In late August, the SRV SAM, a 48’ alu­minum ketch, set sail from the Hai­da Gwaii Islands in British Colum­bia to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Washington’s Fri­day Har­bor Labs (FHL) – the lat­est leg of its 8,000 nm voy­age across the North Pacif­ic for the Ocean Genome Atlas Project (OGAP). The ves­sel will be moored at  Con­tin­ue Reading

Impor­tant Note: A total of 17 pre­vi­ous cas­es have been removed from the list of con­firmed cas­es in San Juan Coun­ty. These are cas­es that occurred after June 1, 2021 and were first iden­ti­fied by a pos­i­tive over-the-counter COVID test result, but were not con­firmed in a sub­se­quent PCR lab test. This adjust­ment brings San  Con­tin­ue Reading

All the ani­mals that come through our shel­ter doors are cher­ished and loved.  We hon­or and remem­ber every pet that we have touched – doing our best to give them hap­py end­ings to the unfor­tu­nate cir­cum­stances that brought them into the sys­tem.  Occa­sion­al­ly, there are pets who man­age to beat all the odds stacked against  Con­tin­ue Reading

The Cen­ter for Whale Research shares this sto­ry… What is it, when does it hap­pen, and what are the caus­es? Sev­er­al weeks ago, K21, the old­est male killer whale (orca) in the South­ern Res­i­dent com­mu­ni­ty, was pho­tographed and videoed in a state of severe ema­ci­a­tion, show­ing an extreme ver­sion of what killer whale researchers some­times refer  Con­tin­ue Reading

This sto­ry comes from Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries and it may help shed some light on all the fer­ry sail­ing can­cel­la­tions due to “Short­age of Coast Guard doc­u­ment­ed crew”… We’re not the only marine trans­porta­tion sys­tem deal­ing with a lack of crewmem­bers. Fol­low­ing BC Fer­ries’ can­cel­la­tion of a cou­ple sail­ings last week due to a staffing short­fall,  Con­tin­ue Reading

SJIMA needs to can­cel the Appraisal Day and Silent Auc­tion sched­uled for this Sat­ur­day, August 28 until the COVID virus has reced­ed. This event has been antic­i­pat­ed by the SJIMA team for two years and we are severe­ly dis­ap­point­ed to have to post­pone it again. Appraisal Day, when resched­uled will be fun for all and bring  Con­tin­ue Reading

FRIDAY HARBOR, WA. — Labor Day week­end is approach­ing, the last hur­rah for many sum­mer boaters before buck­ling down for the fall. As scores of ves­sels take to local water­ways over the hol­i­day, it’s an impor­tant time to stay vig­i­lant and keep safe on the water. San Juan County’s Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Stew­ard­ship calls on  Con­tin­ue Reading

San Juan Singers, direct­ed by Angel Michaels, is a com­mu­ni­ty cho­rus open to all San Juan Island res­i­dents aged 14–100+. A gen­er­al meet­ing for all mem­bers, return­ing and prospec­tive, is sched­uled for Sep­tem­ber 1, 2021, 7:00–8:00pm at the Brick­works build­ing. At this meet­ing you will sched­ule an audi­tion or voice check, learn about the rehearsal pro­to­cols  Con­tin­ue Reading

In the SJ Update mail­bag today we have a Heads Up from Barn­a­by Zall about the RHNA Annu­al Pic­nic… After care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion, on Sat­ur­day, August 21, the Board of Direc­tors of the Roche Har­bor Neigh­bor­hood Asso­ci­a­tion vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly to can­cel its 2021 Labor Day Isth­mus Potluck Pic­nic, orig­i­nal­ly sched­uled for Sept. 4.  RHNA is a char­i­ty  Con­tin­ue Reading

  Sign-ups are look­ing good, but there are still spaces avail­able. Walk-ups also wel­come. For any­one wait­ing for full FDA approval of the vac­cine before receiv­ing their shot, that approval has now been grant­ed for the Pfiz­er vac­cine being admin­is­tered this week. Thanks to every­one who is signed up- we real­ly appre­ci­ate the renewed inter­est. More  Con­tin­ue Reading