2/17 Seadragon, BC population, stalled ships, BC LNG, eelgrass restoration, Alana Quntasket, Sultan steelhead, Russian quake

Weedy seadragon [Birch Aquarium/AP]

Rare Weedy Seadragons Hatch At California Aquarium
After years of trying, a Southern California aquarium has two very tiny — and very rare — bundles of joy. Two weedy seadragons recently hatched at Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. The delicate creatures resemble bits of seaweed and are distant cousins of the seahorse. And they're notoriously difficult to breed. Jordan Pacale reports. (NPR)

B.C.’s population grew by 70,000 last year
The population of B.C. continues to grow and it’s the city of Surrey leading the way. B.C.’s population rose by more than 70,000 people last year, hitting 5,071,336 as of July 1, 2019 according to B.C. Statistics’ 2019 population estimates. This is an increase of 1.7 per cent over 2018. Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum said he wasn’t surprised to see that B.C. Stats had pegged growth at 2.9 per cent in his city, which was the largest hike in the number of residents year over year of any single B.C. community, at 16,382 people. Susan Lazaruk reports. (Vancouver Sun)

More than 60 shipping vessels stalled off B.C. coast due to rail blockades
At least 66 shipping vessels are stalled in British Columbia's waters, according to the maritime shipping industry, as rail blockades continue in support of the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs' opposition to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern B.C. Robert Lewis-Manning, president of the Chamber of Shipping of B.C., says Canadians will eventually notice consequences from the backlog...The vessels move commodities like consumer goods, food and raw materials between Canada and international destinations. (CBC)

Who is behind solidarity action for Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs?
A grassroots campaign organized on social media, not large non-governmental organizations, is behind B.C. demonstrations in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, say people on the front lines. This week, demonstrators blockaded the Port of Vancouver, the B.C. legislature and a CP Rail yard. They occupied Attorney General David Eby’s constituency office, shut down major intersections and a bridge in Vancouver, and picketed B.C. government buildings. Similar actions are happening across Canada in response to the arrests of demonstrators and a standoff with RCMP at a Wet’suwet’en camp in northern B.C. over Coastal GasLink’s routing of a natural gas pipeline though traditional territory. Front line activists say participants have joined because of grassroots organizing that relies on social media, not large non-governmental organizations. Nick Eagland reports. (Vancouver Sun)

Why Coastal GasLink says it rejected a pipeline route endorsed by Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs
As rallies spring up across Canada to support Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs fighting the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern B.C., an increasing number of people are wondering: Why doesn't the company use an alternate route to avoid opposition? Former NDP MP Nathan Cullen raised the idea several times when he was still an elected representative for the region. More recently, Green Party MP Paul Manly returned from a January visit to the region with the idea — one he said came from the hereditary chiefs themselves. "The Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs provided alternative routes to Coastal GasLink that would have been acceptable to them as a pipeline corridor," he said in a statement last month. "Coastal GasLink decided that it did not want to take those acceptable options and instead insisted on a route that drives the pipeline through ecologically pristine and culturally important areas." Andrew Kurjata reports. (CBC)

Wet'suwet'en camps occupied, Coastal GasLink workers move through: First Nation
Pipeline opponents who support the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs say they have returned to camps along a road leading to a work site outside Houston, B.C. Jen Wickham, a member of the First Nation's Gidimt'en clan, says they went back to the camps where 28 people were arrested when the RCMP enforced an injunction this month. She says those at the camps are not blocking Coastal GasLink workers from using the road or accessing the work site, and workers have been freely moving through. (Canadian Press)

State proposes eelgrass restoration project in Westcott Bay
(2/13/20-SAN JUAN ISLAND) The Washington State Department of Natural Resources Aquatic Resources Division applied with the Washington Department of Ecology to perform a project to restore eelgrass beds at Westcott Bay and other locations throughout Puget Sound. (San Juan Journal)

Alana Quintasket brings new voice to Swinomish Senate
Alana Quintasket became interested in government and politics at a young age. At 10, her aunt and grandmother — at the time both Swinomish Indian Tribal Community senators — took her to watch the tribe’s annual meeting and general elections. Her aunt, Lona Wilbur, took Quintasket to the state Democratic Party headquarters in Seattle. And when she was 16, Quintasket attended the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians conference with Swinomish Chairman Brian Cladoosby. The 27-year-old is now the newest member of the Swinomish Tribal Senate, the governing body of the tribe. Elections were held Feb. 9. Jacqueline Allison reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

Despite vanishing steelhead, state won’t delay fishing season
A count of wild winter steelhead on the Sultan River came in at an all-time low in 2018. State biologists counted just 28 of the fish, considered by the federal government to be a threatened species. County scientists thought they’d found a simple way to help the trout recover on this key tributary. The state could delay the summer fishing season on the Skykomish a few weeks, until the majority of the fish are done spawning and off to the ocean, out of anglers’ reach. But the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said fishing doesn’t make a large enough impact on the fish to delay the season. Julia-Grace Sanders reports. (Everett Herald)

Russian quake causes false alarm on Washington coast 
At 3 a.m. Thursday morning, Grays Harbor County Emergency Management was notified of a 3.0 magnitude earthquake 34 miles north of Aberdeen and 35 miles deep underground. But a little while later, the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network “cancelled” the notification. The waves from a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that occurred in the Kuril Islands of Russia were transmitted through the earth’s crust and that “fooled a sensor off the coast of Washington,” according to the Seismic Network. Thorin Sprandel reports. (Aberdeen Daily News)


Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  246 AM PST Mon Feb 17 2020   
TODAY  NW wind to 10 kt becoming 5 to 15 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 8 ft at 14 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 5 to 15 kt becoming E after midnight. Wind  waves 2 ft or less. W swell 7 ft at 14 seconds.



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