Salish Sea Communications

Friday, January 17, 2025

Salish Sea News Week in Review January 17 2025

Aloha Popeye the Sailor Day!
Popeye the Sailor is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar. The character first appeared on January 17, 1929, in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre. (Wikipedia)

Who Watches the Watchers?
The recent charging of prominent documentarians in British Columbia court is raising important questions about the ethics of wildlife videography.

Listening to the Smelt
By monitoring the embryos of a little-studied forage fish, scientists hope to track and minimize the damaging effects of pollution in important coastal habitats.

Federal Court rejects environmentalists' bid to halt B.C. port expansion
A Federal Court judge has thrown out a legal challenge by environmental groups that claimed allowing the expansion of a massive container facility on British Columbia's waterfront would threaten the survival of southern resident killer whales and salmon.

Underwater volcano off B.C. coast primed to erupt
The Axial Seamount is not expected to threaten human population centres but it could help scientists forecast the eruption of more dangerous volcanoes.

A look at the Washington Legislature’s 2025 environmental agenda
A plan to create a state watchdog for the oil industry was deferred, but bills on recycling, salmon and data centers could come under consideration.

Hydroelectric dams on Oregon’s Willamette River kill salmon. Congress says it’s time to consider shutting them down
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it could make hydroelectric dams on Oregon’s Willamette River safe for endangered salmon by building gigantic mechanical traps and hauling baby fish downstream in tanker trucks. This month, President Joe Biden signed legislation ordering the Corps to put its plans on hold and consider a simpler solution: Stop using the dams for electricity.

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 msato(at)salishseacom.com .Your email information is never shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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Friday, January 10, 2025

Salish Sea News Week in Review January 10 2025

Aloha Tintin Friday!
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of 24 comic albums created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series first appeared in French on 10 January 1929 in Le Petit Vingtième (The Little Twentieth), a youth supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle.

Biden to ban future offshore drilling across more than 600 million acres
With just two weeks left in his presidency, Joe Biden will prohibit future oil and gas drilling off the entire East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the remaining portions of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea.

Biden creates 2 new national monuments, setting a conservation record
President Biden is creating two new national monuments in California on Tuesday, preserving the lands from development and setting a record for the most land and waters conserved by any president

Battery energy storage system approved for industrial land west of Mount Vernon
A private energy company has received a special use permit to construct a 200-megawatt lithium-ion battery energy storage system, or BESS, on industrial land west of Mount Vernon.

How can B.C. meet its hydrogen goals?
The provincial and federal governments both hope the element can offer a low-emissions alternative to fossil fuels, and have made significant investments in hydrogen production in B.C. But producing low-emissions hydrogen requires a significant amount of renewable power — power that at the moment officials say B.C. cannot offer on an industrial scale.

What is Justin Trudeau’s environmental legacy?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s climate-conscious government bought Canada an oil pipeline while ushering in significant environmental laws. Justin Trudeau's legacy gets mixed reviews from First Nations in B.C.

The Skagit Opens Up For Fish

In April 2023, Seattle City Light, the utility that owns and operates the dams, committed to ensuring safe passage for fish around their structures. But with the specifics unclear, scientists and indigenous peoples are asking: Will the type of fish passage that comes from the utility be enough?

WA bans commercial net-pen fish farming
Commercial net-pen aquaculture is history in Washington. The state Board of Natural Resources on Tuesday adopted a rule banning the industry.

Majority of voters have a negative outlook on Washington’s future
Across political lines, Cascade PBS/Elway Poll respondents feel pessimistic about the state, citing the tax system, budget shortfall and housing costs.

Friday, January 3, 2025

Salish Sea News Week in Review January 3 2025

Happy Birthday, J.R.R.!
Born on this day in 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is perhaps best known for writing The Hobbit and the The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which became some of the most enduring books of the twentieth century.

Bird flu scrambled Western Washington egg market for the holidays, and good luck finding eggnog
If you’ve visited your neighborhood grocery store in Western Washington over the holiday season, you might have noticed the variety of eggs was lacking, as well as higher prices for the options that remained.

The E.P.A. Promotes Toxic Fertilizer. 3M Told It of Risks Years Ago.
The agency obtained research from 3M in 2003 revealing that sewage sludge, the raw material for the fertilizer, carried toxic “forever chemicals.”

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
We started Hakai Magazine over 10 years ago because the ocean and its coastlines needed a voice.

Newborn southern resident orca calf confirmed, another feared dead
Excitement over a newborn southern resident orca calf that was spotted with the population's J pod earlier this week has been muted by news that another calf has died. The newly observed calf has been designated J62.

Famous orca mother carrying body of another dead calf in act of grief: researchers
Tahlequah, or J35, has now lost 2 of her 4 documented calves, according to researchers.

New law requires boaters to stay 1,000 yards away from Southern Resident orcas
Starting January 1, boaters in Washington waters must stay 1,000 yards away from SRKW at all times, which is approximately a half-nautical mile.

Extension granted on process to relicense Skagit River dams
The yearslong process to relicense the three Skagit River dams has gotten longer after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission agreed to a five-month extension.

Road salt kills fertilized coho salmon eggs, say UBC researchers
The UBC data suggests salting roads at current levels in November or December is likely dangerous to coho and chum salmon.

Friday, December 27, 2024

Salish Sea News Week in Review December 27 2024

Aloha Fruitcake Friday!
Fruitcakes have long been tied to the holiday season, whether as a treat, or as target of jokes and ridicule. The earliest recipes for them date to Roman times, where pomegranates, pine nuts, and raisins mixed with barley hash were used. Fruitcakes became popular in Europe, where the fruits and nuts used in them were a delicacy. The mail order fruitcake business began in 1913. Fruitcakes are also often sold from catalogs by charities for fundraisers. Beginning in the twentieth century, fruitcakes began being maligned. They have been referenced in negative ways in various television shows, most notably by Johnny Carson, who once said, "The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other."

Proposed changes would allow more logging on federal land in Northwest
Logging would be allowed in millions of acres of national forest in Washington, Oregon and California, including older trees currently off-limits to cutting, under proposed amendments to the Northwest Forest Plan.

Tahlequah, mother orca made famous after death of calf, has a new baby
A new calf has been born to J pod, spotted for the first time just last Friday — swimming with Tahlequah, or J35, as she is scientifically known. She is the mother orca who captured the world’s attention by carrying her dead calf for 17 days and 1,000 miles.

Nature Wrapped: wins for the environment across B.C. in 2024
Salmon habitat was restored in the Fraser Valley, old-growth forests were protected on Vancouver Island and caribou habitat was conserved in the northeast.

Bird flu roars through sanctuary in Washington, kills 20 wild cats: ‘We are heartbroken’
The Wild Felid Advocacy Center of Washington in Shelton, about 36 miles southwest of Bremerton, announced it is under quarantine and will be closed to the public until further notice to protect the remaining animals and stop the spread.

Friday, December 20, 2024

Salish Sea News Week in Review December 20 2024

Aloha Sacagawea Friday!

Sacagawea, who died on this day in 1812, was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who, in her teens, helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition in achieving their chartered mission objectives by exploring the Louisiana Territory. Wikipedia

Making sense of Washington’s multi-billion dollar budget hole
A reckoning has arrived over spending on programs and services that is expected to outpace state tax revenue.

B.C. government aims to permanently protect Fairy Creek
With old-growth logging deferrals set to expire in February, the BC NDP and Greens pledge to work together to safeguard the old-growth valley.

Protecting the health of people who eat fish: The long battle over water quality standards
...A lawsuit filed against the EPA over toxic pollution limits is finally due for a decision. All the old players are waiting anxiously for a judge to decide if the EPA — and now the state Department of Ecology — have made reasonable choices.

Number of salmon returning to Columbia River Basin stays flat over last decade
Average salmon and steelhead counts in the Columbia River Basin over the last decade are still well below officials’ goal of 5 million fish per year.

Canadian youth climate case will go to trial in Vancouver in 2026
The group argues Canada's contribution to climate change violates their rights to life, liberty, and security.

Nearly 150 miles of Columbia River added to EPA’s Superfund list
Sediments behind Grand Coulee Dam contain heavy metals from Canadian smelter.

Montana Supreme Court affirms decision in historic youth climate case
A state limit on the analysis of greenhouse gas emissions is unconstitutional, the court says.

Federal agencies to revise environmental study for Columbia River Basin dam operations
Supplemental study will consider new data about dam breaching, which environmental advocates say would restore salmon, steelhead populations.

How Whitman College is reckoning with its past
Whitman College has started serving “first foods,” such as roasted elk, fry bread with huckleberry jam, and cedar plank smoked rainbow trout, which are representative of the region’s Indigenous people.

Friday, December 13, 2024

Salish Sea News Week in Review December 13 2024

Aloha Horse Friday!
National Day of the Horse exists to encourage citizens to consider the contributions that horses have made to the economy, character, and history of the United States. The day was created through a Senate resolution in 2004, with the first National Day of the Horse being celebrated that year.

Honoring the children: Biden proclaims new national monument at Carlisle
President Joe Biden announced the creation of a new national monument on the site of the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School to honor the tens of thousands of students who attended boarding schools.

Ruling by a conservative Supreme Court could help blue states resist Trump policies
The overturning of the ‘Chevron doctrine’ may affect everything from fishing rules to transgender rights under Trump.

Full cleanup begins at Lower Duwamish Superfund site
It has been 10 years since a plan was released for the dredging, capping and recovery of the 5-mile Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund Site. This fall, work began in earnest. For as much as five months each year, barges and excavators will make their way down the river, removing polluted earth.

Monarch butterflies to be listed as a threatened species in US
U.S. wildlife officials announced a decision Tuesday to extend federal protections to monarch butterflies after years of warnings from environmentalists that populations are shrinking and the beloved pollinator may not survive climate change.

10 years after B.C.’s worst mining waste disaster, company faces charges Imperial Metals applied to expand its Mount Polley mine, still polluting a lake, earlier this year. Conservation advocates wonder if charges today will reduce future risks.

With repeal measure rejected, WA carbon auction prices surge
Prices for Washington’s air pollution allowances rebounded at an auction this month, the first sale since voters upheld the state’s cap-and-trade program.

‘At what cost?’: wind energy projects now exempt from environmental assessments in B.C.
As the Alberta government shuns wind power, British Columbia plans to welcome the industry by exempting all new wind energy projects from an environmental assessment that usually takes one to two years.

Officials plan to file lawsuit challenging constitutionality of I-2066
The coalition said Wednesday that I-2066 supporters misled Washington voters with an extensive misinformation campaign.

Friday, December 6, 2024

Salish Sea News Week in Review December 6 2024

Aloha Roy Orbison Friday!
Roy Kelton Orbison, who died on Dec. 6, 1988, was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's music is mostly in the rock music genre and his most successful periods were in the early 1960s and the late 1980s. Wikipedia

2024 saw some good news for Pacific Northwest salmon
Kokanee, landlocked salmon, made their biggest return to the Lake Sammamish watershed in a decade, while some oceangoing salmon have returned in big numbers.

Catch-and-release fishing causing many salmon to die. Here's how to fix the problem, say UBC researchers
A six-year UBC study finds injuries from hooks, nets and handling as leading to high mortality rates of coho and Chinook salmon.

Orcas revive 'dead salmon hat' trend from the 1980s
Researchers in Washington have noticed at least one orca balancing salmon on its head in Puget Sound this fall, taking the dead fish for a ride and possibly snacking on it.

Enbridge Drops the Westcoast Connector Pipeline
Enbridge says it will not develop the Westcoast Connector Gas Transmission line, one of several pipelines previously slated for northern B.C., after its environmental certificate expired last week.

Rising sea levels could put Vancouver’s airport underwater
YVR — the second busiest airport in Canada — sits on an island that could be flooded due to climate change, a new Senate committee report warns.

Worried about bird flu? Here’s what you need to know
The H5N1 avian flu virus has killed tens of thousands of wild birds and devastated poultry flocks. Human cases are rare, but experts say the virus poses a pandemic risk.

Court case in North Dakota calls federal environmental review regime into question
A lawsuit before a North Dakota federal district court could upend nearly five decades of environmental regulations affecting infrastructure projects.

Blue states prepare for battle over Trump’s environmental rollbacks
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to slash federal climate, clean air and clean water regulations during his second term — an agenda that could target rules governing everything from auto emissions to power plant pollution to drinking water standards.

Drilling into oil and gas ads — how accurate are they?
You may have noticed a lot of oil and gas advertising recently, mainly driven by the Government of Alberta and Cenovus Energy. But how accurate are these claims?

Documentary follows effort to free Tokitae, the famous orca held in captivity for 53 years
A new documentary film , “Resident Orca,” tells the story of a captured orca named Tokitae that died in 2023 amid efforts to free her from more than 50 years of captivity.

Vancouver Island salmon return 'one of the best in 20 years'
Climate change could undermine this year's good return and impact future salmon generations, expert says.