3/1 Turkish towel, Inslee for Prez, salmon gene tests, salmon season talks, giant sunfish

Turkish towel [Jerry Kirkhart/WikiMedia]

Turkish towel Gigartina exasperata
Broad, thick blades covered with hundreds of tall, still outgrowths (papillae). Brick to purplish red; somewhat iridescent when wet. Discoid holdfast sometimes gives rise to multiple blades. Plant is perennial but dies back to just the holdfast in winter. Grows to 18 inches long; 5 to 10 inches wide. Found in lower intertidal zone of rocky or cobbly beaches; also grows sub tidally to 60-foot depth. A good source of carrageenan, a thickening agent. (Marine Wildlife of Puget Sound, the San Juans, and the Strait of Georgia)

Jay Inslee announces climate-focused 2020 presidential run. Does he stand a chance?
Gov. Jay Inslee entered the 2020 presidential race Friday, launching a longshot campaign with focused message that he’s the only candidate who would make defeating climate change the nation’s top priority. In a short video announcing his candidacy, Inslee repeats what has become his signature slogan in recent years: “We’re the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we’re the last that can do something about it.” Over images of fire-scorched landscapes and flooding, Inslee said the nation must rise to the challenge, portraying a clean-energy revolution as a potential win for the economy and the environment. Jim Brunner reports. (Seattle Times)

Secret lives of salmon: Groundbreaking genetic tests completed at sea
The science team aboard the Russian research vessel Kaganovsky has employed genetic analysis of West Coast salmon while at sea for the first time. Biologist Christoph Deeg has linked salmon caught in a scientific test fishery to salmon stocks in the Stikine and Skeena river systems, and Puget Sound. Fin clippings take about two days to process using the new technique, but the payoff is substantial for fisheries science, said Dick Beamish, organizer of an international salmon research expedition. “Using the same methodology popular for human ancestry tests, we do this by comparing the genetic fingerprint of each fish to a baseline comprising genetic characterizations of hundreds of populations from rivers around the Pacific Rim,” according to a mission update from scientists aboard the ship. Randy Shore reports. (Vancouver Sun) See also: How can we fix our salmon streams? Ask an eighth grade scientist  Hannah Weinberger reports. (Crosscut)

Orcas gain increasing clout during salmon-season discussions
Puget Sound’s endangered killer whales are becoming fully integrated into annual planning efforts that divide up the available salmon harvest among user groups — including sport, commercial and tribal fishers. The southern resident killer whales should be given priority for salmon over human fishers, according to a fishing policy adopted for 2019-2023 by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission. The new policy calls for “proper protection to SRKW from reduction to prey availability or from fishery vessel traffic …” The problem with allocating a specific number of salmon to the orcas is that the whales cannot tell us when or where they would like to take salmon for their own consumption. The result, now in the planning stages, is to limit or close fishing in areas where the orcas are most likely to forage during the fishing seasons. Chris Dunagan reports. (Watching Our Water Ways)

State collects feedback as regulators consider restrictions on salmon fishing 
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife has launched two months of public meetings as regulators decide how much salmon can be harvested from state waters. The process includes the first official statewide forecasts detailing how many salmon are expected to return in 2019. It’s not a great year for salmon returns. Once again, Chinook runs in Puget Sound and on the Columbia River are expected to be well below their 10-year average. The forecasts detail outlooks for Columbia, Puget Sound and coastal salmon runs.  The state’s so-called “North of Falcon” process is helping fisheries managers collect feedback on fishing restrictions aimed at protecting endangered species. Bellamy Pailthorp reports.(KNKX)

Scientists Shocked By Rare, Giant Sunfish Washed Up On California Beach
Stumbling upon a seven-foot-long sunfish while walking on a beach is already pretty surprising. But what researchers initially thought was a common type of sunfish turned out to be much rarer – a newly discovered species thought to make its home almost entirely in the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere. This was in Santa Barbara, Calif. — much further north than anyone expected to find it. Merrit Kennedy reports. (NPR)


Now, your weekend tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  234 AM PST Fri Mar 1 2019   
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY MORNING THROUGH  LATE SATURDAY NIGHT   
TODAY  E wind 10 to 20 kt becoming SE 5 to 15 kt in the  afternoon. Wind waves 1 to 3 ft. W swell 5 ft at 14 seconds. 
TONIGHT  NW wind to 10 kt becoming N 5 to 15 kt after midnight.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 5 ft at 13 seconds. 
SAT  E wind 15 to 25 kt becoming SE 20 to 25 kt in the  afternoon. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft. W swell 4 ft at 13 seconds. 
SAT NIGHT  E wind 15 to 25 kt. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft. W swell 4  ft at 14 seconds. 
SUN  E wind 15 to 25 kt. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft. W swell 5 ft at  14 seconds.



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