6/24 Spider crab, heat wave, Roberts Bank, container ships, BC green crab, BC LNG, Big Bar salmon, golden-crowned kinglets, heronry, saving swans, Canadian bees

Spider crab

Spider crab Pugettia producta
Called spider crabs (also northern kelp crab) due to their long legs and small body although they have ten legs unlike spiders that only have eight legs. Coloring depends primarily on the type of food they’ve been eating and they are primarily nocturnal vegetarians (herbivores) whose favorite food is, no surprise, kelp! Thus if eating green-colored kelp they tend to be green. If eating red-colored kelp they tend to be red. Typically found in rocky intertidal areas, kelp beds and around structure such as pier pilings. In the fall the adults move to deeper water where they congregate, feed, and mate. Found to a depth of 240 feet. (Pier Fishing in California)

The Record Temperatures Enveloping The West Are Not Your Average Heat Wave
It might be tempting to shrug at the scorching weather across large swaths of the West. This just in: It gets hot in the summer. But this record-setting heat wave's remarkable power, size and unusually early appearance is giving meteorologists and climate experts yet more cause for concern about the routinization of extreme weather in an era of climate change. These sprawling, persistent high-pressure zones popularly called "heat domes" are relatively common in later summer months. This current system is different. Eric Westervelt reports. (NPR)

More info for the feds coming on Delta port expansion
The citizens’ group Against Port Expansion (APE) continues its push for the federal government to turn down the Port of Vancouver’s proposed Terminal 2 (T2) project at Roberts Bank. In a recent newsletter, APE stated it wanted to dispel several port-generated “myths” including the port’s assertion the proposed man-made island for the terminal would not impact the sensitive ecosystem because it would be built in deeper water, away from shores and habitats. APE said the reality, in fact, is that it will impact the ecosystem by altering tidal flows, water temperatures and salinity fluctuations, reducing the polyunsaturated fatty acids and Omega 3 in biofilm. APE also noted Environment Canada scientists stated the project’s impacts on biofilm, which is a critical food source for millions of shorebirds, “are anticipated to be high in magnitude, permanent, irreversible, and continuous”. Sandor Gyarmati repots. (Delta Optimist)

Record container traffic rumbles Whidbey Island locals as ships wait days to unload at crowded ports
They moved here for the quiet of this fjord on Puget Sound, usually so serene people sleep with their windows open, the better to hear the sounds of puffing whales. But today their homes shake with the pulsating thrum of generators, the air carries the stink of exhaust and the night sky is riven with lights, all from massive container ships, anchored just offshore. As many as four ships at a time have been moored and chugging around the clock here. One reason is yet another ripple effect from the pandemic, in the increased consumer spending on merchandise that is stressing ports across the West Coast. Lynda Mapes reports. (Seattle Times)

Invasive European Green Crab found in Ladysmith harbour
Glenn Irivine spends a lot of time out in the Ladysmith harbour, so he’s used to seeing invasive species. But Irvine was shocked when he found a European Green Crab in the northern end of Ladysmith’s harbour. Irivine’s wife Stephanie posted the find to Facebook telling people to be on the lookout for the crabs. The Irvines reported the find to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which Stephanie says set off a flurry of phone calls with the DFO. Cole Schisler reports. (Vancouver Island Free Daily)

BC Looks like an LNG Loser: Report 
Once touted as an economic powerhouse, the liquified natural gas industry is on the rocks, according to a worldwide survey of LNG terminals from the Global Energy Monitor, a non-profit research group responding to climate change. LNG terminals are among the largest capital projects attempted in modern industry, costing up to $30 billion per project. Gas is extracted from underground deposits, piped to LNG plants where it is compressed by cooling to liquid form, loaded onto ships and transported to other markets. Zoe Yunkers reports. (The Tyee)

Work at Big Bar slide site means Fraser River salmon should have better chance this year
On the two-year anniversary of the discovery of the massive Big Bar landslide on the Fraser River, officials say they are seeing some success in remediating the devastation caused to the river's native salmon. Most notably, the widening of the man-made "nature-like fishway" to give salmon a swimmable route past the slide is expected to increase the number of fish that make it to their spawning grounds. Karin Larsen reports. (CBC)

Golden-crowned kinglets in Puget Sound have seen a steep decline since 1968
The number of golden-crowned kinglets in the Puget Sound watershed has declined by more than 91% over a 50-year period since 1968, according to data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey. The data was reported by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, which tracks the information for the Puget Sound Partnership’s terrestrial bird indicator. The indicator was established to monitor the health of Puget Sound’s species and food webs. The findings come amid widespread bird declines across North America. Overall, bird numbers across the Continent dropped by almost 30% over the last half-century, a loss of more than three billion birds that biologists in the journal Science called “staggering.” Jeff Rice reports. (Puget Sound Institute)

Skagit Land Trust looking to add to March Point heronry
In the years since a local couple donated a forested 3.5 acres on March Point to the Skagit Land Trust in 1994 to protect a great blue heron nesting site, the trust's protective reach in the area has grown to 12.2 acres and the number of nests to more than 700.  The land trust now has an opportunity to add another 3.5 acres to the home of the large, primarily fish-eating birds. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

‘The Swans of Rotterdam’ video wins award
The three-minute video, ‘The Swans of Rotterdam’  by director Vincent Kruijt, was awarded first place during the virtual International Oil Spill Conference 2021.

Certain Canadian bee populations may not be declining at all, says SFU study
Some bee species in North America and Europe might not be dying out at all, a new study from Simon Fraser University claims. The research used a simulated data model to find how often bumblebees showed up in sites throughout the two continents in the period from 2000 to 2015. It found that, while there was an approximately five per cent overall reduction in the North American bee population during that time, some bee species stayed stable and some even increased. The new research is in contrast to years of studies that show consistent population declines across all species of bees due to the effects of climate change, pesticides, and other human activities. Akshay Kulkarni reports. (CBC)

Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  249 AM PDT Thu Jun 24 2021   
TODAY  NW wind to 10 kt rising to 5 to 15 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 3 ft at 8 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 5 to 15 kt easing to 10 kt after midnight. Wind  waves 2 ft or less. W swell 3 ft at 8 seconds.

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