out power at a Gig Harbor hatchery. Up to 2.75 million fall chinook fry will be taken from six other state hatcheries for release from Minter Creek and Tumwater Falls in May and June. “This won’t fully replace the salmon lost last week, but it will allow us to put a significant number of fish into these waters next year,” said Kelly Susewind, director of the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife. A power outage Dec. 14, coupled with the failure of Minter Creek Hatchery’s backup generator, led to the death of 4.2 million Deschutes fall chinook fry, 1.5 million Minter Creek fall chinook fry and 507,000 White River spring chinook fry. Stacia Glenn reports. (Tacoma News Tribune)

President Trump’s Retreat on the Environment Is Affecting Communities Across America 
In just two years, President Trump has unleashed a regulatory rollback, lobbied for and cheered on by industry, with little parallel in the past half-century. Mr. Trump enthusiastically promotes the changes as creating jobs, freeing business from the shackles of government and helping the economy grow. The trade-offs, while often out of public view, are real — frighteningly so, for some people — imperiling progress in cleaning up the air we breathe and the water we drink, and in some cases upending the very relationship with the environment around us. Since Mr. Trump took office, his approach on the environment has been to neutralize the most rigorous Obama-era restrictions, nearly 80 of which have been blocked, delayed or targeted for repeal, according to an analysis of data by The New York Times. (NY Times)

Climate change: Huge costs of warming impacts in 2018 
Extreme weather events linked to climate change cost thousands of lives and caused huge damage throughout the world in 2018, say Christian Aid. The charity's report identified ten events that cost more than $1bn each, with four costing more than $7bn each. Scientists have shown that the chances of heat waves in Europe were influenced directly by human-related warming. Other events, say the authors, are due to shifts in weather patterns, said to be a consequence of climate change. Matt McGrath reports. (BBC)

Salmon Coalition celebrates decade-long project
The North Olympic Salmon Coalition honored 10 years of work and partnerships made along the way in its 3 Crabs nearshore and estuarine restoration project at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the estuary off 3 Crabs Road earlier this month.... This restoration project is one of many NOSC has implemented in areas throughout the Olympic Peninsula. It was made possible by 29 stakeholders and supporters involved in the project. Erin Hawkins reports. (Peninsula Daily News)

Murray Morgan’s historic ‘Puget’s Sound’ gets an update
Murray Morgan is best remembered around Seattle as the author of “Skid Road,” the lively history of the city’s early decades that was first published back in the 1950s. But Morgan wrote plenty of other books, including a handful of additional titles about local history. New editions of some of Morgan’s most popular titles have just been released, including “Puget’s Sound,” his 1979 history of Tacoma and South Puget Sound. Michael Sullivan was tapped by University of Washington Press to write a new introduction to “Puget’s Sound.” Feliks Banel reports. (MyNorthwest)


Now, your tug weather--West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  213 AM PST Thu Dec 27 2018
TODAY  NW wind to 10 kt in the morning becoming light. Wind  waves 1 ft or less in the morning becoming less than 1 ft. W  swell 9 ft at 12 seconds. A slight chance of showers. 
TONIGHT  SE wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell  9 ft at 13 seconds. A chance of rain in the evening then rain  likely after midnight.


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