6/21 Warbonnet, summer solstice, tanker ban, ship traffic, Snohomish R habitat, Pt Wells, new BC park, high tide tax, more rabbits, goat roundup

Mosshead warbonnet [Janna Nichols]

Mosshead warbonnet Chirolophis nugator
Uncommon prickleback. Hides in cracks and holes on rocky beaches and sub tidally 20-20 meters Aleutian Islands to southern California. Life history not well known. (Marine Wildlife of Puget Sound, the San Juans, and the Strait of Georgia)

9 things to know about the longest day of the year
Friday, June 21 will be the longest day of 2019 for anyone living north of the equator. If pagan rituals are your thing, this is probably a big moment for you. If not, the solstice is still pretty neat. Technically speaking, the summer solstice occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer, or 23.5 degrees north latitude. This will occur at exactly 11:54 am Eastern on Friday the 21st. Brian Resnick and Brad Plumer explain. (Vox)

Bill to ban oil tankers in northern B.C. waters passes in Senate
A bill restricting oil tankers in British Columbia's northern waters has narrowly passed the Senate.Bill C-48 bans tankers carrying more than 12,500 metric tonnes of oil from docking along B.C.'s north coast, an area that stretches from the northern tip of Vancouver Island to the Alaska border.It passed in a close 49-to-46 vote Thursday evening. (CBC)

Salish Sea Vessel Traffic Projections
Friends of the San Juans just released an updated Salish Sea Vessel Traffic Projections infographic that identifies an additional 2,044 ocean going vessels making 4,088 transits to and from ports in British Columbia and Washington State from 24 new or expanding proposals.... All these projects have one thing in common; increased air and noise pollution that could affect the Southern Resident orcas ability to communicate, socialize and successfully hunt for scarce prey. For more, go to Safe Shipping.

Scientists say Snohomish River salmon habitat needs $1.5 billion
Scientists working to restore salmon habitat around the Snohomish River Estuary estimate they need $1.5 billion to finish the work. Alison Morrow reports. (KING)

Judge gives Point Wells high-rise project another chance
A massive condo development proposed on Puget Sound has another shot at life. A judge has given a developer six more months to seek approval for approximately 3,000 condos at Point Wells, after Snohomish County denied the project last year. The land-use petition revisited a hearing examiner’s conclusion that BSRE Point Wells’ project could not be built, as proposed. On appeal, the Snohomish County Council upheld the examiner’s decision.... BSRE’s plans call for 46 buildings at Point Wells, an unincorporated area next to Woodway. Almost half of the proposed buildings would exceed 90 feet, with the tallest reaching 180 feet — roughly 17 stories. The surrounding neighborhoods consist almost entirely of single-family homes. Noah Haglund reports. (Everett Herald)

Group wants to turn remote swath of stunning coastal wilderness into B.C. Park
It's a spectacular 800-hectare piece of unspoiled wilderness nestled in the remote Princess Louisa Inlet on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast, and it's for sale. The B.C. Parks Foundation, a relatively new independent charity that works with B.C. Parks to improve the provincial park system, is trying to raise a total of $3 million to buy the land before a deadline at the end of August when the seller will consider other offers. They have already raised $2 million. If the foundation is successful, it hopes to bundle the land with an existing provincial park, private land set aside for conservation and Crown land to create an enormous new 9,000-hectare park surrounding the entire inlet. Rafferty Baker reports. (CBC)

Climate change will cost Washington $24 billion in ‘high tide tax,’ report says
A new study from a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group takes a look at the near-term costs of projected sea level rise due to climate change. Washington faces the highest cost on the West Coast for impacts to shorelines.   The study, "High Tide Tax," released Thursday by  the Center for Climate Integrity, is meant to be a registry of the bare minimum states will have to spend to defend themselves against sea level rise. The authors wanted to create a consistent measure that could be compared across all states. So, they looked at the cost of installing seawalls or bulkheads to protect infrastructure that would otherwise be inundated two decades from now. Bellamy Pailthorp reports. (KNKX) See also: Report: WA must spend $24B now to stave off climate-related flooding  A nationwide study claims coastal states would need to invest more than $400 billion. Locals applaud the effort, but say the math and the method aren’t quite right. Hannah Weinberger reports. (Crosscut)

What do people truly believe when it comes to climate change?
Chris Dunagan in Watching Our Water Ways writes: "Nationwide polls show that more and more people believe that humans are responsible for increasing greenhouse gases and thus altering our climate — including unusual changes in weather patterns, rising sea levels and disruptions in the oceanic food web.I keep waiting for public opinion to reach a critical mass, so that government officials feel compelled to take serious actions to get climate change under control..."

Seattle rabbits seem to be breeding like, well, rabbits
Little brown bunnies seem to be everywhere. People are seeing them in their gardens, in driveways, even in the streets. What gives? Kim Malcomb and Katherine Banwell report. (KUOW)

Lopez Island rabbits
Yesterday's critter profile about San Juan Island rabbits [San Juan Island Rabbit Tales] brought forth this impassioned response from a Lopez Island reader: "When I read the headline "Rabbits" this morning, I had hoped it would be about the terrific invasion of rabbits we have had on Lopez for years, but it proved to be an historical perspective of the rabbits on San Juan. Very interesting but not very consoling for us. These days San Juan does not have a large rabbit population like Lopez, since there are predators on that island including foxes. Here on Lopez, we seemed to have had some dieback late this winter. But they're reproducing again very rapidly due to their almost non-stop reproduction capacity. Also there are no predators for the rabbits on Lopez, except for eagles and owls. As well as their increased numbers, there is the damage they create from all their rabbit holes. Just look at the land in front of our post office for an example. Talk to any gardener here and they ering their hands over these Belgian Hares brought in a century ago to provide some protein for our hungry citizens. Those who live in the rural parts of Lopez regularly "dispatch" them but in the village this is not possible to do with guns or arrows. Could you feature another article where you describe the issue and offer solutions in "urban" parts of our islands where there are no major predators to rabbits?"

Olympic National Park officials plan more mountain goat roundups
The first round of goat wrangling in Olympic National Park has come to an end and 98 goats have been moved to the North Cascades. Monday marked the conclusion of the two-week capture and translocation process that moved 98 mountain goats from Olympic National Park to the North Cascades — including 11 kids that were released with their nannies — and removed 115 mountain goats from the park. Jesse Major reports. (Peninsula Daily News)


Now, your weekend tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  236 AM PDT Fri Jun 21 2019   
TODAY  Light wind becoming W 10 to 20 kt in the afternoon. Wind  waves less than 1 ft becoming 1 to 3 ft in the afternoon. W swell  6 ft at 9 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 10 to 20 kt easing to 10 kt after midnight.  Wind waves 1 to 3 ft subsiding to 1 ft or less after midnight. W  swell 5 ft at 8 seconds. 
SAT  W wind to 10 kt rising to 10 to 20 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 1 ft or less building to 1 to 3 ft in the afternoon. W  swell 5 ft at 7 seconds. 
SAT NIGHT  W wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell  5 ft at 7 seconds. 
SUN  W wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 5 ft  at 7 seconds.



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