Federal data shows that 33 whales were reported entangled in fishing gear off the U.S. West Coast in 2025. That’s just one fewer than the 34 entangled in 2024, which was the highest number since 2018. At least nine whales have already been seen entangled in 2026, including two humpbacks entangled near Monterey, Calif., in…
A new study shows per-area greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s water reservoirs are around 29% higher than suggested by previous studies, but that practical measures could be taken to help reduce that impact.
The spring chinook salmon fishing on the Columbia River ended Wednesday evening and was followed immediately by a summer chinook and summer steelhead season for Treaty Indian gillnetters, Treaty platform and hook and line fishers, commercial gillnetters and recreational anglers: in short, everyone is fishing.
A $32 million project is under way at the Mid-Columbia’s Chief Joseph Dam aimed at reducing total dissolved gas that can harm aquatic organisms, including protected salmon and steelhead, in the river below.
The federal government unilaterally reduced spill at the John Day Dam this week, the second time in the last two weeks state and tribal salmon managers of the interagency Technical Management Team have been left out of an important river operations decision.
With the run of spring Chinook declining and with anglers faced with the prospect of no summer Chinook fishing, Oregon and Washington fisheries managers added 11 more days of recreational angling on the mainstem Columbia River.
The WDFW scientists teamed up with Dr. Jonathan Armstrong from the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences at Oregon State University over the course of a year to analyze the monthly stomach contents of walleye in the Lower Snake River.
Oregon and Washington fishery managers have finalized preseason planning for 2026 Columbia River summer and fall recreational salmon and steelhead fisheries.
A deadly May 26 industrial incident at a packaging mill in Longview, WA killed eleven workers and injured countless others.
Efforts to restore fish passage are cropping up across the country, but these projects come with hefty price tags.
Artificial intelligence systems that ask users to pause to consider AI’s energy consumption and environmental impacts are likely to reduce unnecessary AI use, new research by Oregon State University suggests.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, has finalized a 20-year plan to maintain the lower Columbia River’s deep-draft navigation channel.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a draft recovery plan and recovery implementation strategy to guide conservation efforts for the coastal distinct population segment (DPS) of the Pacific marten, a federally threatened mammal.
At least 51 whales have died along the West Coast already this year, according to an analysis of public data and media reports by the Center for Biological Diversity.
Federal agencies reduced daytime spill at the lower Snake River’s Lower Monumental Dam Tuesday, May 26, hoping to encourage adult spring Chinook salmon stalled in the Ice Harbor reservoir downstream to begin moving upstream through Lower Monumental’s fish ladder.
Juvenile Chinook salmon in Canada’s Lower Fraser River estuary are feeding and growing in a slurry of contaminants from pharmaceuticals, personal care products to industrial chemicals, according to a new Simon Fraser University study. Researchers found more than 200 contaminants in water and fish tissue samples collected from five sites in the Lower Fraser River…
In two of the past three weeks fisheries biologists have downgraded the forecasted run-size of upriver spring Chinook salmon in the Columbia River by 24 percent to 111,900 fish.
Runoff from a high-intensity storm during the 2022 McKinney Fire depleted oxygen in the Klamath River to levels lethal to fish, killing aquatic life along nearly 60 miles of one of California’s most culturally significant waterways, according to a U.S. Geological Survey study
The Sin Nombre virus — a hantavirus that can cause a deadly respiratory disease in humans — may be more widespread among rodent populations in parts of the Pacific Northwest than previously recognized.
A new study of the largest dam removal project in United States history on the Klamath River in Oregon and California offers new insight into a long-running water conflict by finding that farmers and conservation groups share priorities that may help guide decision-making on future river restoration projects. Researchers from Oregon State University found that…
The steady release of groundwater from the fractured rock that composes most mountainous regions sustains ecosystems and human activity during periods of drought. These groundwater systems are critically important for communities in mountainous areas such as Missoula, according to new research from the University of Montana. The new science was conducted by Matthew Swarr, a…
With summer around the corner and the World Cup arriving in Seattle in June, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is reminding boaters to follow the law and protect endangered Southern Resident killer whales (SRKW) by staying 1,000 yards away.
Similar trends from first quarter financial performance results continued for the Bonneville Power Administration into the second quarter for fiscal year 2026. While agency net revenues continue to fall short and the agency debt-to-asset ratio is higher than expected, BPA is on track to meet most of its end-of-year targets. The Q2 projection for end-of-year…
At its May meeting this week the Northwest Power and Conservation Council hashed out the few remaining issues in its draft Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. However, the Council members continue to be divided over whether the Program should include August spill for salmon, an issue that one member worried could “unravel” the…
In response to a petition filed in 2024 by the Wild Fish Conservancy, NOAA Fisheries announced this week that it had completed its status review and 12-month finding for Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon, determining that listing of three evolutionary significant units of the salmon under the federal Endangered Species Act is not warranted. The…
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
