Someone did not spray "silly string" all over the middlke of this satellite picture. Instead, the spaghetti-like cloud formations offshore from Washington and from Vancouver Island, BC, are cloud trails created in thin stratus by the exhaust of ships. These are loosely similar to ice-crystal clouds (contrails) generated by jet aircraft at high altitudes; except here they form clouds of water droplets. The machines producing them are much more slowly moving too, of course.
The day-long development and motion of these plumes is shown and described in more detail in this 4 MB image loop. You can track several ships by following the progress of the leading edges of their trails.
Javascript visible satellite loop of the plumes.
