1/10 Iceberg Pt, WA Lege, BC damage, WA king tide, TM impact, First Nation damage, Kitimat fjord whales

Iceberg Point [Hike of the Week]

Iceberg Point
Iceberg Point offers majestic views of rugged bluffs and rocky shorelines on the south side of Lopez Island. Iceberg Point is available for day-use only. Recreational activities include hiking and wildflower, waterfowl, and marine mammal viewing at rocky balds. A network of hiking trails provides easy access to sweeping vistas. Parking and restroom facilities are available at the San Juan County Park day-use area at Agate Beach. (Lopez Community Trails Network)

7 things WA Legislature is expected to address in 2022
Top issues include COVID-19 relief, police accountability, delaying the state's long-term care tax, combating climate change and getting rid of single-family zoning. Melissa Santos reports. (Crosscut)

B.C. coastal communities assess damage, look to future after King tides, extreme weather wreak havoc
A day after high tides and extreme weather battered parts of B.C.'s South Coast, many communities are assessing the damage. Flooding and dangerous conditions along waterfronts around the South Coast resulted in closures, warnings and damage to infrastructure like seawalls and piers.(CBC)

Sea level on steroids: Record tides flood Washington coastlines
Some of the highest tides ever recorded hit Seattle and much of the Washington coast this week. High tides in Port Townsend, Seattle, and Tacoma on Friday were nearly two feet higher than forecast. Friday morning’s tide in Seattle appears to be the highest in more than a century of record keeping, though the tidal gauge at Colman Dock blinked out for half an hour as Elliott Bay swelled past 14.47 feet, its highest elevation in at least 40 years, at 9 a.m. Tidal gauges in Tacoma, La Push, and Westport also hit all-time highs, though those gauges’ data only go back a quarter century or less. John Ryan reports. (KUOW)

Trans Mountain Pipeline Faces Scrutiny on Soil Stability, Fraser River Impact
The federal Crown corporation building the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion has been handed a seven-day deadline to answer tough questions about soil stability, drilling method, and environmental impacts after proposing to redrill and reroute part of a 1.5-kilometre tunnel beneath the Fraser River. In a notice to Trans Mountain legal representative Jeremy Barretto of Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP, the Canadian Energy Regulator (CER) gave Trans Mountain a January 13 deadline to respond to concerns filed by environmental campaigners, most of them associated with a coalition challenging the redrill request. Clifford Maynes reports. (EnergyMix)

Court rejects First Nations' bid to change flow of river to alleviate damage caused by northern B.C. dam
A B.C. judge has rejected a bid by two First Nations to force Rio Tinto Alcan to change the flow of a river to benefit fish stocks decimated by the construction of a dam on the Nechako river. The Saik'uz and Stellat'en First Nations wanted B.C. Supreme Court Justice Nigel Kent to make the order — which would have been a first for a Canadian judge...The judge said the provincial and federal governments have an obligation to protect the Aboriginal fishing rights of the Saik'uz and Stellat'en. And in a finding that could have wide-ranging impacts, the judge also said First Nations have legitimate claims for damages against companies and individuals for damages stemming from breaches of Aboriginal rights. Jason Proctor reports.(CBC)

The Great Bear Rainforest’s Great Big Whales
British Columbia’s Kitimat fjord is an unlikely home for massive fin whales, and scientists are beginning to understand what makes the area so attractive. Larry Pynn reports. (Hakai Magazine)

Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  306 AM PST Mon Jan 10 2022   
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON   
TODAY  SE wind 20 to 30 kt. Wind waves 3 to 5 ft. W swell 7 ft  at 14 seconds building to SW 9 ft at 13 seconds in the afternoon.  Rain. 
TONIGHT  E wind 10 to 20 kt rising to 15 to 25 kt after  midnight. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft. SW swell 10 ft at 12 seconds  subsiding to 7 ft at 14 seconds after midnight. Rain.

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