Salish Sea Communications: September 2021

Friday, September 24, 2021

Salish Sea News Week in Review September 24 2021

Aloha Happy Bluebird Friday!
Bluebirds are in the thrush family of birds, related to the American Robin. Native to North America, there are three types of bluebirds: eastern bluebird, western bluebird, and mountain bluebird. For thousands of years, they have been associated with happiness. Besides being known as both a harbinger and symbol of happiness, they are known as symbols of love, good health, cheerfulness, new births, and home. Today we celebrate them for all the joy and happiness they are associated with and bring.

At 50, Greenpeace is an environmental success story — with a daunting future
Today, the group with small beginnings in Vancouver has grown into one of the most recognizable environmental organizations in the world. Greenpeace has a presence in more than 55 countries, with nearly three million members globally.

The lessons for British Columbia in Alaska’s epic Bristol Bay sockeye
The world’s most abundant sockeye fishery is teeming with 10 million more fish than anticipated this year.

Sauk-Suiattle tribe sues Seattle City Light, demands it can’t call itself ‘green’
The Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe took the city of Seattle to task in a class-action lawsuit filed Friday on behalf of its members and the public, stating the electric utility’s green power claims are misleading and hurting the tribe.

Fairy Creek’s old-growth logging protests injunction remains temporarily: judge
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge suggested Thursday he will consider new options to address the future of an injunction against blockades by people opposed to logging old-growth trees on part of Vancouver Island. He said he will not deliver a decision Friday on the company’s application and his ruling will come after Sept. 26.

Valuable crab populations are in a ‘very scary’ decline in warming Bering Sea
King and snow crab populations in the Bering Sea have plummeted ahead of the harvest season, some by 99% compared to previous years.

What Canada’s environment and climate policies will look like under a Liberal minority government From eliminating fossil fuel subsidies to support for nature-based climate solutions and protected areas, here are some key things we can expect from the new federal government.

Swinomish tribal members say steelhead net pens violate fishing rights, add their voice to state Supreme Court case
The Swinomish Tribe has joined as a friend of the court in a lawsuit to block permits that allow steelhead farming in a commercial net pen just offshore near Hope Island.

Southern resident grandmother orca 'missing and likely dead'
The Center for Whale Research has declared mother and grandmother L47, or Marina, in one of the Puget Sound’s endangered southern resident killer whale pods “missing and likely dead.”

Orca census shows some improvement, but many whales still die before their time
The annual census of the endangered Southern Resident killer whales reports that the number of whales in L pod now totals 33, J pod has 24, and K pod has 16.

EPA Moves To Sharply Limit Potent Gases Used In Refrigerators And Air Conditioners
In what officials call a key step to combat climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency is sharply limiting domestic production and use of hydrofluorocarbons, highly potent greenhouse gases commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners.

Even a green city like Bellingham has learned it’s not easy to cap demand for fossil fuel
In late 2019, mere weeks before the first U.S. case of coronavirus case was detected 60 miles south, the city council of Bellingham, Washington, gathered for a presentation from its Climate Protection Action Plan Task Force: nine community members charged with drawing up a road map for Bellingham to achieve its goals for cutting carbon emissions. Ysabelle Kempe reports. (Investigate What/Grist)

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 at no cost to the weekday news clips, send your name and email to mikesato772 at gmail.com. Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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Friday, September 17, 2021

Salish Sea News Week in Review September 17 2021

[Ben Nelms/CBC]

Aloha Fall Weather Friday!
The National Weather Service of Seattle is predicting winds of up to 50 mph Friday through Saturday. Also in the forecast: 10 times the precipitation Seattle had all summer over just three days.The B.C. South Coast can expect about 50 millimetres of rainfall by Friday evening, but Environment Canada believes there is a chance there will be more and some areas could see 10 millimeters of rain in one hour. Duck, goose and beaver weather.

Scorched Earth: Why Washington wildfires are getting bigger
The wildfire trends are unmistakable in Washington state and around the western United States. There are more wildfires, they are bigger and they are more and more devastating.

An iconic tree is dying off in Whatcom — what’s causing it and how can you help save it?
The grim reaper is coming for the region’s Western redcedar. Across the Pacific Northwest, a concerning number of the species are dying, forest health experts say.

No longer a rainforest: B.C.’s Sunshine Coast improvises to survive long-term drought
As the area’s reservoirs continue to shrink, residents are experimenting with new ways to manage their relationship with watersheds.

Flying by the Fat of the Sea
Scientists may have cracked an essential secret of shorebirds’ marathon migrations.

Recovery effort aims to restore pinto abalone mollusks that once flourished in Salish Sea
These pinto abalone are being raised by the tens of thousands in dozens of 30-gallon tanks at the Seattle Aquarium. It’s a conservation venture to restore a native species at grave risk of extinction in the Salish Sea.

No federal party offers clear path on how to wind down fossil fuel production
When asked about new scientific research showing much of the country’s oil, gas and coal should stay in the ground so that Canada meets its climate targets, none of the major parties were able to say how they plan to achieve this.

Trans Mountain Loses 16th Insurer as Industry Giant Chubb Walks Away
The world’s biggest publicly-traded provider of property and casualty insurance, Chubb, has become the 16th insurer to declare that it won’t back the controversial Trans Mountain pipeline, a coalition of climate and Indigenous campaigners announced yesterday.

Feds OK plan to cut salmon fishing when needed for orcas
Federal officials have approved a plan that calls for cutting nontribal salmon fishing along the West Coast when the fish are needed to help the Northwest’s endangered killer whales.

With 3 pregnant J pod orcas, boaters told to keep away
With three pregnant J pod orcas in local waters, boaters are being asked to keep their distance and commercial tour operators are being told to stay at least a nautical half-mile from the whales.

Why are Columbia River steelhead having such a bad year?
The bottom has dropped out of the steelhead population this year, and the fish’s mysterious ocean life is making it harder to know why.

At Friday Harbor Labs, scientists give sea stars a chance to shine
At the UW's Friday Harbor Laboratories, scientists give sunflower sea stars a chance to shine.

Friday, September 10, 2021

Salish Sea News Week in Review September 10 2021

Aloha Large Hadron Collider Friday!
The world’s largest particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and first went live on this date in 2008. It is an 18-mile (27km) long experimental machine which passes through the French-Swiss border. The Collider was constructed to find the Higgs Boson particle, an elementary particle in physics.

Plugged in to the Salish Current?
Kids, the cohorts with the lowest vaccination rates, go back to the classroom. Read the story, "Pack a lunch, don a mask: kids go back to school in person as COVID-19 persists," this week's offering in Salish Current. It's open-access, ad-free, independent, fact-based, nonpartisan, not-for-profit, reader-supported journalism serving the Whatcom, San Juan and Skagit community. Give it a try with a free subscription to our weekly newsletter: mikesato772@gmail.com

Ferruginous hawks in Washington deemed endangered
The number of ferruginous hawks in Washington continues to decline.

Wild Olympics legislation on upswing
Sen. Patty Murray has high hopes that Wild Olympics legislation will be approved by the U.S. Senate after a decade of trying and failing at congressional passage.

Sea cucumber die-off near Vancouver Island prompts fears of wasting disease that nearly wiped out sea stars
When Kathleen Reed descended for her usual weekly dive off the coast of Nanaimo, B.C., last Saturday she was shocked by how many dead sea cucumbers she saw. Reed has completed more than 500 dives and says she'd never seen so many of the deep red echinoderms turned pale, limp and slimy.

In North Cascades, researchers, climbers watch Washington’s snowpack quickly melt, exposing glaciers’ retreat
Washington has the most glaciers of any state in the Lower 48. These frozen reservoirs of freshwater keep alpine streams flowing through summer, cool the rivers for salmon making their seasonal spawning journeys and provide humans drinking water and hydropower.

Baby J pod orca ailing; whale-watch tours ordered to keep away
Baby orca J56 is ailing and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has issued an emergency rule ordering commercial whale-watch tours to stay farther away to help her survive.

Marine Protected Area network off B.C. Coast could provide a template: West Coast Environmental Law
The federal government’s plan to conduct public consultations for a Marine Protected Area network off the coast of British Columbia could provide a template for how to manage oceans in the face of climate and ecological uncertainty.

From 4% to 45%: Biden Releases an Ambitious Plan for Solar Energy
The Biden administration on Wednesday released a plan to produce almost half of the nation’s electricity from the sun by 2050 as part of its effort to combat climate change.

With plenty of seals to eat, Bigg's orcas flooding Salish Sea; no longer regarded as 'transient'
The Orca Behaviour Institute based in Friday Harbor, Washington, says the Bigg’s orcas are in the Salish Sea in record numbers this year.

Fairy Creek logging protest surpasses Clayoquot Sound in arrests
The total surpasses the 856 arrests during protests against logging in Clayoquot Sound in 1993.

Swinomish threaten to sue over salmon habitat
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community sent the Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday a 60-day notice of intent to sue over what it says is the corps’ failure to uphold the federal Endangered Species Act, according to a news release from the tribe.

EPA to protect Alaska’s Bristol Bay, blocking major gold mine
The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it would restore protections for Alaska’s Bristol Bay, blocking the construction of a massive and controversial gold mine near the world’s largest sockeye salmon run.

Friday, September 3, 2021

Salish Sea News Week in Review September 3 2021

[PHOTO: Kathi Gillespie]

Aloha Food Bank Friday!
National Food Bank Day was created in 2017, to commemorate fifty years since the founding of St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance, the first food bank in the world, and to "recognize the outstanding contributions of food banks around the country". St. Mary's was founded by John ven Hengel in 1967, and its mission is to "alleviate hunger through the gathering and distribution of food while encouraging self-sufficiency, collaboration, advocacy and education."

Plugged in to the Salish Current?
Interested in what's going on up north in Whatcom, San Juan and Skagit counties? Check out "No new reservations, for now: Living and working around ferry delays, cancellations in the San Juans." The Salish Current: Open-access, ad-free, independent, fact-based, nonpartisan, not-for-profit, reader-supported journalism serving the Whatcom, San Juan and Skagit community. Give it a try with a free subscription: mikesato772@gmail.com

How Clayoquot Sound’s War in the Woods transformed a region
Almost 30 years after the ‘war in the woods’ stopped most industrial logging in Clayoquot Sound, the area has experienced a massive tourist boom.

Record-low steelhead returns on Columbia River prompt call for fishing shutdown
Columbia River steelhead are in hot water. The number of steelhead returning from the Pacific Ocean to the river this year is the lowest ever recorded.

Inside the latest Indigenous push to stop a massive copper mine
For nearly 20 years, plans to mine near the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery have alternately raced forward and backward, with more whiplash than resolution for residents and fishermen in southwest Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.

Kelp is struggling in central and south Puget Sound. Are Whatcom’s kelp beds next?
... Thriving bull kelp can also soften the blow of climate change, with Washington state’s bull kelp forests absorbing 27 to 136 metric tons of carbon each day, according to the Puget Sound Restoration Fund.

Federal judge throws out Trump administration rule allowing the draining and filling of streams, marshes and wetlands
A federal judge on Monday threw out a major Trump administration rule scaling back federal protections for streams, marshes and wetlands across the U.S., reversing one of the previous administration’s most significant environmental rollbacks.

Biden Opens New Federal Office for Climate Change, Health and Equity
The Office of Climate Change and Health Equity, which the administration announced on Monday, will be the first federal program aimed specifically at understanding how planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels also affect human health.

Majority of British Columbians in new survey say no way to B.C. name change
Most B.C. residents don't want the name of their home province to be changed to reflect the area's Indigenous heritage, according to a survey created by Research Co.

Norwegian company plans large new salmon farm for B.C.’s coast as others phased out
First Nations who successfully fought to remove open-net pen salmon farms are speaking out against a proposal by Grieg Seafood and the Tlowitsis First Nation, saying they have not been consulted and fear wild salmon stocks will suffer if a new farm is approved.

Like a Hotel California for Fish
Unearthed weirs in K’ómoks territory offer a window into an ingenious past technology for a sustainable coastal fishery. Brian Payton writes. (The Tyee)