Friday, October 17, 2025

Salish Sea News Week in Review October 17 2025

 
Aloha Mulligan Friday.
Mulligan is a term used in golf when someone who shoots a bad shot is given a do-over. Mulligan Day is a day when people redo something that didn't turn out the first time. It's a day when people give themselves or others a second chance. The word likely came from David Mulligan, a Canadian golfer prominent in the 1920s, who either hit a poor tee shot, was jumpy and shaky after a shot, or overslept and was late for a shot.


Republicans try to weaken 50-year-old law protecting whales, seals and polar bears
Conservative leaders feel they now have the political will to remove key pieces of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, enacted in 1972 to protect whales, seals, polar bears and other sea animals. The law also places restrictions on commercial fishermen, shippers and other marine industries. 

A push for ‘global energy dominance’ puts Alaskan wildlands at risk
The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), at 23 million acres, is the largest sweep of public land in the country, and it has remained largely undeveloped. Now President Donald Trump in his second term, just as in his first, is calling for full-on extraction of oil and gas here. 
Southern resident killer whales show signs of slow decline toward disappearance 
There's 'a fairly good chance' at least one of the three orca pods being gone within the next 50 years, says a director with the Center for Whale Research. 

 University of B.C. launches mushroom-powered toilet, turning waste into fertilizer
The toilet turns human waste into compost using mycelia, the root network of mushrooms. The MycoToilet separates liquids from solids, with the solid waste going into a mycelium-lined compartment, where lab tests have shown 90 per cent of the odour-causing compounds are absorbed. 

With one mystery solved, researchers examine new strategies for sea star recovery
Knowing the cause of sea star wasting disease allows scientists to look for ways to increase resilience among the ravaged sea star population. 

Oregon, environmental groups ask courts to help Columbia Basin fish 
Environmental groups and the state of Oregon asked a judge Tuesday to OK a suite of changes to dam operations in the Columbia Basin to reduce harm to endangered salmon and steelhead. The requests are the first major development in a decadeslong legal battle in the basin since the Trump administration blew up a 2023 agreement that had provided a path to dam removal on the lower Snake River. 

New research links wildfire smoke to lower sperm counts
A study comparing the sperm samples of 84 men who donated during potentially high exposure to smoke showed lower counts, as well as more inactive sperm, compared to samples taken when the air was cleaner. 

Scientists Hope Underwater Fiber-Optic Cables Can Help Save Endangered Orcas
Scientists from the University of Washington recently deployed a little over 1 mile of fiber-optic cable in the Salish Sea to test whether internet cables can monitor endangered orcas like a continuous underwater microphone to capture the clicks, calls and whistles of passing whales — information that could reveal how they respond to ship traffic, food scarcity and climate change.



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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