7/21 Sculpin, orcas, quiet seas, BC haz waste, Haida Gwaiii tensions, polar bears, climate threat, salmon recovery, sense of place

Roughback sculpin [DiverKevin]

Roughback sculpin
Roughback sculpin are found from northern British Columbia to Baja California. They are common from the intertidal to deep water. They bury themselves during the day and  are active at night, feeding on shrimp and other crustaceans worms and snails. (Marine Wildlife of Puget Sound, the San Juans and the Strait of Georgia)    See also: Sculpins of Puget Sound (Seattle Aquarium)

Orcas without borders
There’s an imaginary line that sweeps along the length of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and zigzags north through Haro Strait and between the San Juan and Gulf Islands. The line represents an international border, demarcating the frontier between the United States and Canada. It’s also a major shipping lane, connecting Vancouver, Seattle, and other Salish Sea ports to the web of global commerce. For the southern resident orcas, it’s simply a part of home – a vector traveling through some of their most important habitat. The Salish Sea’s endangered southern resident orcas travel freely across the U.S.-Canada border, unconstrained by political boundaries. But while they don’t require passports, they can still face differing policies and conditions as they go back and forth between nations. We look at some of the ways that the United States and Canada compare in their efforts to protect the whales. Sarah DeWeerdt reports. (Puget Sound Institute)

Whales Get A Break As Pandemic Creates Quieter Oceans
When humpback whales migrated to Glacier Bay in Alaska this year to spend the long summer days feeding, they arrived to something unusual: quieter waters. As the global pandemic slows international shipping and keeps cruise ships docked, scientists are finding measurably less noise in the ocean. That could provide momentary relief for whales and other marine mammals that are highly sensitive to noise. Through networks of underwater hydrophones, scientists are hoping to learn how the mammals' communication changes when the drone of ships is turned down, potentially informing new policies to protect them. Lauren Sommer reports. (NPR)

B.C. rarely inspects hazardous waste handlers despite companies frequently breaking rules
Provincial investigators found companies weren’t fully compliant with regulations 70 per cent of the time in the five years since a digital database of shipments was replaced with paper files shoved in cardboard boxes.  Ben Parfitt reports. (The Narwhal)

Tensions between B.C. fishing lodges, Haida Nation escalate over COVID-19
RCMP in northwest B.C. say they will review video of a confrontation on the water near Haida Gwaii between members of the Haida Nation and staff of a local fishing lodge. The video appears to show some five vessels from the Queen Charlotte Lodge passing too close to a pair of smaller Haida boats, leading to a tense verbal exchange.Tensions have been rising on Haida Gwaii since the luxury fishing lodge, which is on the northernmost island of the archipelago, reopened despite a state of emergency in the Haida Nation because of COVID-19. Nicole Oud reports. (CBC)

Global Warming Is Driving Polar Bears Toward Extinction, Researchers Say
By century’s end, polar bears worldwide could become nearly extinct as a result of shrinking sea ice in the Arctic if climate change continues unabated, scientists said. Henry Fountain reports. (NY Times)

Climate Change Poses ‘Systemic Threat’ to the Economy, Big Investors Warn
Climate change threatens to create turmoil in the financial markets, and the Federal Reserve and other regulators must act to avoid an economic disaster, according to a letter sent on Tuesday by a group of large investors. Christopher Flavelle reports. (NY Times)

Issues 2020: Orca and Salmon Recovery
After more than two decades of effort, salmon recovery in Puget Sound continues to fall far short of promised targets. The result is that Chinook salmon are not close to being removed from the Endangered Species List and the population of Southern Resident Killer Whales continues to decline due, in part, to lack of food. Despite the high-profile creation of the governor’s Orca Task Force, state policies have not yielded improvement and are unlikely to do so in the near future. Todd Myers writes. (Washington Policy Center)

Research Article: Whose Puget Sound?: Examining Place Attachment, Residency, and Stewardship in the Puget Sound Region
Based on data from over 2,000 responses to a general population survey, the authors highlight the current status of place attachment among Puget Sound residents and the extent to which residency matters to their stated attachment to place and environmental stewardship behaviors. This examination challenges often touted negative perceptions of the region’s newcomers and concludes that residents, new and old, share a strong positive place attachment and sense of pro-environmental stewardship. David J. Trimbach, Whitney Fleming & Kelly Biedenweg. (Geographical Review)



Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  254 AM PDT Tue Jul 21 2020   
TODAY  W wind to 10 kt becoming 5 to 15 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 6 ft at 9 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell  5 ft at 10 seconds.




--
"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@) salishseacom.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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7/20 Ravens, Victoria sewage, harassed killler whales, US boaters in BC waters, Nooksack R dam removal

Ravens [Tony Angell]

Tony Angell on the Raven
Tony Angell reflects: "It's a cloudless summer day as I listen to ravens behind me in the woods. There's an endless repertoire of croaks, krawks, barks, yelps, and yodels. Other ravens across the bay respond in kind, and I imagine that this is a day of poetry and perhaps a few jokes shared between clans of these birds." (BirdNote)

$775M Greater Victoria sewage treatment plant nears completion
After decades of debate and nearly four years of construction, the Capital Region is on the home stretch towards completing its new tertiary sewage treatment plant. There’s still a lot of work to be done before it’s finished but the construction is now far enough along that trials have begun taking place, using potable water, to see how it runs. Currently, when you flush your toilet in the CRD (Capital Regional District), your waste passes through a six-millimetre screen before the raw sewage is flushed out into the ocean's currents, one kilometre off of our shoreline. As of Dec. 31 of this year, that is all going to change. Brandon Strain reports. (CTV News)

Boaters harass killer whales off Fox Island
A pod of orcas was harassed by up to 30 boaters Tuesday evening as the killer whales swam through the Tacoma Narrows and past Fox Island, according to numerous observers who witnessed the floating spectacle. One person on a jet ski drove circles around the six whales, according to witnesses. Angry residents took to social media to complain about the flotilla of harassers. Federal regulations established by NOAA Fisheries say boaters must stay 400 yards beyond an orca’s path. Boaters must maintain a speed of seven knots or less within half a mile of orcas. Washington state law requires vessels to stay 300 yards on either side of resident orcas. Craig Sailor reports. (Tacoma News Tribune)

COVID-19: U.S. vessels in BC waters against border rules, say boaters
A group of retired B.C. boaters have tracked what they believe are American pleasure craft into Canadian waters that are violating restrictions put in place because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The vessels — estimated to be as many as 100 in the past month — are stopping at marinas, sometimes for days, says George Creek, one of the retired boaters and a member of the Council of B.C. Yacht Clubs. Much of the vessel traffic is coming from Washington state, particularly concerning because the state has a high rate of virus infection, said Creek. The group of boaters has tracked the movement of the American vessels through the Marine Traffic website that provides vessels’ locations using an automatic vessel identification system. Some vessels don’t have this identification system, but reports have also been compiled from marinas and marine parks, said Creek. Gordon Hoekstra reports. (Vancouver Sun)

Nooksack River dam finally coming down, freeing miles for fish habitat
With a bang, Washington state’s dam-busting binge continued last week, as the city of Bellingham blew up its 25-foot-tall dam here. The $17 million project will open 16 miles of habitat for fish including spring chinook important to southern resident killer whales, and is expected to be completed by September. Removal of the Middle Fork diversion dam on the Nooksack follows detonation of the Condit on the White Salmon in 2011, the blow-up of Elwha Dam in 2012 and deconstruction of Glines Canyon Dam, completed in 2014, both on the Olympic Peninsula’s Elwha River. lynda Mapes reports. (Seattle Times)



Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  243 AM PDT Mon Jul 20 2020   
TODAY  Light wind becoming NW 5 to 15 kt in the afternoon. Wind  waves 2 ft or less. W swell 6 ft at 9 seconds. Patchy fog in the  morning. 
TONIGHT  W wind 10 to 20 kt becoming SW to 10 kt after  midnight. Wind waves 1 to 3 ft subsiding to 1 ft or less after  midnight. W swell 6 ft at 8 seconds.




--
"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@) salishseacom.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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7/17 Man o' war, Trump's NEPA, Canada clearcuts, blacktip sharks

Portuguese Man o' war

Portuguese Man o' War Physalia physalis
The Portuguese man o' war is a highly venomous open ocean predator that superficially resembles a jellyfish but is actually a siphonophore. Each man o' war is actually a colony of several small individual organisms that each have a specialized job and are so closely intertwined that they cannot survive alone. In this manner, the larger colony consists of a float that keeps the colony at the sea surface, a series of long tentacles that are covered with stinging cells, a rudimentary digestive system, and a simple reproductive system.

Trump's Environmental Rollback Will Silence Citizens' Voices, Critics In NW Charge
Northwest conservation and anti-pollution organizations say the Trump administration’s changes to a bedrock environmental law from the Nixon-era will have major impacts in the region. The changes to the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, include eliminating environmental impact reports for some projects and streamlining the approval process for pipelines and other projects. Monica Samayoa reports. (OPB)

Canada is failing to track the true climate cost of clearcut logging in boreal: report
Organizations calls on the Canadian government to properly record and regulate greenhouse gas emissions connected to forestry and align its forest management policies with climate targets. Matt Simmons reports. (The Narwhal)

Look: One Great Shot: A Grand Assemblage
Every winter, thousands of blacktip sharks migrate to the balmy waters off Palm Beach County, Florida. These finned snowbirds, which can grow to one-and-a-half meters long, travel from as far away as New York to feast on bony fishes. Absurdly agile, the blacktip is known to make spectacular leaps while hunting for weak and sickly prey. By forming enormous schools in the shallows, they safeguard themselves from their nemesis, the great hammerhead. Michael Patrick O’Neill writes. (Hakai Magazine)



Now, your weekend tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  239 AM PDT Fri Jul 17 2020   
TODAY  W wind 5 to 15 kt becoming 10 to 20 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 1 to 3 ft. W swell 6 ft at 10 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 5 to 15 kt becoming SW after midnight. Wind  waves 2 ft or less. W swell 6 ft at 9 seconds. 
SAT  W wind to 10 kt rising to 10 to 20 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 1 ft or less building to 1 to 3 ft in the afternoon. W  swell 6 ft at 8 seconds. Patchy fog in the morning. 
SAT NIGHT  W wind 15 to 25 kt easing to 5 to 15 kt after  midnight. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft subsiding to 2 ft or less after  midnight. W swell 5 ft at 7 seconds. 
SUN  Light wind becoming NW to 10 kt in the afternoon. Wind  waves 1 ft or less. W swell 6 ft at 8 seconds.




--
"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@) salishseacom.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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7/16 Tick, J-pod back, BC 'cuda, JumpStart tax, traffic's back, oil industry, 'Ourtdoors Act,' national parks

Western black-legged tick [James Gathany/CDC]

Western black-legged tick Ixodes pacificus
These ticks are mainly found in western Washington and live in forested or brushy areas. They can transmit Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.  I. pacificus typically feeds on lizards and small mammals therefore its rate of transmission of Lyme disease to humans is around 1% of adults.  It is an ectoparasite that attaches itself to the outside of its host and feeds on the hosts blood meal. I. pacificus has a four stage life cycle that takes around 3 years to complete. These stages include egg, larva, nymph, and adult. (WA Dept. of Health, Wikipedia)

Good news from Salish Sea: J pod is back in its summer haunt
The orcas are back in the Puget Sound region again. The endangered J pod has spend the past week near San Juan Island and other inland waters. Members of the endangered J pod have been swimming back and forth near the San Juan Islands and Vancouver Island since July 4. The southern resident orcas have spent less and less time in the Salish Sea, where they are summer residents, due to a lack of food in recent years. Paige Browning reports. (KUOW)

Fishermen in B.C. catch a barracuda far from home
A commercial fisherman knew he was staring at a fish out of place when a barracuda landed in his net on Vancouver Island, far from its typical habitat in southern California. Tyler Vogrig, 24, said he'd seen the long, silvery body of the muscular fish with giant teeth before, but in Hawaii. Vogrig said he and his father Brian were catching sockeye at Alberni Inlet as part of their stock-assessment work for Fisheries and Oceans Canada when they hauled in the barracuda...His father has been fishing for 40 years and had never seen a barracuda in British Columbia waters, he said. (Canadian Press)

Furloughs will slow Fish and Wildlife services
Times are tough and the agency responsible for preserving, protecting, and perpetuating fish, wildlife and ecosystems, while providing sustainable fishing, hunting and other recreation opportunities is feeling the pinch. With Washington’s economy struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the state department of Fish and Wildlife has implented agency-wide furloughs for the next two Fridays. While public safety-related needs will remain staffed, most other Fish and Wildlife services, including customer service, will be unavailable. Vince Richardson reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

City council fuels Seattle's Green New Deal with JumpStart tax
Sidelined by COVID-19, Seattle's climate goals are back on the table, thanks to community and city council support. Mandy Godwin reports. (Crosscut)

Puget Sound traffic returns as coronavirus pandemic continues
Heavy traffic in western Washington was nearly eliminated when the state went into quarantine. As restrictions have eased this summer, the gridlock is largely back. In March and April, vehicle counts on Interstate 5 and other major freeways dropped by half, and up to 70% in places, as residents stayed home from work and school school. But as the economy has slowly reopened, traffic has steadily crept back up to near pre-coronavirus levels. Glen Farley reports. (KING)

Oil Industry, Accustomed To Booms And Busts, Is Rocked By Pandemic
Oil prices are low, and likely to stay that way for a while. And while low prices can be brutal for oil producers, they're also an opportunity: When the going gets tough, Big Oil often gets even bigger. But will the pandemic-induced price collapse lead to dramatic deal-making and companies scaling up? Some analysts aren't holding their breath. Camila Domonoske reports. (NPR)

‘Outdoors Act’ would repair national parks, protect land and address recreation needs
It appears that the political stars are lining up for what some people are calling the most significant environmental legislation in decades. Billions of dollars have been laid upon the table for parks, recreation facilities and environmentally sensitive lands across the country. The U.S. Senate has already passed the Great American Outdoors Act, which pairs two previous spending proposals: the Land and Water Conservation Fund with $900 million to be spent annually for the foreseeable future, and a new National Parks and Public Lands Legacy Fund with $9.5 billion to be spent over the next five years. Chris Dunagan reports. (Puget Sound Institute)

National parks may become latest battleground in reopening 
....Grand Canyon, the crown jewel of America’s national park system, draws more than 6 million global visitors in a normal year and fuels the economy of Arizona. But now, with Arizona leading the nation in coronavirus infections per capita, pressure is mounting to close Grand Canyon and other national parks in states across the South and the West that face spiking caseloads. As locked-down Americans clamor to return to the outdoors and families seek out safe vacations from limited options, the national parks could become the latest battleground in the fight over reopening.  Elizabeth Williamson and Sarah Mervosh report. (NY Times)



Now, your tug weather--West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  324 AM PDT Thu Jul 16 2020   
TODAY  W wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 5 ft  at 10 seconds. Areas of fog in the morning. A slight chance of  showers in the afternoon. 
TONIGHT  W wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell  5 ft at 5 seconds.




--
"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@) salishseacom.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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7/15 Yellowjacket, BC econ, spot prawns, Biden's climate, Dakota pipe, coastal floods, NEPA, old growth logging, 100 green rules, Trump's birds, GAOA, Colstrip

Yellowjacket [WikiCommons]

Yellowjackets Vespula ssp.
Yellowjackets (including hornets) and paper wasps are the most common types of wasps encountered in Washington. Wasps have slender bodies with a narrow waist and appear smooth and shiny. Their feeding habits differ greatly from bees. Most wasps prey on insects, including caterpillars, flies, crickets, and other pests. Like bees, wasps will sting in defense of its colony or itself. In late summer and fall, yellowjackets become aggressive scavengers, sometimes stinging without being provoked. The wasp's stinger has small barbs which do not embed in the skin. Wasps can sting repeatedly, and will often do so if threatened or protecting their nest. (WA Dept. of Health)

B.C. forecasting 'staggering' $12.5B deficit due to COVID-19 pandemic
The British Columbia government is forecasting a $12.5 billion deficit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, five months after the provincial budget featured a marginal surplus. Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Finance Minister Carole James called the projected scenarios "staggering, but not without hope." "This could be the worst downturn experienced in our province in recent history," she said. Michelle Ghoussoub reports. (CBC)

B.C. spot-prawn market ‘in the toilet’ as Asian glut slashes prices
A glut of spot prawns stockpiled in Asia and export problems caused by the pandemic mean B.C. fishermen will get a lot less for their fresh catch or will store it frozen until markets improve. It isn’t immediately clear if retail prices for the local seafood delicacy will decline. A survey of some retailers show spot prawns are selling for between $20 and $39 a pound. Darron Kloster reports. (Times Colonist)

Joe Biden Outlines $2 Trillion Climate Plan
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Tuesday outlined an updated climate plan, seeking to invest $2 trillion to boost clean energy and rebuild infrastructure. The proposal is the second plank of his new economic agenda called “Build Back Better,” which he first detailed last week in Pennsylvania. Biden’s climate initiative calls to chart the United States on “an irreversible path” to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Alana Wise reports. (NPR)

Court Halts Dakota Access Pipeline Shutdown As Legal Fight Goes Forward
The Dakota Access Pipeline may continue to pump crude oil through South Dakota after a federal appellate court on Tuesday temporarily blocked a shutdown ordered by a lower court that was to begin next month. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an administrative stay that will be in effect at least through next Thursday while the pipeline’s operator, Energy Transfer LP, and its opponents file briefs on whether the shutdown should be reversed. Vanessa Romo and Scott Neuman reports (NPR)

New Data Show an ‘Extraordinary’ Rise in U.S. Coastal Flooding
Parts of the United States saw record levels of high-tide flooding last year as rising seas brought water further into coastal homes and infrastructure, government scientists reported Tuesday.The increase in high-tide flooding along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts since 2000 has been “extraordinary,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported, with the frequency of flooding in some cities growing fivefold during that time. That shift is damaging homes, imperiling the safety of drinking water, inundating roads and otherwise hurting coastal communities, the agency said. Christopher Flavelle reports. (NY Times)

Forest Service Considers Changing Rule That Prevented Logging Of Some Northwest Old-Growth Trees
The U.S. Forest Service is considering changing a rule that prevents logging of large trees on national forestland in parts of Washington and Oregon.  Federal officials say it’s an important update that could help tame large-scale wildfires. Conservation groups worry the amendment process has been rushed and could damage important forest habitat. The land management plans, known as the “Eastside Screens,” came about in 1995 to protect old growth trees east of the Cascades. The rules were meant to be temporary. The Forest Service wants to amend a section of the policy called the “21-inch rule,” which prohibits harvesting trees that are greater than 21-inches in diameter. Courtney Flatt reports. (NW News Network)

Nixon signed this key environmental law. Trump plans to change it to speed up pipelines, highway projects and more.
President Trump plans this week to overhaul a federal law that poor and minority communities around the country have used for generations to delay or stop projects that threaten to pollute their neighborhoods — a law he says needlessly blocks good jobs, industry and public works. The president’s plan to streamline the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a bedrock environmental law signed with much fanfare by President Richard M. Nixon in 1970, would make it easier to build highways, pipelines, chemical plants and other projects that pose environmental risks. Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis report. (Washington Post)

The Trump Administration Is Reversing 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List
After three years in office, the Trump administration has dismantled most of the major climate and environmental policies the president promised to undo. Calling the rules unnecessary and burdensome to the fossil fuel industry and other businesses, his administration has weakened Obama-era limits on planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and from cars and trucks, and rolled back many more rules governing clean air, water and toxic chemicals. Several major reversals have been finalized in recent months as the country has struggled to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. Nadja Popovich, Livia Albeck-Repka and Kendra Pierre-Louis report.  (NY Times)

Bird law’s rollback leaves conservation to states
Migratory birds have been protected for a century under the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), but a rollback of that federal law has turned conservation into a piecemeal network of state laws and regional efforts. To combat shrinking global bird numbers, states and towns are turning to collaborative conservation programs. Jules Struck reports. (Christian Science Monitor) See also: Millions of Birds in Trump’s Crosshairs  What are the implications for the Olympic Peninsula? Karen Sullivan writes. (Rainshadow Journal)

America’s great outdoors is showing its age. Congress is proposing a facelift.
The House is expected to approve a plan next week to invest nearly $2 billion per year to restore national parks, conserve land to ward off the impacts of climate change, and put parks and playgrounds in urban areas that sorely need them. The Great American Outdoors Act, passed overwhelmingly in the Senate by a 73-to-25 vote on June 17, has been called one of the most important environmental bills in history because it could nearly eliminate a $12 billion National Park Service maintenance backlog and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) for the first time since it was enacted in the 1960s. Darryl Fears and Dino Grandoni report. (Washington Post)

Regulators pause review of NorthWestern's Colstrip purchase plans
Regulators have hit the pause button on NorthWestern Energy’s proposed purchase of an increased share of Colstrip Unit 4. Citing a lack of detail about how much of Unit 4 NorthWestern is buying, the Montana Public Service Commission voted unanimously to halt the preapproval process. Northwestern had set out last December to buy a 185-megawatt share of CU4 from Colstrip’s largest owner, Puget Sound Energy. Tom Luted reports. (Billings Gazette) Also:  Montana Regulators Drill Down On NorthWestern's Proposed Colstrip Purchase  Kayla Desroches reports. (Montana Public Radio)



Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  323 AM PDT Wed Jul 15 2020   
TODAY  W wind to 10 kt rising to 10 to 20 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 1 ft or less building to 1 to 3 ft in the afternoon. W  swell 5 ft at 11 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 10 to 20 kt becoming 5 to 15 kt after midnight.  Wind waves 1 to 3 ft. W swell 5 ft at 10 seconds.




--
"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@) salishseacom.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Salish Sea News: Communicate, Educate, Advocate

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7/14 Rockfish, Nooksack dam, Trump's air quality, seafood industry aid, climate change cost, Pleasant Harbor

Copper rockfish [Janna Nichols]

Rockfish Sebastes sp.
Rockfish, like all members of the Scorpaenidae family, have venomous spines on their dorsal fins. Some fish species within this family have spines that are quite toxic. That’s not the case for rockfish, but rockfish venom can cause a good amount of pain and lead to infection—yet another reason to avoid these fish and let them reach the end of their natural lifespans in the wild! (Seattle Aquarium)

Bellingham diversion dam being removed to help these imperiled Pacific Northwest icons
The Middle Fork of the Nooksack River will be able to flow freely and threatened fish species — one of which is a vital food source for endangered southern resident orcas — will be given a better chance at survival once a small dam about 7 miles southeast of Deming has been removed. When the work, which has been called one of the most important salmon restoration projects in Puget Sound, is completed in September, it will restore access to 16 miles of spawning and rearing habitat in the upper Middle Fork for threatened spring Chinook salmon as well as steelhead and bull trout, according to a project overview. Kie Relyea reports. (Bellingham Herald)

EPA rejects tougher air quality standards, says 2015 limits are sufficient
The Trump administration on Monday said it will maintain national air quality standards put in place in 2015, despite calls for more stringent regulations that advocates say are necessary to protect Americans in communities that are particularly vulnerable to a range of respiratory ailments. In a call with reporters, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler argued that the existing limits on fine particulate matter — otherwise known as soot — are sufficient, and that the decision was “based on a review of the scientific literature and recommendation from our independent science advisers." Brady Dennis reports. (Washington Post)

$50 million in CARES Act assistance may not be enough for all of Washington’s seafood industry
Washington state is receiving $50 million in CARES Act assistance to bail out its commercial seafood industry. This is the highest allocation among all state fisheries in the country -- only Alaska received as much. Yet officials are concerned it may not be enough. The industry includes commercial fishermen, seafood processors, charters, guides and outfitters…the list goes on. Collectively, it brings about $600-million dollars annually to Washington’s economy. But this year, it’s been hit hard by COVID-19. Bellamy Pailthorp reports. (KNKX) See also: Commercial fishing industry braces for strange season   Olivia Hobson reports. (Western Front)

G.A.O.: Trump Boosts Deregulation by Undervaluing Cost of Climate Change
A federal report expected to be released Tuesday found the Trump administration set a rock-bottom price on the damages done by greenhouse gas emissions, enabling the government to justify the costs of repealing or weakening dozens of climate change regulations. The report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’s nonpartisan investigative arm, said the Trump administration estimated the harm that global warming will cause future generations to be seven times lower than previous federal estimates. Reducing that metric, known as the “social cost of carbon,” has helped the administration massage cost-benefit analyses, particularly for rules that allow power plants and automobiles to emit more planet-warming carbon dioxide. Lisa Friedman reports. (NY Times)

Pleasant Harbor resort finishes initial ground surveying
The Pleasant Harbor Master Planned Marina and Golf Resort officials have completed initial ground surveying and are working to get regulatory approvals for water and sewage systems. The project needs approvals from state agencies on the two systems before officials can submit development applications for Phase 1 of the project to Jefferson County. The master planned resort is under a 20-year development agreement with the county that covers more than 200 acres along the Hood Canal south of Brinnon. Plans call for 200-plus condominiums, a community center and multiple recreational opportunities. Zach Jablonski reports. (Peninsula Daily News)



Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  259 AM PDT Tue Jul 14 2020   
TODAY  W wind to 10 kt. Wind waves 1 ft or less. W swell 3 ft  at 8 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 10 to 20 kt becoming 5 to 15 kt after midnight.  Wind waves 1 to 3 ft. W swell 4 ft at 8 seconds.




--
"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@) salishseacom.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Salish Sea News: Communicate, Educate, Advocate

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7/13 Nettle, False Cr herring, Chehalis dam, failing fracking, Navy ships, Haida matriarchs, bird loss, Portland river cleanup, border closure

Stinging nettle [Ben Legler]

Stinging nettle Urtica dioica
Washington's native nettle stings with hollow hairs, like microscopic hypodermic needles, which exude formic acid when brushed against. An irritating rash may appear on one's skin, its severity depending on the sensitivity of the "victim." Some people have red, burning sores for days. Some people say they don't feel a thing! And some arthritis sufferers purposely subject themselves to nettle stings as a treatment for arthritic pain. We are told the coastal whale hunters thrashed their skins with nettles when setting out in their canoes to capture whales. It is assumed this was to help them stay awake on long voyages, but there may be other explanations. Helen Engle wrote. (Washington Native Plant Society)

False Creek herring offer real hope for a sustainable population
Burrard Inlet could have a healthy local herring population today had Gassy Jack not decided to harvest them with dynamite, or so the story goes. The notorious John “Gassy Jack” Deighton had his finger in a lot of businesses beyond his various saloons, and one of them was herring oil. But while dynamite is a tremendously efficient way to bring all the herring to the surface, the blasts killed pretty much everything including juveniles, which are future spawners, according to Jonn Matsen of Squamish Streamkeepers...Streamkeepers has been nurturing a population of herring in False Creek that were reintroduced by accident when herring boats arrived with their hulls plastered with viable herring eggs. Randy Shore reports. (Vancouver Sun)

To Dam or Not to Dam
For the past two decades, dams have been falling across the United States in a bid to reverse a legacy of destruction of fish and their habitat. American Rivers, a nonprofit advocacy organization, estimates that 1,200 dams were dismantled nationwide from 1999 to 2019, including major dams on the Elwha and White Salmon Rivers in Washington State. But in southwestern Washington, a local flood control district is going against the flow by proposing a major new dam on the Chehalis River. At close to 200 kilometers long, the free-flowing Chehalis River drains 7,000 square kilometers before emptying into Grays Harbor on the Pacific Ocean. The Chehalis is a critical salmon stream and the largest river system fully contained within the state’s boundaries. Larry Pynn reports. (Hakai Magazine)

Fracking Firms Fail, Rewarding Executives and Raising Climate Fears
Oil and gas companies are hurtling toward bankruptcy, raising fears that wells will be left leaking planet-warming pollutants, with cleanup cost left to taxpayers. Hiroko Tabuchi reports. (NY Times)

Navy now plans to send 3 more ships to Everett
Another ship will call Naval Station Everett home, Rep. Rick Larsen’s office announced Thursday. It’s the third such announcement in less than two months. The USS John S. McCain is scheduled to change its homeport on Aug. 30, 2021, Larsen’s office said in a news release. It’s moving here from Japan.Two other ships recently have been assigned to Everett. They are the USS Cape St. George and the USS John Paul Jones. Stephanie Davey reports. (Everett Herald)

Haida matriarchs to occupy lands as fishing lodges reopen
A group of Haida matriarchs say they plan to occupy two ancient villages on Haida Gwaii after two fishing lodges decided to reopen on the remote archipelago, despite objections from the First Nation. The matriarchs, known as Gaandlee Guu Jaalang or "daughters of the river," say in a statement the Queen Charlotte Lodge and West Coast Fishing Club reopened as a local state of emergency remains in effect because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amy Smart reports. (Canadian Press)

Researchers listen to birds for answers why their numbers are so low
Alberta researchers are using hundreds of audio recording devices as they seek to understand why bird populations are declining. A University of Alberta professor says a study published last year that suggested North America had lost billions of birds ruffled a lot of feathers in the scientific community. "The basic premise that we have lost three billion birds, it is probably conservative, is my guess," Erin Bayne told Radio-Canada. David Bell reports. (CBC)

Oregon DEQ To Begin Downtown Portland River Cleanup
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality will begin the removal of contaminated soil along the Willamette River in downtown Portland on Monday. The DEQ and NW Natural will remove about 5,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment and tar-like material at the former Portland Gas Manufacturing site. The cleanup is part of the Willamette River Downtown Reach project. It is the last significant legacy contamination from gas manufacturing operations from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. Monica Samayoa reports. (OPB)

Vacation travel between U.S. and Canada unlikely this summer, B.C.'s top doctor says
As cases of COVID-19 continue to surge south of the border, B.C.'s top doctor says she "cannot see" vacation travel happening between Canada and the United States this summer. During her briefing Monday, Dr. Bonnie Henry said local health officials are "very concerned" about the number of cases in the U.S., adding that travel across the border is how B.C. "got into trouble" earlier in the pandemic. "Back in March we had a lot of people in across the border," she said. "A number of our new cases are people who've either travelled or been in contact with somebody who just came back from the U.S." In a modelling briefing last month, Henry said many of the virus cases recorded in B.C. are from "Washington state-like strains."   Alyse Kotyk reports. (CTV)


Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  302 AM PDT Mon Jul 13 2020   
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 8 seconds. 
TONIGHT  W wind 10 to 20 kt becoming 5 to 15 kt after midnight.  Wind waves 1 to 3 ft. W swell 3 ft at 8 seconds.




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