2/28 Clingfish, salmon returns, orca protection, Ancient Forest Park, clam farming, EPA enforcement, samurai wasp, HI climate change

Northern clingfish [CalPhoto/UCBerkeley]

Northern clingfish Gobiesox maeandricus
Large adhesive disk beneath body. Tadpole shape from above or below.... Common in tide pools or in rocky areas; clings to underside of rocks or to kelp. Feeds on limpets and other mollusks, amphipods, isopods and mysids. In late winter to early spring, female attaches concentric rings of yellow eggs to undersides of rock. Male guards egg mass. Southeastern Alaska to southern California. (Marine Wildlife of Puget Sound, the San Juans, and the Strait of Georgia)

Most Washington state salmon returns predicted to be worse than last year, estimates show
A lean year for orcas and fishermen alike is expected, with poor salmon returns forecast for many species all over the state. Fisheries professionals are working to set fishing seasons on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border for the coming year. So far the news is grim, with salmon forecast to return at just fractions of 10-year averages. For the southern residents, it will be another tough year ahead, with even fewer fish forecast this year than last in many of the important rivers the whales rely on in their seasonal migratory rounds. Below-average returns are predicted from the Fraser to the Columbia, as well as smaller body sizes for most species, according to Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Returns of spring chinook to the Columbia are predicted to be down 14 percent from last year, and at just half the 10-year average. These fish return mostly to hatcheries, but also to some spawning areas above Bonneville dam, and are a mainstay for orcas and fishermen alike. Those fish are particularly important to endangered southern-resident killer whales because of their size, fat content and seasonal timing. Upriver bright and fall chinook returns to the Columbia are also at about half the 10-year average return. The news isn’t better in Puget Sound. Only 29,800 wild chinook are predicted to come back. Protecting those fragile runs will necessitate reductions in fishing of hatchery fish to reduce the unintentional killing of wild chinook. Lynda Mapes reports. (Seattle Times)

Orca groups call for immediate action to save Southern Residents
On Tuesday, the group sent a letter to government officials in Washington and British Columbia identifying their five key actions to help save the Southern Resident orcas. The letter calls for “bigger and bolder” actions to give the whales a “real chance at recovery.”... The actions include funding for international salmon habitat restoration projects, breaching the four Lower Snake River dams, replacing and retrofitting floodgates along the Fraser River in British Columbia, cleaning up known contamination hotspots in Puget Sound and the Fraser River delta, and allocating a fisheries quota for the Southern Residents on the West Coast. While some of the actions have been proposed during orca recovery efforts, others have not been seriously addressed. The organizations say their five actions are “big-ticket, science-based, and are essential for moving forward.” (KING)

B.C. Parks seeks public comment over plans to protect centuries-old Ancient Forest
The province is seeking British Columbians' help to to put together new management plan to protect the only inland temperate rainforest in the world: the Ancient Forest.The Ancient Forest Park, or Chun T'oh Wudujut in the local Lheidli language, is located 120 kilometres east of Prince George. A portion of the area, full of giant trees that have stood for centuries, is in a protected area already.... B.C. Parks is working on a plan to protect it because of both the forest's ecological value and importance to First Nations. The management plan is still in the initial stages and is open to public comment until the end of March. Clare Hennig · CBC

Indigenous clam farming technology is as old as Egyptian pyramids
Before the ancient Egyptians built the last of the pyramids, indigenous people along the coast of B.C. were also engineering and building stone structures that would last for thousands of years, a new study shows. Clam gardens are undersea walls built to create terraces on the beach at just the right water level to create the ideal habitat for shellfish such as clams. The technology allows far more shellfish to be produced and harvested along a given stretch of coastline, especially when combined with other traditional management techniques, such as removal of larger clams. Now, Canadian researchers have confirmed that the technology, which is still used along the B.C. coast today, is extremely ancient. Emily Chung reports. (CBC)

Is the EPA 'Soft on Environmental Violators'? The Data Suggests Yes; the Agency Says No
Several independent reports agree: Many measures of the Environmental Protection Agency's policing of polluters hit historic lows last year, including the number of inspections the agency conducted, the number of civil cases it opened and concluded, the value of pollution controls it required of companies that broke the law, and the value of penalties it imposed on lawbreakers. The EPA's own annual report of its performance shows these trends. At a hearing on Tuesday, however, an enforcement official from the EPA argued that these numbers aren't important. She said she's working on alternative measures that will better reflect what her office does to ensure mines, factories, and pipelines follow America's environmental laws. Francie Diep reports. (Pacific Standard)

Code of the samurai wasp: Destroy invasive stink bugs
Its name sounds dangerous — the samurai wasp — but the tiny invasive parasite's appearance in Canada for the first time may not actually be a bad thing. The wasp lays its eggs inside the eggs of another invasive insect, the brown marmorated stink bug, killing the embryo. For its part, the stink bug's arrival in Canada in recent years is definitely a bad thing — it dines on tree fruits, hazelnuts and berries, and can have devastating effects for farmers. Rafferty Baker reports. (CBC)

Key to coping with climate change lies in Hawaii’s past, study finds
As climate change promises to alter our world in the coming decades, a new study suggests that Hawaii would be wise to look to traditional Native Hawaiian agriculture to help cope with an uncertain future. In a scientific paper by researchers from Kamehameha Schools, the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the U.S. Geological Survey, indigenous agriculture was found to have the potential to play a major role in feeding Hawaii in the years to come. It turns out traditional agriculture is resilient and capable of remaining viable even under the most severe future climate scenarios, according to the study to be published next month in the journal Nature Sustainability. Timothy Hurley reports. (Star Advertiser)


Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  233 AM PST Thu Feb 28 2019   
TODAY  S wind 5 to 15 kt becoming E in the afternoon. Wind  waves 2 ft or less. W swell 6 ft at 17 seconds. A chance of  showers in the morning then a slight chance of showers in the  afternoon. 
TONIGHT  E wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell  6 ft at 15 seconds.



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