5/8 Lancetfish, Big One, hatchery suit, salmon migration, eavesdropping on fish, housing and trees, NW heat, ending old-growth logging, PFAS sites, Tacoma warehouse, NCI, state dinosaur

Lancetfish [NOAA]

Lancetfish Alepisaurus ferox
Several scaleless fish with fanged jaws and huge eyes that can be found more than a mile deep in the ocean have washed up along a roughly 200-mile (322-kilometer) stretch of Oregon coastline, and it’s unclear why, scientists and experts said...Lancetfish live mainly in tropical and subtropical waters but travel as far north as areas like Alaska’s Bering Sea to feed. Their slinky bodies include a “sail-like” fin, and their flesh is gelatinous — not generally something humans wish to eat. (Associated Press)

A Disaster the Size of Multiple Katrinas Is Building Off Washington’s Coast
Someday — next week, next year, maybe next century — a sudden and deadly marine shock will strike the Northwest coast: what locals call the Big One, a circa 9.0-magnitude offshore earthquake generating tsunami surges reaching 60 feet high or more. Preparations for this threat have especially lagged in Washington, says state seismologist Harold Tobin, who chairs the University of Washington’s seismology and geohazards program and the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network: “Oregon, California and British Columbia have all taken it more seriously.” Eric Scigliano reports. (Politico)

Puget Sound Tribes Want WFC Hatchery Lawsuit Dismissed
Five Western Washington tribes have filed paperwork in federal court to intervene in a Wild Fish Conservancy lawsuit targeting state hatchery salmon production in Puget Sound and the Lower Columbia. With the suit seeking to halt WDFW programs rearing 23.6 million Chinook, coho and chums, Puyallup, Lummi, Squaxin Island, Nooksack and Tulalip officials last month asked US District Court Judge Jamal N. Whitehead in Seattle to join the case with the express purpose of filing motions to dismiss it. Andy Walgamott reports. (NW Sportman Magazine)

Research finds some Pacific salmon migration out of sync with food supply
Climate change is knocking some Pacific salmon out of alignment with the growth of the ocean plankton they eat to survive, new research says. In the largest data set ever gathered on the timing of juvenile salmon migration, research found the changing climate is causing some salmon populations to migrate earlier out of step with plankton blooms that are also affected by changing weather patterns. Ashley Joannou reports. (Canadian Press)

B.C. scientists eavesdropping on fish to fathom their underwater secrets
New technology is allowing researchers to covertly monitor, record and identify the sounds fish make underwater to try to unravel their deepest secrets.  Researcher Xavier Mouy, a recent PhD graduate at the University of Victoria, and his colleagues have devised a relatively low-cost portable audio-visual system that surreptitiously records the surprising range of acoustics fish produce, but more importantly, pinpoints what creature makes which sound. Rochelle Baker reports. (National Observer)

City seeks balance: housing needs and forest benefits
Bellingham faces the challenge of building homes to meet housing needs while preserving trees for public and environmental health. Clifford Heberden reports. (Salish Current)

Northwest waters buck global heating trend (for now)
The seas of the world have been warming for decades as atmospheric pollution traps more heat both in the air and underwater. Much of the U.S. West Coast is bucking the global trend this spring, with sea water staying cooler than its 30-year average. John Ryan reports. (KUOW)

B.C. MP introduces motion to end old-growth logging on federal land, ban all exports by 2030
Liberal MP Patrick Weiler, who represents West Vancouver–Sunshine Coast–Sea to Sky Country, has introduced a private member's motion urging the government to stop old-growth logging on federal land and end the export of old-growth products from Canada by 2030. Moira Wyton reports. (CBC)

Unseen worry: Firefighting ‘forever chemicals’ linger near Paine Field
A construction mistake in 2014 at Boeing's Paine Field facility resulted in activating a fire-suppression system that spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons and firefighting foam  containing dangerous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances into the soil at levels an analysis last year found was dozens of times above state recommendations. The state Department of Ecology last month added the area to its small but growing list of PFAS-contaminated cleanup sites around the state. Jake Goldstein-Street reports. (Everett Herald)

City was wrong to approve huge warehouse project in South Tacoma, newly filed appeal says
Earthjustice of Seattle, representing environmental group 350 Tacoma and the South Tacoma Neighborhood Council, filed an appeal Friday with Tacoma’s hearing examiner over a recently approved mega-warehouse development in South Tacoma. Chicago-based Bridge Industrial gained conditional approval last month to redevelop a 150-acre property with a multi-building warehouse-distribution site, including about 2.5 million square feet of buildings. Debbie Cockrell reports. (Tacoma News Tribune)

North Cascades Institute opening learning center after three-year pause
The North Cascades Institute begin classes this month for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emma Fletcher-Frazer reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

Suciasaurus rex named Washington state’s official dinosaur
Washington governor Jay Inslee signed into law House Bill 1020 honoring a therapod fossil discovered in 2012 at Sucia Island State Park in Washington’s San Juan Islands as the state's official dinosaur. (Associated Press)

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Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  237 AM PDT Mon May 8 2023   
TODAY  W wind to 10 kt becoming NW 10 to 20 kt in the  afternoon. Wind waves 1 ft or less building to 1 to 3 ft in the  afternoon. W swell 3 ft at 11 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 10 to 20 kt easing to 10 kt after midnight.  Wind waves 1 to 3 ft subsiding to 1 ft or less after midnight. W  swell 5 ft at 12 seconds.

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