12/18 Rockfish, salmon grants, breeding clams, eelgrass, earthquake zone, Anacortes stormwater, dam poll, BC pipe, Trump's 15,413

Vermillion rockfish [California Sea Grant]

Vermillion rockfish Sebastes miniature
Vermilion rockfish s a species of rockfish also known by the common names vermilion seaperch, red snapper, red rock cod, and rasher. Vermilion rockfish can grow up to 76 cm (30 in) in length, and 6.8 kg (15 lbs) in weight. Maximum age is at least 60 years old.
Vermilion rockfish range from Zaikof Bay, Montague Island, Prince William Sound, Alaska, to San Benito Islands, Baja California. Adults are found at water depths from 6 to 436 m (20-1,440 ft) and are most common between 50 and 150 m (165-495 ft). Sub-adult and adult vermillion rockfish aggregate on high relief rocky bottoms.Occasionally caught off the Washington coast by commercial harvesters using otter-trawls and longline gear. Rarely caught by recreational harvesters in Puget Sound.(Wikipedia/WDFW)

Local salmon projects get multi-million boost from grants
The state Salmon Recovery Funding Board announced this week that it is awarding $26 million to projects throughout the state to help bring salmon back from the brink of extinction. The grants include $2 million for four projects in Skagit County, in areas from Marblemount to Mount Vernon. The largest, a $750,000 grant, will allow the Skagit River System Cooperative to complete the first phase of habitat restoration in the Barnaby Reach east of Rockport. The Barnaby Reach is a network of side channels, sloughs and wetlands left behind as the Skagit River changed its course over time, and an abandoned hatchery facility there has long blocked fish passage in the area. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

For sustenance and tradition, Puget Sound tribes and scientists join forces to breed millions of clams
After recent declines, a new breeding program could help safeguard the cockle's future as a food source for tribes like the Suquamish. Hannah Weinberger reports. (Crosscut)

Whatcom’s eelgrass hit hard by climate and development. How to help ‘ocean’s nursery’
Eelgrass has been dying around the Salish Sea for about the past 20 years, contributing to habitat loss for a plant that’s critical to coastal marine life in a variety of ways, including salmon fisheries...Researchers are unsure why the grasses are dying, but it is strongly suspected that rising ocean temperatures feed the bacteria that are killing eelgrass. Pollution, shoreline development and sea-level rise also are linked to declines in eelgrass. Casey Cook, director of the Marine Life Center at the Port of Bellingham, said eelgrass are the long green grasses that grow in shallow water. In some places, such as Padilla Bay in Skagit County, eelgrass forms huge meadows. Eelgrass can also be seen in the shallows at Marine Park south of Fairhaven, the Cherry Point Aquatic Reserve south of Birch Bay State Park and elsewhere along the Whatcom County coast...Eelgrass wasting disease was found at 16 sites that scientists monitored in the San Juan Islands, Padilla Bay, Hood Canal, South Puget Sound and Willapa Bay, according to research presented at a Seattle conference in 2018. Robert Mittendorf reports. (Bellingham Herald)

Puget Sound is an earthquake hot zone, according to new seismic update
Puget Sound has a 75 percent or greater chance of being struck by a damaging earthquake in the next 100 years, according to a new earthquake danger assessment by the U. S. Geological Survey. For a region hit by at least three fatal, brick-busting earthquakes in the last 70 years, that might come as little surprise. What the update released in late November does show is that Puget Sound is on par with California in the earthquake danger zone. Only western Nevada and a small area where Idaho, Montana and Wyoming meet share the red zone — the map’s highest level. Craig Sailor reports. (Tacoma News Tribune)

Anacortes resolves stormwater lawsuit
The city of Anacortes will improve its stormwater program as part of a settlement agreement it reached this month with Puget Soundkeeper Alliance....The Anacortes City Council voted unanimously Monday night to approve a consent decree...As part of the settlement, Anacortes agrees to pay $73,000 to cover Puget Soundkeeper’s lawyer fees and legal costs, and make changes to its stormwater program. Among the changes are a revision of the city’s annual Stormwater Management Program Plan; incorporation of low-impact development (LID) into the city’s development regulations and design standards update; training sessions on stormwater for city staff; and stormwater pollution and prevention education for Anacortes students. Jacqueline Allison reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

Washington Policy Center releases results of statewide poll on Snake River dams
Results of a statewide poll released on Tuesday shed light on what Washingtonians think about the lower Snake River dams and how much they really know. The Washington Policy Center, a public policy research organization, surveyed 500 Washingtonians in November for the results. One takeaway of the poll - some in Washington appear to have inaccurate or incomplete perceptions of the lower Snake River dams. WPC's polling results showed that 93 percent of Washingtonians surveyed didn't know how many dams were on the lower Snake River. Only 5 percent of those polled knew that salmon populations on the lower Snake River have been increasing in recent years. "The more Washingtonians know, the more they want to keep the Snake River dams," said Chris Cargill, Eastern Washington director at the Washington Policy Center...In the WPC poll, respondents were also asked if they would be willing to pay more for their electricity in order to remove the dams and help salmon. 33 percent said they would, and 60 percent said no. When respondents were asked if they would be willing to pay more for fish passage at the dams, 65 percent said yes, and 28 percent said no.  Carissa Lehmkuhl reports. (YakTriNews.com)

First Nations accuse Canada of altering internal reviews of marine spill risk reports on Trans Mountain
The Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish nations have accused Ottawa of altering internal government documents related to the risks of marine spills before once again approving the Trans Mountain expansion project.  Details of these allegations were presented in the Federal Court of Appeal this week where four First Nations groups are challenging the re-approval of the pipeline, arguing that consultations with their communities once again fell short of the standard required.,,Canada's lawyers, who started their submissions on Tuesday, said the allegations were "unfounded" and that "there's nothing nefarious going on" in relation to the internal documents called into question or the behaviour of government officials. They also objected to the characterization of the internal documents as peer reviews by government scientists. Canada described them as summary reviews used for the purpose of educating the consultation teams.  Chantelle Bellrichard reports. (CBC)

Fact Checker: President Trump has made 15,413 false or misleading claims over 1,055 days
In 2017, President Trump made nearly 1,999 false or misleading claims. In 2018, he added another 5,689, for a total of 7,688. Now, with a few weeks still left in 2019, the president already has more than doubled the total number of false or misleading claims in just a single year. As of Dec. 10, his 1,055th day in office, Trump had made 15,413 false or misleading claims, according to the Fact Checker’s database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement he has uttered. That’s an average of more than 32 claims a day since our last update 62 days ago. Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly report. (Washington Post)


Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  254 AM PST Wed Dec 18 2019   
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS EVENING   
TODAY  E wind 15 to 25 kt. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft. W swell 12 ft  at 14 seconds. Rain. 
TONIGHT  E wind 15 to 25 kt becoming SW 5 to 15 kt after  midnight. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft subsiding to 2 ft or less. W swell  10 ft at 12 seconds. Rain.



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