9/19 Cabezon, sunken boat, Squamish R, Navy sand, BC sea gardens, protecting whales, red dye, Hutchinson Cr, Duwamish R

Cabezon [Steve Lonhart/WikiCommons]

Cabezon Scorpaenichthys marmoratus
Cabezon is the largest of the sculpin species found in Washington waters. Cabezon can grow up to 99 cm (38.9 in) in length, and 6.8 kg (15 lbs) in weight. Maximum age is at least 14 years old. They range from Sitka, Alaska, to central Baja, California. They are found from the intertidal to 76 m (250 ft) in depth. They are demersal, solitary, and usually associated with reefs, boulders, kelp beds, or eelgrass. (WDFW)

Coast Guard postpones effort to remove sunken fishing boat after lifting it to surface
Salvage crews raised a sunken fishing boat from the bottom of the sea near San Juan Island Saturday, but they have been unable to remove enough fuel and seawater from the vessel to lift it onto a barge and transport it away from the critical orca habitat where it sank 5 weeks ago. John Ryan reports. (KUOW)

Inside a 50-year journey to reopen the ‘lungs’ of the Squamish River  
A company built a spit that blocked salmon from accessing crucial habitat — then it left. Decades later, the Squamish Nation, local environmentalists and the federal government have worked together to finally break open the barrier and reconnect a fractured estuary. Stephanie Wood reports. (The Narwhal)

Navy placing 10,000 yards of sand on Puget Sound seafloor as part of legal settlement
The Navy is placing about 10,000 cubic yards of sand onto the seafloor of Sinclair Inlet as part of a legal settlement with the state, the Suquamish Tribe, and environmental groups. A contractor's sand-filled barge currently rests above the former site of the USS Independence, a retired aircraft carrier whose hull was scraped for marine life in 2017 before it was sent to a Texas scrapyard for dismantling. But the tribe, along with other groups, alleged in a lawsuit the hull-scraping actually released copper, zinc and other pollutants into the Puget Sound inlet. The work, at a cost of $2.4 million, is known as the "Thin Layer Placement (TLP) project" ... The settlement requires the Navy to place sand at a depth of 4 to 9 inches over 8 total acres on the seafloor.  Josh Farley reports. (Kitsap Sun) 

Indigenous leaders hope to restore the culinary and cultural bounty of ancient B.C. sea gardens
For years, academics wondered about the origins of the long string of rocks piled along the tide line. The answer came when they spoke to local First Nations, who said the rocks were sea gardens created by their ancestors as cultivation sites thousands of years ago. Indigenous peoples used the tides to trap clams, mussels, kelp and fish in the shallows once the water receded. Now, Indigenous leaders hope to gain approval for clam harvesting at the sea garden site on Salt Spring Island's coast, and another at nearby Russell Island in Gulf Islands National Park, both of which are undergoing restoration. They are thousands of years old. Dirk Meissner reports. (Canadian Press)

Patrolling the Salish Sea: How B.C.'s whale protection unit keeps marine mammals safe by keeping humans away
DFO officers based on Annacis Island in Vancouver and Victoria monitor whale habitat, and enforce the Marine Mammal Regulations, Species at Risk Act and the Fisheries Act. [Senior Compliance Officer Derek] Chung says the main responsibilities are making sure boats don't get too close — either inadvertently or on purpose — and that people stay out of areas designated as "no-go zones" due to their popularity among marine mammals. Josh Grant reports. (CBC)

Follow that plume: Scientists dye Whidbey waters to protect shellfish  
A boat followed a red plume through dark waters on Monday, traveling slowly. The plume spread, moving south between Whidbey and Camano islands and north to Deception Pass. That morning, scientists had added harmless food dye to treated wastewater from the Oak Harbor Clean Water Facility, the city’s sewage treatment plant. It was then released into Puget Sound, staining the waters red for the day. Scientists tracked the dye’s movement and measured concentrations. It was part of a five-day study on shellfish safety, led by scientists from the state Department of Health and Food and Drug Administration. Jacqueline Allison reports. (Everett Herald)

Nooksack River restoration at Hutchinson Creek a major success
Logjam construction projects along the south fork of the Nooksack River have been instrumental in supporting ongoing salmon habitat restoration, according to watershed restoration coordinators from the Nooksack Indian Tribe... Several of the manmade logjams were on display Friday for a public tour hosted by the Tribe during Whatcom Water Week. Julia Lerner reports. (CDN)

The Once and Future River
The Duwamish has been a vital waterway for Indigenous peoples for generations. Now it’s largely invisible, drastically reshaped, and among the most polluted rivers in the nation. Can it be saved? BJ Cummings writes. (Humanities Washington)

Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  234 AM PDT Mon Sep 19 2022   
TODAY  SE wind to 10 kt becoming E in the afternoon. Wind waves  1 ft or less. W swell 5 ft at 9 seconds. 
TONIGHT  Light wind becoming SE to 10 kt after midnight. Wind  waves 1 ft or less. W swell 3 ft at 9 seconds.

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