Salish Sea News Week in Review October 23 2020

Aloha World Fish Migration Day (Oct 24)
World Fish Migration Day is a one-day global celebration to create awareness of open rivers and migratory fish. Migratory fishes are fishes that swim short or long distances from daily to annually, as a way to complete their life cycle, feed and / or make love! Some migratory fishes migrate up and down rivers, others between rivers and oceans, and others across the oceans.

The Elwha dams are gone and chinook are surging back, but why are so few reaching the upper river?
They were the king of kings in Puget Sound, the biggest chinook of them all, strong enough to muscle up the falls at the Goblin Gates and power on all the way through nearly 4 miles of chutes and falls in the Grand Canyon of the Elwha...But fewer chinook are reaching the deliciously cold, uppermost reaches of the watershed. Why?

Minor bridge modifications could help young steelhead escape from Hood Canal
Help could be on the way for migrating steelhead and salmon in Hood Canal, where many young fish are killed each year by seals and other predators that lie in wait at the Hood Canal floating bridge.

From worriers to warriors, they’re fighting climate change
Local environmental groups are forming, growing and attracting new members, young and old. Julie Titone reports. (Everett Herald)

Salish Sea Shared Waters forum wraps up third and final year of work to reduce risks of oil spills
Washington has been stepping up systems to prevent and reduce the risk of oil spills, due in part to the looming expansion of Canada’s Trans Mountain Pipeline.

B.C. election: where the NDP, Greens and Liberals stand on climate and environment issues
As Sonia Furstenau's Greens pledge to end oil and gas subsidies and Andrew Wilkinson's BC Liberals promise to expand LNG, John Horgan's NDP sticks to the middle road. Ainslie Cruickshank writes. (The Narwhal)

Photos show pregnant southern resident orca J46 in Puget Sound
More great news for the southern resident orcas, a J-pod member is pregnant, according to recent reports from a Puget Sound whale watcher who captured photos of the whale on Sunday.

New study suggests fish farms raise risk of exposure to infectious disease for wild B.C. salmon
A new study suggests that the presence of active fish farms in B.C. waters can more than double the chance of finding genetic material from pathogens that cause disease in wild salmon.

Vancouver’s Stanley Park aquatic life on ‘red alert’: ecology report
Stanley Park’s tree cover is growing, but aquatic life in Beaver Lake isn’t doing very well at all, according to a new report on the park’s ecological health.

What Would a British Columbia Seal and Sea Lion Cull Actually Entail?
University of British Columbia (UBC) professor emeritus of oceans and fisheries Carl Walters is pushing for the slaughter of 50,000 harbor seals and 25,000 Steller sea lions—half their populations on the BC coast. Another 3,000 seals per year would be killed on an ongoing basis to keep the animals in check.

There's A Lot At Stake For The Climate In The 2020 Election
Joe Biden calls climate change an existential threat to our health, economy, and national security. President Trump continues to question climate science.

Comment period opens on whale watching rules
A public comment period has opened for proposed commercial whale watching rules. The state Department of Fish & Wildlife released a draft of the rules Wednesday, opening a comment period that will close at 5 p.m. Dec. 5.

WSDOT tries a ‘bridge-in-a-backpack’ in Duvall as an innovative way to replace fish-blocking culverts
Steelhead, coho and other fish may soon enjoy more room to swim Loutsis Creek, where Washington state just built its first bridge using composite fibers.

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These news clips are a selection of weekday clips collected in Salish Sea News and Weather which 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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