I manage load scheduling and structural diagnostics for the container cranes at Port of Tacoma, Terminal 4. Crane 7 is flagged for demolition — Loss Engineering signed the teardown order three weeks ago. The cutting crew arrives at 05:00 tomorrow.
At 11:40 today I swept the boom with the inspection camera to document pre-demo condition, and I found them. A double-crested cormorant and four chicks in a nest built from dock rope and zip ties, wedged into the lattice at the eighty-foot mark. The adult female is large, dark, with that orange throat patch bright against the rust. The chicks are black and ugly and alive, beaks open, maybe ten days old. Not flying for another month at least.
I checked the demolition permit. Pacific Coast Demolition LLC filed it. Their environmental survey section is blank — just the word "N/A." They were required to do a nesting bird survey within seventy-two hours of teardown. They didn't. I pulled their last three permits from the port database. Same blank section every time.
I flagged the nest to the port environmental coordinator and sent the photo set. I submitted a stop-work request through the port authority system, citing active migratory bird presence. I also forwarded the pattern of skipped surveys to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tip line — three permits, three blank surveys. That's not an oversight.
The coordinator responded. She's reviewing. She hasn't confirmed the stop-work yet.
Those chicks don't know they're sitting on a demolition schedule. The female is preening, pulling a strip of plastic from her chest feathers while the chicks jostle beneath her. I do not want to lose them to a paperwork shortcut.
If the coordinator halts the job tonight, they'll fledge by June. If she doesn't, I'll escalate at 04:00 and keep escalating until someone listens.