1/30 Italian arum, Navy hull scraping, BC pipes, Google AI tracking, Trump's bird kills, Trump's water rule, Pt Angeles clean up, Oly oysters, Miller Peninsula, no plastic

Italian arum [WA State NWCB]

Italian Arum Arum italicum
Italian arum is a nonnative perennial that was originally introduced as an ornamental plant. It has now naturalized in a number of counties in Western Washington and appears to be spreading more rapidly as additional infestations are being discovered. Due to it establishing in riparian areas and other habitats, its toxicity, and being very difficult to control once established, it is a Class C noxious weed to raise awareness and promote its control. Leaves emerge in the fall to late winter and die back in the summer. Leaf blades are arrowhead-shaped, green and may have cream, silver-gray or other colored veins and markings. Leaves on young plants may be more oval in shape. (WA State Noxious Weed Control Board)

Navy settles lawsuit, won't scrape ship hulls in Puget Sound
The U.S. Navy on Wednesday agreed to a 10-year moratorium on scraping the hulls of decommissioned vessels in Puget Sound. The deal, filed in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, settles a lawsuit filed by the Suquamish Tribe and two environmental groups, Washington Environmental Council and Puget Soundkeeper Alliance. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson joined the lawsuit. In the settlement agreement, the Navy said it would not conduct further hull cleaning in Sinclair Inlet except to the extent it is required for hull integrity tests or to prepare the vessel to be put in dry-dock. It agreed the preferred method for cleaning vessel hulls is to do so in dry-dock where the pollution can be contained. (Associated Press)

B.C. Premier says court rulings on pipelines should be respected
Premier John Horgan has linked the battles over two major pipeline projects through British Columbia, saying once the legal fight is over, court decisions should be respected. Speaking at a news conference Wednesday in Prince George, Horgan said he accepts that the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion has been approved by the courts after the province's recent defeat at the Supreme Court of Canada. In the case of Coastal GasLink's plans for a natural gas pipeline through northern B.C., he says he thinks hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en nation will come to the same realization on that project. (Canadian Press)

Google’s new AI model ‘listens’ to killer whales to help protect the species
Google‘s AI team has developed a new model to protect the endangered species of killer whales known as orcas in the Salish Sea. According to the Center for Whale Research, there are only 73 Southern Resident orcas — a subspecies of the killer whale — left in the world. So Google has teamed up with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to monitor their condition and alert experts in the event of sickness or accidents across 12 locations. Google‘s team trained its AI model using 1,800 hours of underwater audio and 68,000 labels that identified the origin of the sound. When the model “hears” sound of a whale, it displays its location on Rainforest Connection, an acoustic monitoring system for animals. Ivan Mehta reports. (The Next Web)

Trump Administration Moves to Ease Rules Against Killing Birds
The Trump administration will move as early as Thursday to weaken a century-old law protecting migratory birds by dropping the threat of punishment to oil and gas companies, construction crews and other organizations that kill birds “incidentally” in the course of their operations. The proposed regulation, if finalized, would cement a legal opinion that the Department of Interior issued in 2017. The agency’s top lawyer argued that previous administrations had interpreted the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 too broadly, and that only actions explicitly intended to kill birds should be forbidden under the federal law. The death of a bird from an oil slick, the blade of a wind turbine or the spraying of illegal pesticides would no longer trigger penalties. Lisa Friedman reports. (BY Times)

Trump’s new water rule: What it means for mines and pollution
Less federal oversight often means more local jobs. But it could also mean more water pollution. Whether that’s progress may depend on whether you live upstream or downstream from a project. Patrik Jonsson reports. (Christian Science Monitor)

Port Angeles Harbor cleanup discussed
Sediment cleanup in west Port Angeles Harbor will cost $34.4 million and take six years to complete under a proposal shared during an open house. State Department of Ecology officials presented recommended alternatives contained in a 941-page remedial investigation/feasibility study for the long-planned cleanup of toxic materials during a two-hour open house at Olympic Medical Center on Tuesday. The recommended alternatives for the three sediment management areas — or cleanup sites — would be a combination of dredging and capping and enhanced monitored natural recovery of the seafloor. Rob Ollikainen reports. (Peninsula Daily News)

Native oysters make comeback, thrive again in Puget Sound
After more than a century of overharvesting and industrial pollution, the Pacific Northwest's only native oyster is making a comeback in Washington's Puget Sound. The tiny, but resilient, Olympia oyster, or "Oly," is becoming a delicacy again at seafood restaurants after almost being wiped out from 95 percent of its habitat along 2,500 miles of estuary shoreline...A 25-year restoration plan is attempting to bring back some of the dense, foot-deep oyster beds that once thrived over about 10,000 acres along the inlet bays of Puget Sound. Oyster bed ecosystems filter algae from seawater and provide habitat for numerous sea creatures...The Puget Sound Restoration Fund set a goal by 2020 to restore 100 acres of dense oyster bed habitat, and it has restored 84 acres so far. Jean Lotus reports. (UPI)

State resurrects Miller Peninsula plans
A proposal to create a destination park on Miller Peninsula is back on the planning table. Staff with the Washington State Parks system are moving forward with a master plan to develop a state park on more than 2,800 acres on the peninsula between Sequim and the Clallam/Jefferson county boundary. In 2005, the Washington State Parks system began a six-year project to establish one of Washington’s next destination state parks, shelved those plans with a lack of secure funding. Michael Dashiell reports. (Peninsula Daily News)

Scientists Managed to Find Marine Animals that Weren’t Contaminated by Plastic
Whales, seabirds, turtles, crabs, and worms—all kinds of marine animals are afflicted with plastic pollution. But seals living in the eastern Canadian Arctic seem to have so far escaped this modern plight. When scientists examined the stomach contents of the Arctic’s ringed, bearded, and harbor seals, they found krill, fish, kelp, roundworms, and even rocks. But not plastic.  Richa Malhotra reports. (Hakai Magazine)


Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  237 AM PST Thu Jan 30 2020   
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT 
GALE WATCH IN EFFECT FROM FRIDAY MORNING THROUGH LATE FRIDAY  NIGHT   
TODAY  E wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell  15 ft at 16 seconds subsiding to 13 ft at 15 seconds in the  afternoon. A slight chance of rain in the morning then rain in  the afternoon. 
TONIGHT  S wind 20 to 30 kt becoming SW 5 to 15 kt after  midnight. Wind waves 3 to 5 ft subsiding to 2 ft or less after  midnight. W swell 12 ft at 13 seconds. Rain in the evening then  rain likely after midnight.



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