Baby Orca, Rats Near Lake Union & More News
The top Seattle news stories you should be reading today
By Danny Calkins September 10, 2015
Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) used a drone to capture amazing aerial images of a baby orca born to an endangered group of killer whales off the San Juan Islands, KOMO News reports. The new calf, named L122, was swimming with its mother—a 20-year-old named L91—in Haro Strait, just west of San Juan Island. Researchers hope L122’s birth will mark a turnaround in what has been a negative population trend in recent years.
The rats found a home. And it appears to be near Minor Avenue North and Harrison Street in South Lake Union, where rats have taken over a fenced in area up for development, KING 5 news reports. “It is like a sightseeing thing, people go by and they stop and watch the rats. It is really gross,” resident Eden Johnson told KING 5. The proposal to build on the land has some residents worried where the rats will go when they’re forced to leave their premises. The Seattle and King County Health Department stresses that rats are dangerous and can contaminate food, start electrical fires and carry disease.
Officials in the cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett urge residents to use less water despite recent rains, The Seattle Times reports. Recent rainfall in the area helped, but did not fully return water supplies to normal levels for people and fish, officials said in a news release Wednesday. If you’re wondering how to do your part and reduce your water use, officials list taking shorter showers, fixing any leaks and doing only essential pressure-washing to save some H2O. People in the region have cut water use by 14 percent in the past four weeks.
Super Bowl favorites. The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook gives the Seattle Seahawks the best odds to reach the Super Bowl in 2016, adding that more money has been spent on the 2015 NFC champions to win Super Bowl 50 than any team in the NFL, according to ESPN. At 9-2 odds, the Hawks place just ahead of the Green Bay Packers at 6-1. The New England Patriots—the defending Super Bowl champions (which is still very difficult to write)—tie for the third best odds at 8-1, along with the Philadelphia Eagles and Indianapolis Colts.
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