Ocean acidification caused by climate change is making it harder for creatures from clams to sea urchins to grow their shells, and the trend is likely to be felt most in polar regions, scientists said on Monday.  Read more about this here.   

Changes are afoot downstream (and upstream, for that matter) of the old Elwha Dam site.  Read about what Washington Sea Grant’s Ian Miller is discovering at the mouth of the river as the beach rebuilds in today’s Seattle Times. 

Take a virtual tour of the expanding UW Farm, where students get hands-on with their fruits and veggies, to grow an edible landscape and a closer and knowledgeable community. Watch the full show online at UWTV.org/uw360. 

The southern Puget Sound’s struggling population of orcas could lose federal protection if a new effort succeeds at removing the whales from endangered species list. Orcas in Puget Sound were placed on the federal endangered species list in 2005. A report last year concluded Puget Sound orcas were inbreeding so much that their genetic diversity could be diminishing, further jeopardizing their ability to survive. 

According to a new study, 19 huge earthquakes have occurred over the past 10,000 years along the Pacific Northwest’s Cascadia Subduction Zone, each typically 8.7 to 9.2 on the Richter scale.  This most comprehensive study of earthquake history off the Pacific Northwest coast suggests that there is a 40% chance of such an event happening in the next 50 years — but the probability is different in different locations.