Salish Sea News Week in Review February 19 2021

 

Aloha Perseverance Friday!

NASA successfully landed its fifth robotic rover on Mars on Thursday, with the U.S. space agency confirming that Perseverance touched down safely on the red planet’s surface. The rover is the most technologically advanced robot NASA has ever sent to Mars. The agency aims to spend nearly two years using it to explore the surface. Perseverance is also carrying a small helicopter named Ingenuity, which NASA plans to use to attempt the first flight on another planet. (CNBC)

Washington State Parks Commission Changes Plan On Navy Usage For SEAL Training
Changes to a plan that would allow covert Navy training at certain Washington State Parks are further angering some park goers.

Judge overturns Trump’s lifting of mining ban in US West
A federal judge on Thursday overturned a Trump administration action that allowed mining and other development on 10 million acres (4 million hectares) in parts of six western states that are considered important for the survival of a struggling bird species.

New Sewage-Treatment Permit Would Be a Step to Curbing Nitrogen in Puget Sound
In an effort to stem the flow of excess nitrogen into Puget Sound, Washington Department of Ecology has proposed a new type of permit for some 60 sewage-treatment plants operating throughout the region.

Gray whales learn daring feeding strategy in Puget Sound: Digging for ghost shrimp at high tide
Every spring, a small group of about a dozen gray whales pauses along an epic migration from calving lagoons in Baja California to their feeding grounds in the Artic.

Feds fund removal of more derelict boats from waters off Vancouver Island
.... It’s been a steady clip of work for Salish Sea Industrial Services and its barge crews, divers and sub-contractors, who have removed more than 100 dead boats over the past three years from the waters around Greater Victoria and the Gulf Islands.

B.C. approves single-use plastics bans in four more municipalities
The B.C. government has approved single-use plastics bans in four more communities. Surrey, Nanaimo, Rossland and Esquimalt are the latest municipalities to implement bans based on their particular needs.

New orca baby born to southern resident L pod 
A new baby has been born to the L pod family of southern resident killer whales, scientists reported. Ken Balcomb, founding director of the Center for Whale Research, confirmed the birth Wednesday.

Warming seas could wipe out Snake River chinook by 2060, scientists predict
Snake River spring-summer chinook could be nearly extinct by 2060 and interventions are “desperately needed” to boost survival in every stage of their lives, scientists warn.

OSU-led wave energy project moves a step closer to construction
The federal government this week approved a lease for a wave energy test site off the Oregon Coast.

Site C: Experts urge government to lift secrecy around $10-billion mega dam
Key details about the future of Site C, the province’s largest public infrastructure project and one that grows more contentious by the day, remain hidden from the public according to experts speaking at a town hall Thursday night.

Seattle’s Skagit River dams hurt salmon, orcas and Native American culture, agencies say
Citizens of Seattle enjoy some of the most affordable electricity in the country, but the city-owned utility that generates that power is accused of harnessing cost-effective electricity on the backs of Puget Sound salmon, killer whales and the way of life for Native American tribes in the Skagit Valley.

Decades of cuts to salmon monitoring leave B.C. scientists uncertain of fish populations
Less than 10 per cent of spawning habitat on B.C.’s central and north coast is being monitored by creekwalkers, the people who count salmon one by one.

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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