6/6 Slipper sea cucumber, fish virus, microplastics, Eloise Kailin, Roberts Bank, BC pipe, dry cleaning

Slipper sea cucumber [Dave Cowles/Walla Walla U]

Slipper sea cucumber Psolus chitonoides
Also known as the armoured sea cucumber, the creeping armoured sea cucumber or the creeping pedal sea cucumber. A species of sea cucumber in the family Psolidae. It is found in shallow water on the western coast of North America. The species name means "resembling a chiton." It has the shape of a short cucumber sliced lengthwise [and] the side with the tube feet is almost perfectly flat. It clings tightly to rock and is essentially sedentary... When the bright red oral tentacles are extended, it is a glorious sight. (Wikipedia, Seashore life of Puget Sound, the Strait of Georgia, and the San Juan Archipelago)

DFO to begin testing for harmful virus at B.C. fish farms
Testing for strains of a virus that is harmful to farmed Atlantic salmon in Norway will soon begin at B.C. fish farm operations, the federal fisheries minister announced Tuesday. Jonathan Wilkinson said screening for Icelandic and Norwegian strains of piscine orthoreovirus, or PRV, at B.C. aquaculture sites is part of a proposed risk-management policy that aims to protect wild salmon and the health of farmed fish. Environmental, industry and Indigenous groups have 60 days to provide feedback during a consultation process before the government announces an enhanced federal aquaculture policy within four to six months, he said. (Canadian Press)

Average Americans eat, inhale thousands of tiny plastic pieces every year, study says
Plastics — omnipresent in modern life — are falling from the air, circulating in the seas and turning up in the soil. And new research estimates that tens of thousands of the little particles, often smaller than the eye can see, find their way inside our bodies each year. The study estimates that adults consume and inhale at least 98,000 of the particles each year, based on a review of previous research about microplastic intake from things like seafood, honey, bottled water and beer. Published Wednesday in the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology, the research likely accounts for a fraction of what Americans actually inhale or ingest. Evan Bush reports. (Seattle Times) See also: Study sheds light on human consumption of microplastics  Michelle Ghoussoub reports. (CBC)

Numerous battles of Peninsula environmentalist remembered
Retired Dr. Eloise Kailin, a Sequim environmentalist whose activism stretched beyond her most recent fight — a successful battle against fluoridation of Port Angeles drinking water — died Saturday of age-related causes at her Sequim-area home, her son, Harvey Kailin, said Wednesday. The 1987 Clallam County Community Service Award winner, an allergist-immunologist who befriended Rachel Carson during the fight against DDT, was 100. One of the few women, if not the only one, in her 1943 medical school class, Kailin led the fight against a nuclear power plant on what is now Miller Peninsula State Park in Sequim, fought successfully to upgrade sewage treatment in Sequim, co-founded the Olympic Environmental Council and was the face of the environmental group Protect the Peninsula’s Future. Paul Gottlieb reports. (Peninsula Daily News)

Field Studies Continue for Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority is continuing field studies in June 2019 as part of ongoing environmental and technical work for the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project. Since 2011, the Port Authority has been conducting field studies at Roberts Bank and the surrounding areas that build on previous scientific work as well as address existing information gaps. According to the Port, the purpose of these studies is to determine the physical conditions (e.g., temperature and salinity) influencing biofilm presence and distribution at Roberts Bank. The Roberts Bank study area is located in the upper and mid intertidal zones north of the Roberts Bank causeway.... Recently, Mercator International – using forecasts for overall container volumes provided by Ocean Shipping Consultants – released the key findings and conclusions about ship numbers travelling through the Salish Sea and serving Pacific Northwest ports. (Dredging Today)

South Kitsap hatchery playing crucial role in saving endangered mollusk
A federal research lab in Manchester is ground zero for saving a species of abalone — a type of shellfish — that state scientists are fearful will go extinct without action. The pinto abalone — known for its colorful shell and culinary value — is the only abalone species native to Washington and has a presence in waters stretching from Baja California, Mexico to Alaska. Its plunge in population — 97 percent between 1992 and 2017 — was enough for the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife to list it as endangered on Friday. Isabella Breda reports. (Kitsap Sun)

Rival all-Alberta Indigenous coalition sets sights on Trans Mountain pipeline
Indigenous competition for the right to buy an equity stake in the Trans Mountain pipeline system is heating up, with an Alberta group announcing Wednesday it intends to assemble a province-wide coalition of supporters. Iron Coalition said it has formally invited 47 First Nations and about 60 Métis organizations in the province to sign up for the effort, which was endorsed by the Alberta-based Assembly of Treaty Chiefs last fall. The initiative puts it on a potential collision course with Project Reconciliation, a consortium inviting Indigenous participation from B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan in a $6.8-billion bid for a 51 per cent stake in the energy pipeline linking Edmonton and the West Coast. (Canadian Press)

Dry cleaning (and its toxic process) is on its way out
Hyen Sook Kang said she first started to worry about the chemicals used in her Wallingford dry cleaning business when a woman at her church got sick.... Kang learned the woman, who had also run a dry cleaning business for decades, had stomach cancer. At the same time, Kang was having her own health problems. She blames them on the chemical she and her husband used to clean clothes: perchloroethylene--or perc for short.... Perchloroethylene is associated with a number of health problems -- and, when spilled, it can leak through unsealed concrete and eventually into groundwater. That’s why King County has launched a program in effort to get all the dry cleaners in the county to switch to wet cleaning technology by 2025. Eilis O'Neill reports. (KUOW)


Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  236 AM PDT Thu Jun 6 2019   
TODAY  SW wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell  5 ft at 8 seconds. A chance of showers in the morning then  showers likely in the afternoon. 
TONIGHT  W wind 5 to 15 kt becoming SW to 10 kt after midnight.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 5 ft at 8 seconds. A chance of  showers.

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