12/13 Point No Point, Bellingham climate plan, Alaska climate, Lolita, orca grannies, Great Pacific Garbage

Point No Point

Point No Point
Point No Point is an outcropping of land on the northeast point of the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington. It was named by Wilkes because at close range it appeared to be less of a promontory than it appeared from a distance. The Indian name for the large sand spit was hahdskus, meaning "long nose." It was the location of the signing of the Point No Point Treaty and is the site of the Point No Point Light. (Wikipedia)

Bellingham looking for 100% renewable energy by 2035. Here’s the plan
Bellingham officials are getting ready to take their “moon shot” — an ambitious and controversial plan for the city to do its part to conserve energy and reduce pollution in the face of global climate change. It’s their version of the adage “think globally, act locally.” A volunteer Climate Action Task Force — composed of academics, activists and industry professionals — has been working for the past 16 months on recommendations for the City Council to consider. Task force members presented their findings at a council committee meeting Monday afternoon, giving an overview of what’s required for the city to achieve its goal of using 100% renewable energy in the next 10 to 15 years. Council members voted to create a permanent council Climate Action Committee and begin discussing the task force recommendations at their Jan. 13, 2020, meeting. Robert Mittendorf reports. (Bellingham Herald)

Alaska climate change: Facing catastrophe, this town can’t quit Big Oil
....On Alaska’s North Slope, a remote wilderness of astonishing vastness and variety, the cold Arctic landscape once seemed eternal. When her grandmother was a girl, Itta’s ancestors were nomads, roaming the mountains, rivers and frozen tundra in search of caribou and other game. Now, Itta lives in Nuiqsut (noo-IK-sut), a village of some 480 souls whose lives have been utterly transformed by oil. Oil drilling has brought great prosperity to Nuiqsut, but the town’s very foundations are imperiled by oil’s fundamental role in the global economy. Juliet Eilperin, Bonnie Jo Mount and John Muyskens report. (Washington Post)

Orca family of Miami Seaquarium’s Lolita on path to extinction as feds mull whale watch
Lolita’s Southern Resident killer whale family is on an extinction trajectory, setting off a bitter fight among orca advocates, naturalists, scientists and lawyers in the Salish Sea region. Antonio Fins reports. (Palm Beach Post)

News coverage: Killer whale grandmothers help their pods endure
Chris Dunagan writes in Watching Our Water Ways: "I was surprised to see the sudden surge of news coverage explaining the important role that orca grandmothers play in our Northwest resident pods. A new research paper adds statistical support to our understanding of why female orcas live long beyond their reproductive years. The new findings are certainly worthy of coverage — although I have never seen a news story about orca research snapped up all at once by the New York Times, Washington Post, Science magazine, National Geographic, London Daily Mail and South China Morning Post, as well as CNN, BBC and Seattle broadcasters. Most news outlets broke the story within hours of Monday’s publication in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/12/03/1903844116

Ship with 60 bags of plastic trash from Great Pacific Garbage patch docks in Vancouver
Sixty cubic metre bags filled with plastic trash ranging from toothbrushes to fishing nets were brought ashore in Vancouver Thursday from a nonprofit vessel collecting plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The trash is being collected as part of a larger initiative organized by the Ocean Cleanup, which originated in the Netherlands but uses B.C. as its base...The vessel has spent the past two months collecting garbage, using a U-shaped contraption that acts like an artificial coastline to collect debris. Micki Cowan reports. (CBC)



Now, your weekend tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  236 AM PST Fri Dec 13 2019   
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH SATURDAY MORNING   
TODAY  SW wind to 10 kt in the morning becoming light. Wind  waves 1 ft or less. W swell 14 ft at 16 seconds. Showers likely  and a slight chance of tstms. 
TONIGHT  NW wind to 10 kt becoming SW after midnight. Wind  waves 1 ft or less. W swell 12 ft at 15 seconds. A chance of  showers. 
SAT  SE wind to 10 kt in the morning becoming light. Wind waves  1 ft or less. W swell 9 ft at 14 seconds. A slight chance of  showers. 
SAT NIGHT  SE wind to 10 kt. Wind waves 1 ft or less. W swell  8 ft at 13 seconds. 
SUN  SE wind to 10 kt in the morning becoming light. Wind waves  1 ft or less. W swell 7 ft at 12 seconds.



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