4/18 Skate, BC pipe, salmon fishing, Oyster Dome, shellfish closures, Adventuress, BC orcas, Green New Deal, Green-Duwamish R.

Big skate [Marine Life Sanctuary Society]

Big state Raja binoculata
Big skate range from the Bering Sea and southeast Alaska to central Baja, California. They occur in coastal bays, estuaries, and over the continental shelf, usually on sandy or muddy bottoms, but occasionally on low strands of kelp. They feed on crustaceans and sculpins and other slow-moving fishes. Big skates can grow up to 2.4 m (8 ft), but rarely over 1.8 m (6 ft), in length, and 91 kg (200 lbs) in weight. Maximum age is 26 years old. (WDFW; Marine Life of Puget Sound, the San Juans, and the Strait of Georgia)

Federal government extends deadline to make Trans Mountain decision to June 18
The federal government is delaying a decision on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project to June 18. Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi says the extended deadline will give the government more time to complete its consultations with Indigenous groups. The National Energy Board endorsed an expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline on Feb. 22, starting the clock on a 90-day period for Ottawa to make a decision. That would have set the previous deadline for a decision at May 23.  Construction of the pipeline expansion was put on hold last year after the Federal Court of Appeal ruled the board failed to consider marine impacts and the government needed to do more Indigenous consultation. (Canadian Press)

Salmon Fisheries Set As Managers Start Process To Protect Endangered Orcas
The organization that sets limits for commercial, recreational and tribal salmon fisheries in the Pacific Northwest wrapped up their work Tuesday at a meeting in Northern California. The Pacific Fisheries Management Council bases the limits on salmon run projections up and down the coast. While the chinook salmon catch will be slightly lower than last year, the coho fishery in Washington and northern Oregon will be much improved. Recreational anglers would benefit most from this. In addition, the council is starting work on plans to rebuild five Northwest fish runs considered to be “overfished,” a technical designation for when the three-year average of salmon returning to a river to spawn falls below a threshold set by fishery managers.... The overfished runs include fall Chinook from the Klamath and Sacramento rivers and coho from the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Snohomish and Queets rivers. Over the next few months, the council will determine if fishing limits should be adjusted next year to help increase the number of salmon. Jes Burns reports. (OPB) See also: Federal chinook salmon fishing restrictions get mixed reviews Rafferty Baker reports. (CBC)

Connelly: Preserving a pearl of a view -- Oyster Dome on Blanchard Mountain is saved
Views from Oyster Dome down to the Samish River, Skagit Valley and out over the San Juan Islands are to die for, once you have puffed up the trail that takes off just south of the Oyster Bar on Chuckanut Drive. Our Washington Legislature, at times known for its quiet misdeeds, is quietly doing a very good deed -- finalizing creation of a 1,600-acre natural area on Blanchard Mountain, at the south end of the Chuckanut Range where mountains reach tidewater. Two pieces of legislation, Senate Bill 5975 and House Bill 2119, will give Skagit County needed flexibility to distribute state land trust revenue to ensure the nearby Burlington-Edison School District is made whole. "It's the final piece of the land transfer process to preserve Blanchard Mountain for recreation and conservation," State Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz wrote Tuesday on her Facebook page. Joel Connelly reports. (SeattlePI.Com)

Henderson Inlet shellfish harvest threatened by pollution, state says
Henderson Inlet north of Olympia is one of 18 commercial shellfish harvest areas in Washington threaten by pollution, according to the state’s Department of Health’s annual water quality evaluation. The area currently meets water quality standards but could face restrictions in the future due to bacterial pollution, according to the state. Other areas now listed as threatened include Annas Bay, Hood Canal near Union, North Bay, Oakland Bay and Pickering Passage in Mason County, and Poverty Bay near Dash Point, Henderson Bay, Vaughn Bay and West Key Peninsula in Dutcher Cove in Pierce County. The evaluation found part of Port Susan in Snohomish County does not meet public health standards and harvesting will be restricted there. (Olympian)

Adventuress launches with new deck 
As the scaffolding surrounding the Schooner Adventuress came down on the morning of April 12, Ken Greff, project co-manager of the Adventuress’ renovations, was effusive in his praise for Haven Boatworks. “They met the launch date they predicted six months ago,” Greff said. “We actually wondered whether it would be possible to do it all in six months, but Haven Boatworks really stepped up to the plate.” Haven Boatworks, located in the Port of Port Townsend’s Boat Haven, has spent the past 10 winters renovating the Schooner Adventuress, and this past winter saw the completion of what Greff called the ship’s “capstone” deck project. “It’s not just another spring launch for this ship,” Greff said. “Completion of this capstone project, which replaced the entire deck of Adventuress, represents a momentous occasion in maritime heritage.”... With the Schooner Adventuress readying to embark on its ongoing mission as “Puget Sound’s environmental tall ship” for the foreseeable future, Greff estimated the vessel hadn’t been in such good shape since it was first launched in 1913.  Kirk Boxleitner reports. (Port Townsend Leader)

Mama orca and sons spotted in Vancouver harbour, frequently in area hunting for seals 
The pod of orcas spotted swimming under a Vancouver bridge on Tuesday, deep in the inner harbour, are no strangers to the area. The family of transient killer whales, a mother and her three grown sons, came in close to the city looking for a meal of seals — something scientists say is becoming more common as the seal population steadies.... This particular family of whales are well-known to scientists on the West Coast.... The female, known as T-101, has been spotted off B.C.'s coast stretching back to 1973. The offspring she travels with are 35, 26 and 21 years old. Clare Hennig reports. (CBC)

Opinion | A Case for a Market-Driven Green New Deal
The best thing to come from the Senate’s floor debate on the Green New Deal late last month may have been these eminently sane remarks, calling on lawmakers of both parties to “move together” in order “to lower emissions, to address the reality of climate change, recognizing that we’ve got an economy we need to keep strong, that we have vulnerable people we need to protect, that we have an environment that we all care about — Republicans and Democrats.” Who said it? A Republican, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who leads the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “My hope is we get beyond the high-fired rhetoric to practical, pragmatic, bipartisan solutions,” she said on the chamber floor. The path is there, if our leaders will only choose to take it. In 2011, Reinventing Fire, an energy study by Rocky Mountain Institute, where we work, showed how a business-led transition could triple energy efficiency, quintuple renewables and sustain an American economy 2.6 times larger in 2050 than it was in 2010 with no oil, coal or nuclear energy, and one-third less natural gas. The net cost was $5 trillion less than business-as-usual — or even more valuable if a price was put on carbon emissions. Amory B. Lovins and Rushad R. Nanavatty of Rocky Mountain Institute write. (NY Times)

Puget Sound river ranked one of country’s most endangered rivers
A river conservation group named the Green-Duwamish River one of the country's most endangered rivers of the year, coming in at No. 4 in a ranking released Tuesday. Each year, the group American Rivers ranks "America's Most Endangered Rivers." This year, the Gila River in New Mexico topped the list, followed by the Hudson River in New York and the Upper Mississippi River. The Green-Duwamish was last included on the list in 2016. American Rivers ranked it as the fourth most threatened river in the country this year, "citing the grave threat that outdated flood management poses to chinook salmon and river health." Simone Del Rosario reports. (KCPQ)


Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  245 AM PDT Thu Apr 18 2019   
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM NOON PDT TODAY THROUGH  THIS EVENING   
TODAY  E wind 5 to 15 kt becoming SE 15 to 25 kt in the  afternoon. Wind waves 2 ft or less building to 2 to 4 ft in the  afternoon. W swell 6 ft at 13 seconds. Rain. 
TONIGHT  SW wind 15 to 25 kt easing to 10 kt after midnight.  Wind waves 2 to 4 ft subsiding to 1 ft or less after midnight. W  swell 7 ft at 12 seconds building to 9 ft at 13 seconds after  midnight. Rain.



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