Salish Sea News Week in Review December 20 2019

Mural "Lewis & Clark at Three Forks."

Aloha Sacagawea Friday!
Sacagawea was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who, at age 16, met and helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition in achieving their chartered mission objectives by exploring the Louisiana Territory. Sacagawea traveled with the expedition thousands of miles from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean. Sacagawea died on December 20, 1812 at Kenel, South Dakota. (Wikipedia)

Trans Mountain oil pipeline faces latest legal challenge in Canada court
The Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion faces its latest legal hurdle in a federal court this week as indigenous groups appeal the pipeline's expansion, arguing the government did not adequately consult them before approving it.

Local salmon projects get multi-million boost from grants
The state Salmon Recovery Funding Board announced this week that it is awarding $26 million to projects throughout the state to help bring salmon back from the brink of extinction.


Rate of ocean acidification may accelerate, scientists warn
Ocean acidification, which threatens sea life throughout the world, is affecting Pacific Northwest waters — including the Salish Sea — sooner than most regions around the globe, according to ongoing studies.

For sustenance and tradition, Puget Sound tribes and scientists join forces to breed millions of clams
After recent declines, a new breeding program could help safeguard the cockle's future as a food source for tribes like the Suquamish. Hannah Weinberger reports.

NAS Whidbey jet noise to be monitored
The National Defense Authorization Act that sets the military budget for 2020 includes a section members of Congress and of the regional Sound Defense Alliance say will require real-time monitoring of jet noise at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

Puget Sound is an earthquake hot zone, according to new seismic update
Puget Sound has a 75 percent or greater chance of being struck by a damaging earthquake in the next 100 years, according to a new earthquake danger assessment by the U. S. Geological Survey.

Northwest killer whales are shrinking in size -- and so are their prey, chinook salmon, new research shows
Hungry young orcas grow up to be stunted orcas, new research shows, revealing that salmon run downturns can have lifelong effects.


EPA Loses Bid for Remand of Puget Sound Discharge Determination
A lawsuit challenging an EPA determination allowing a no-discharge zone in Puget Sound will move forward after a D.C. federal judge refused to remand or vacate the agency’s decision.

Tribal Coastal Resiliency Act could help communities on the front line of climate change
Rising sea levels caused by global warming hit coastal communities the hardest. In Washington, many of those communities are tribes that settled near the water long before climate change became an issue. A new bill moving through Congress aims to provide them with more relief.


Puyallup Tribe, environmental groups file two appeals against LNG permit
The Puyallup Tribe and a coalition of environmental groups have filed two separate appeals against the permit for a controversial liquefied natural gas plant at the Port of Tacoma.


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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Salish Sea News Week in Review December 13 2019

Aloha National Horse Friday!
Horses have been of great importance to the American continents since even before the founding of the United States. It is believed that horses once roamed these lands between eight and ten thousand years ago, before becoming extinct. In the late fifteenth century they were reintroduced to the Western Hemisphere, and to Florida in 1538. The horses that came at this time have come to be known as Colonial Spanish Horses, and were prevalent in the southeastern and western United States.... Native Americans acquired horses in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. One of the first tribes to get them were the Comanches, followed by the Crow and Blackfoot. Horses were particularly important to Native Americans of the Great Plains. National Day of the Horse was created through a Senate resolution in 2004.

Environmental groups announce appeal after approval of final permit in Tacoma LNG project 
Environmental groups in Tacoma say they're planning a swift appeal against the decision from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency approving a permit for the liquefied natural gas facility that's being built in the city's tideflats.

DNR adopts plan for marbled murrelet
The state Board of Natural Resources on Tuesday adopted a long-term conservation plan for the marbled murrelet, a threatened seabird that has been protected under a controversial interim plan for almost two decades.


Seattle Aquarium plans $113 million pavilion with sharks, sting rays for new waterfront promenade
The cars that until recently whizzed past downtown Seattle on the Alaskan Way Viaduct may soon be replaced by tropical sharks cruising through a huge tank shaped like a martini glass, with viewing portals for people above and below.

Climate change: Oceans running out of oxygen as temperatures rise
Climate change and nutrient pollution are driving the oxygen from our oceans, and threatening many species of fish.


Bellingham looking for 100% renewable energy by 2035. Here’s the plan
Bellingham officials are getting ready to take their “moon shot” — an ambitious and controversial plan for the city to do its part to conserve energy and reduce pollution in the face of global climate change.

Pressure on to move rocks the size of ‘houses and cars’ at Big Bar
The team trying to clear the landslide at Big Bar on the Fraser River is consulting dozens of experts, including private industry and the military, in an effort to remove boulders the size of “houses and cars.”


Keeping watch on seabird health
Scientists are still trying to understand what caused the deaths of thousands of rhinoceros auklets in the Salish Sea in 2016.


Wild Olympics Act clears committee, headed to House floor
Congressman Derek Kilmer’s Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act has passed out of the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee for possible consideration on the House floor.




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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Poor Old Puget Sound

Guest Blog by Pete Haase

The Puget Sound Partnership’s “2019 State of the Sound” document is out.  If you decide to give it a look-see and you get past the beautiful pictures that pop up, it is dismal.  Just about everything being measured is getting worse, not better, and has been for about the past 25 tears – I mean years – damn fat fingers.

If you do start to read, be aware there are three sort of rah-rah, well-meaning “call to action” pieces: one each from the Director, the Leadership Council, and the Science Panel.  As is my habit with this stuff, I parsed them with a “Readability Checker.” (There is one associated with the Word software I am using to create this piece.)  The first one takes a mid-college education, the second a college education, and the third an advanced college degree.  I know that all of you reading this qualify there, but I also know you really don’t get excited by wading through it.  You were recently convinced to give up more money buying a bunch of Amazon stuff with some short and catchy and well-aimed ads better than these words will be able to get across to you.

If you do burrow in, you will see that the current estimated need for dollars to get the job done is now FIVE times what the estimated need was about four years ago.  When I worked, I got to manage some projects and on one we would review it with the big boss about every three months.  There was a period of time where our “estimate to complete” kept increasing by several percent at each review.  Finally, the boss told us to just stop estimating.  I think the Puget Sound Partnership needs to stop estimating, too, since they clearly have not figured out how to do it accurately.

Actually, FIVE times the need sounds pretty good, relatively.  I attended the annual Northwest Straits Initiative Conference in Everett a few weeks ago and there were several very good presentations-- and every single one of them said they needed TEN times the funding to get their piece of the job done!

The State of the Sound Report is not exactly “fire-‘em-up” fodder for the masses.  Actually, the whole Puget Sound Partnership effort for years has been soooo lacking in such fodder for the masses.  Hard to fire us up when we see pretty pictures and happy success stories coupled with facts of failure.  There IS a brief section of what the “masses, aka public” can do.  (Spoiler - don’t go be rummaging up your pitchforks and torches and prepare to march on Olympia.)  No.  Plant a tree and help out with some community-sponsored science.  If you boat (all you public folk who boat, raise your hand) keep it quiet around whales.  Keep plastic out of the water and recycle.  Wash your car at a car wash and don’t change your own auto oil.  (All you public folk who even THINK about changing your own auto oil raise your hand.)  Oh – and drive less.

Since 2005, when the Puget Sound Partnership took over the “Save Our Sound” duty from the previous effort, the population around the Sound has grown by about 25% - almost 1 million people, perhaps more.  For a system already under stress, the continued decline since 2005 is pretty understandable.

I could go on, but won’t.  I hope my point – “until the masses are fired up and equipped to persuade the ‘Powers that be’ to get serious about fixing rather than wrecking we will just continue down the same old wrong-way road” – is clear here.

No government agency or collaboration can do that.  It will need to be a mighty collaboration of non-governmental and private/business entities.  It is so hard to imagine such a thing happening; there’s just not enough guts to do it.

But all is not gloom and doom!  With friends, I get to wade some local streams this time of year to document salmon returning to spawn.  Lots of us do this all around the Sound.  Our particular streams host Kokanee (land-locked salmon) that live in Lake Samish.  This year, about half way through the season, we have counted over 1,000 of these guys – and this in about ½ mile of stream that we are able to wade.  This is so great because last year and the year before there were only around 100 or less for the entire season.  So, there is magic!  A great white unicorn is always there to cheer us on. 

Don’t quit.  It’s worth it.  (Oh, and this article is about 8^th grade reading level.)

(Pete Haase is a member of the Skagit County Marine Resources Committee and represents the MRC on the Northwest Straits Commission. He is a board member of the Padilla Bay Foundation and an avid volunteer for outside conservation activities.)

Salish Sea News Week in Review December 6 2019

Aloha St. Nicholas Friday!
December 6 is St. Nicholas Day celebrating the christian saint who lived in Greece and became a priest and later a Bishop of the early Catholic Church. He was well known for giving to needy people, especially children. The practice of hanging up stockings originated with Saint Nicholas. As the ancient legend goes, Saint Nicholas was known to throw small bags of gold coins into the open windows of poor homes. After one bag of gold fell into the stocking of a child, news got around. Children soon began hanging their stocking by their chimneys "in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there". It wasn't until the 1800s that the spirit of St. Nicholas' life evolved into the creation of Santa Claus in America. Santa Claus emerged (or evolved) from the stories and legends of St. Nicholas. Santa Claus was kind and generous to children. Unlike "St. Nick", Santa Claus is largely a non-religious character. (Holiday Insights)

Puget Sound was supposed to be healthy by now. It's not
Puget Sound was supposed to be healthy by now. Fifteen years ago, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire made it the state’s aim to clean up Puget Sound by 2020. But a new report from the agency she created to accomplish that goal shows that with one month to go, we are nowhere close.

Trans Mountain to start construction on pipeline expansion
Trans Mountain Corp. is preparing to officially start construction on its pipeline expansion after years of delay.


Cooke Aquaculture agrees to pay $2.75M to settle lawsuit over salmon net-pen collapse
Cooke Aquaculture has reached a settlement to pay $2.75 million in legal fees and to fund Puget Sound restoration projects, putting an end to a Clean Water Act lawsuit that followed the 2017 collapse of one of the fish-farming company’s net-pen structures.

Fraser River most critically endangered river in B.C: Outdoor council
The combined impacts of habitat destruction, fisheries management and climate change on the Fraser River are at their most damaging point since the Outdoor Recreation Council began compiling data 40 years ago. Low water flows key to next phase in Fraser River salmon rescue: DFO  Government officials say there is a “high risk” they won’t be fully successful in rescuing salmon threatened by a massive landslide on the Fraser River.

Some B.C. salmon runs face 'meaningful chance of extinction' after landslide, despite rescue mission
Scientists fear that some Fraser River salmon populations could be wiped out completely following a landslide that has blocked part of the critical B.C. migration route for the last year.


B.C. municipalities join federal government's side in carbon tax court fight
The Supreme Court of Canada has granted intervener status to six B.C. municipalities in the federal government's carbon pricing court case.

Climate change is causing birds to shrink, study says
As the climate warms, birds are shrinking and their wingspans are growing, according to a new study.


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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Salish Sea News Week in Review November 29 2019

Aloha Pong Friday!
One of the very first arcade games to hit the market, Pong was a 1 or 2 player video game similar to tennis, where the goal is to use a paddle to hit a ball. Around 35,000 Pong consoles were sold around the world. Pong was released by Atari on this day in 1972.

William D. Ruckelshaus, who refused to join in Nixon’s ‘Saturday Night Massacre,’ dies at 87
William D. Ruckelshaus, a pragmatic and resolute government official who shaped the Environmental Protection Agency in the early 1970s as its first administrator and returned to the agency a decade later to restore its shattered morale after its watchdog powers had been muzzled, died Nov. 27 at his home in Medina, Wash. He was 87....A longtime Seattle resident, Mr. Ruckelshaus served from 2007 to 2010 as the first head of the Puget Sound Partnership, an environmental agency in Washington state. In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Timothy R. Smith reports. (Washington Post)

King County judge presses pause on car-tab fee initiative
A King County Superior Court judge granted a temporary injunction blocking implementation of Initiative 976, which was scheduled to go into effect next week.  In order to get a preliminary injunction, attorneys have to show they're likely to win the case on its merits and that any harms resulting from the initiative would be immediate. Judge Marshall Ferguson agreed with a coalition of cities, counties and transit agencies on both of those counts. Simone Alicea reports. (KNKX)

Vancouver has banned plastics — but will it hold up, legally?
The City of Vancouver says its plastic ban bylaw will withstand legal challenge because it is governed by a different charter than the City of Victoria, which had a similar bylaw struck down earlier this year after a legal battle. On Wednesday, Vancouver city council voted to phase in a ban on plastic straws and plastic shopping bags. Under the bylaw, plastic straws will be banned starting in April, and plastic bags will be banned in January 2021. However, in July, a similar bylaw proposed by the City of Victoria — banning plastic bags — was struck down by the B.C. Court of Appeal after being challenged by the Canadian Plastic Bag Association. (CBC)


UN Indigenous rights bill approved unanimously in B.C.
B.C. has become the first jurisdiction in Canada to formally implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The bill was approved unanimously in the legislature on Tuesday.


Atlantic salmon farms in Puget Sound taken to court
Atlantic salmon farms go on trial Monday, Dec. 2 in Seattle. Environmentalists have taken the owners of a salmon farm that collapsed two years ago to court for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act.


Kelp crisis? Decline of underwater forests raises alarms
They rival tropical forest in their richness and diversity, but Puget Sound's kelp beds have declined steeply in recent decades. Scientists are just starting to understand the extent of these losses through mapping projects and consultations with local tribes. What they are finding is bringing kelp to the forefront of Puget Sound's environmental concerns. Sarah DeWeerdt reports. (Salish Sea Currents)


Climate change: Greenhouse gas concentrations again break records
Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases once again reached new highs in 2018. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says the increase in CO2 was just above the average rise recorded over the last decade.

Washington state deals setback to massive methanol plant
Washington state dealt a setback Friday to efforts to build one of the world’s biggest methanol plants on the Columbia River, saying that five years in, its backers had failed to provide enough information about its greenhouse gas emissions and how they would be offset.


Port Angeles city manger outlines objections to Rayonier cleanup proposal
City staff members plan to submit comments by Tuesday’s deadline objecting to the state Department of Ecology’s preferred alternative for cleaning up the former Rayonier pulp mill site, the city manager said. Port Angeles City Manager Nathan West said that the preferred approach “effectively creates a landfill on the highest and most usable portion of the Rayonier site and it creates a landfill in perpetuity.”


How to become an ink-stained wretch.
'I subscribe to a daily email roundup and summary of local environmental news called the Salish Sea News and Weather. Yesterday’s installment contained a story from Seattle’s KOMO News called “Got squid? Why officials say you should catch and eat it out of Puget Sound.” It went on to say, “Forget fishing for salmon. Puget Sound crab pots are so passé. Squid is in.” The upshot was that officials had tested local squid for heavy metals and other contaminants, declared them fit for consumption, and now we Pacific Northwest salmon-loving denizens should all switch to squid....' Karen Sullivan writes.


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.

Now, your weekend tug weather:
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  756 PM PST Thu Nov 28 2019  
FRI  E wind 10 to 20 kt. Wind waves 1 to 3 ft. W swell 2 ft at  9 seconds. 
FRI NIGHT  SE wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell  1 ft at 9 seconds. 
SAT  E wind 5 to 15 kt rising to 15 to 25 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 1 to 2 ft building to 2 to 4 ft. W swell 2 ft at 9  seconds building to 4 ft at 18 seconds. 
SAT NIGHT  E wind 15 to 25 kt. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft. W swell  6 ft at 16 seconds. 
SUN  E wind 15 to 25 kt. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft. W swell 6 ft at  14 seconds.

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Salish Sea News Week in Review November 22 2019

John F. Kennedy

Aloha JFK Friday
On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The 35th President of the United States was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, while traveling in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. He was the 4th American president to be assassinated while in office. The other 3 were Abraham Lincoln, James Abram Garfield, and William McKinley.

How the American environmental movement dealt a blow to Alberta's oilpatch
The strategy to stifle Alberta's oilsands came together in a hotel near a mall in Minneapolis over a decade ago. It was the fall of 2008, and a group of environmental activists spent part of a conference there brainstorming tactics for slowing down the growth of the oilsands — and they identified pipelines as the most vulnerable target.

Trans Mountain received $320M in government subsidies in 2019, report finds
The Trans Mountain pipeline received $320 million in subsidies from the Canadian and Alberta governments in the first half of 2019, says a new report by an economic institute that analyzes environmental issues.


Colstrip owner speeds up exit plans 9 years to 2025
A Colstrip Power Plant owner has accelerated its exit plans by nearly a decade and has agreed to compensate the community. Avista Corp. agreed to be financially ready to exit both Units 3 and 4 by 2025.

Washington's greenhouse gas emissions continue to trend higher in latest inventory
As scientists issue increasingly dire warnings over climate change, Washington state’s greenhouse-gas emissions continue to trend higher, according to the latest state inventory.


Climate change may impact kelp’s ability to reproduce
Marine heat waves may be impacting one of the ocean’s major sources of food and shelter for sea life—kelp.

Federal Court: Klamath Basin Tribal Water Rights Outrank Farmers' Rights
A federal appeals court has found that the water rights of Klamath Basin tribes take priority over those of farmers who sued the federal government in 2001 for reducing their irrigation water supply after a dry year.

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.

Salish Sea News: Communicate, Educate, Advocate

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Salish Sea Communications: Truth Well Told

Salish Sea News Week in Review November 15 2019

Aloha Georgia O'Keeffe Birthday Friday!
Born on November 15, 1887, Georgia O'Keeffe was an American artist. She was best known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been recognized as the "Mother of American modernism". (Wikipedia)


PSU study finds microplastics in majority of razor clams and oysters collected on Oregon coast
The synthetic fibers that make up much of our modern clothing are making their way into the stomachs of the animals we eat, according to a new study from researchers at Portland State University.

Scientists breathe easier as marine heat wave off west coast weakens
Scientists say a marine heat wave that blanketed a large area of the west coast has weakened, but the potential disruption to ocean life isn't over yet.

New Report: Puget Sound Marine Waters See Effect of Climate Change in 2018
A new report details the effects of a changing climate on Puget Sound in 2018, and describes how these changes trickled down through the ecosystem to affect marine life and seafood consumers. 

Federal Lawsuit Aims To Kill Stalled Methanol Refinery Project Along Columbia River
A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday aims to keep one of the world’s biggest methanol refineries from being built along the Columbia River in Washington state.

Makah tribe heads to court — with NOAA support — in effort to resume whale hunt
The Makah whale hunt is back in court. The tribe wants to resume a limited hunt of gray whales off the Washington coast.  An administrative judge in Seattle will hear arguments for and against over several days, starting Thursday at 1 p.m.


Salish Sea blog: Remembering Tom Jay
Tony Angell writes: "My friend Tom Jay passed away a few days ago and yet he remains amid us..."

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.

Salish Sea News: Communicate, Educate, Advocate

Follow @savepugetsound

Salish Sea Communications: Truth Well Told