10/4 Angel wings, Navy sonar, outer coast killer whales, North Van wastewater, Snake and Columbia water, marine heat wave, seafood shortage, Orange Co spill, floating garbage bins, 'green' Vancouver

Angel Wings

Angel Wings Pleurocybella porrigens
Pleurocybella porrigens is a small, thin, white-fleshed fungus that decomposes wood. This mushroom associated with conifers (particularly Tsuga, the hemlocks), and more specifically, a white-rot fungus (in general, these digest lignin in wood and leave cellulose behind, though they can also digest both - but lignin is less abundant, so it can give the appearance of leaving cellulose behind). In older field guides, this species — which looks a lot like a small oyster mushroom — is listed as edible and good. In more recent guides, this mushroom is accompanied by the warning: not recommended for eating. And according to many credible sources today, the Angel Wing is considered poisonous. (Ultimate Mushroom)

Navy steams ahead with sonar testing despite state opposition, orca impacts
Over the objections of Washington state officials and orca advocates, the U.S. Navy is steaming ahead with a plan for seven more years of testing sonar and explosives in waters off the Northwest coast. The Navy says the piercing noise from its tests and training activities could harm eight species of whales listed under the Endangered Species Act. But Navy officials, backed up by the National Marine Fisheries Service, say the occasional, temporary disturbances won’t threaten the orcas’ or any other species’ survival. John Ryan reports. (KUOW)

Scientists Found a New Kind of Killer Whale
By analyzing more than 100,000 photographs of killer whales taken off the United States west coast, and assessing where each animal was seen and in whose company, a team of researchers has revealed that there are likely more branches on the killer whale family tree than previously thought. Their work has identified a group of killer whales, known as the outer coast killer whales, that has, until now, gone largely unnoticed. Sarah Keartes reports. (Hakai Magazine)

Contractor lays off workers on $1-billion North Van wastewater plant
An international construction company appears to have abandoned working on a $1-billion wastewater treatment plant in North Vancouver.  The head of the regional federation of municipalities said it learned “without notice” that about 130 of the 180 workers at the project were laid off Wednesday.
Kevin Griffin reports. (Vancouver Sun)

Federal regulators to limit hot water in Snake, Columbia rivers
Federal regulators starting this spring will require dam operators to limit hot water pollution caused by the four Lower Snake River dams. Large reservoirs behind dams contribute to elevated water temperatures that can be harmful to fish, according to environmental groups. Summer water temperatures that spike above 68 degrees Fahrenheit can kill migrating salmon and steelhead. Courtney Flatt reports. (NW News Network)

Marine heat waves could wipe out fish stocks, UBC study finds
The director of UBC's Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries says the study highlights the immediate need for Canada to develop ways to deal with extreme temperatures. Brieanna Charliebois reports. (Canadian Press)

Seafood shortage: It’s more complex than just overfishing, insiders say
If you have been following the headlines this past year, you might think there is a dire shortage of B.C. seafood, mostly due to reckless overfishing, and that if we want to save what is left, we should eat less of it. It’s not that things aren’t bad. They are. But they are not bad the way you likely think.  The real story is a combination of decades of habitat loss, climate change, pandemic-related labour shortages, impacts of fish farming and, yes, overfishing. Joanne Sasvari report. (Vancouver Sun)

Crews race to limit damage from major California oil spill
Crews on the water and on shore worked feverishly Sunday to limit environmental damage from one of the largest oil spills in recent California history, caused by a suspected leak in an underwater pipeline that fouled the sands of famed Huntington Beach and could keep the beaches there closed for weeks or longer. An estimated 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of heavy crude leaked into the waters off Orange County starting late Friday or early Saturday, when boaters began reporting a sheen in the water, officials said. The pipeline and operations at three off-shore platforms owned by Houston-based Amplify Energy Corp. were shut down Saturday night, CEO Martyn Willsher said. AMY TAXIN AND Christopher Weber report. (Associated Press)

Floating garbage bins help collect trash from Vancouver's waterways
Stationary cleaning machines called seabins are helping clear Vancouver's False Creek of garbage, one scoop of debris at a time. Sadie Caron of Fraser Riverkeeper, the charity behind the project, says the bins are attached to various spots around Granville Island. They skim the surface of the water 24 hours a day with the help of an electric pump to capture any sort of floating debris. (CBC)

In Vancouver’s quest to be the ‘greenest city,’ a cautionary tale
Vancouver had long been an environmentally minded city, full of bicyclists and buses; it also had one of the lowest carbon footprints per person in North America. Becoming the “greenest city in the world” was an aspirational goal, to be sure — but it felt entirely possible. Ten years later, Vancouver is at once a cautionary tale and a qualified success. It shows the limits of what cities can accomplish when it comes to the environment and climate change, as well as how tight budgets and conflicts with provincial and federal governments can get in the way of a progressive city’s ambitious plans. Shannon Osaka reports. (Grist)

Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  541 AM PDT Mon Oct 4 2021   
TODAY  S wind to 10 kt becoming NE 5 to 15 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 8 ft at 12 seconds subsiding to  6 ft at 12 seconds in the afternoon. 
TONIGHT  NW wind 10 to 20 kt. Wind waves 1 to 3 ft. W swell  6 ft at 12 seconds. A slight chance of rain in the evening then  rain after midnight.

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