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…
After a mid-season run-size update this week, the two-state Columbia River Compact approved two weekends of additional angling for spring Chinook salmon on the mainstem Columbia River, including angling over the Memorial Day holiday weekend both upstream and downstream of Bonneville Dam. The U.S. v Oregon Technical Advisory Committee for the first time during this…
A new study by University of Victoria and Pacific Salmon Foundation scientists has uncovered what adult Chinook salmon in the Salish Sea are eating—and revealed diet can differ according to region.
The study, led by UVic PhD student Wesley Greentree and published recently in Fisheries Oceanography, analyzed the contents of salmon stomachs to assess salmon diet. Greentree found that year-round, herring are the most important food for adult Chinook salmon throughout the Salish Sea. Anchovy were often found in stomachs collected near Howe Sound and sand lance were important in Victoria and Sidney.
Following three consecutive years of closure, salmon fishing will return to the Klamath River Basin and Sacramento River for the upcoming summer and fall seasons.
More good news comes for inland anglers with a full season on the Feather, American and Mokelumne rivers after a shortened season in 2025.
Restoring dry forests in the Pacific Northwest, shaped by frequent low-intensity fire and widely spaced trees, often means thinning dense stands that accumulated after decades of fire suppression. This can make forests healthier and more resilient to wildfire, but it can raise concerns about protecting wildlife that depend on dense tree cover, including the northern spotted owl.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking public input on a draft periodic status review for the streaked horned lark that includes a recommendation to keep larks classified as a state endangered species. The public comment period is open through Aug. 11. The streaked horned lark is a rare subspecies of horned lark […]
Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians have sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help secure Endangered Species Act protections for the pygmy rabbit – the world’s smallest rabbit species. The rabbits are found in parts of Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Colorado, California, and Oregon.
A new system combines decades of fisheries data and statistics to visualize West Coast fisheries and how they have changed over time.
The Pacific Fishing Effort Mapping Project was led by researchers at NOAA, state wildlife departments, and the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. It consolidates location and catch data from fishing vessels with landings and economic figures into revealing maps and charts of major West Coast fisheries. It then shows how they may be affected by other ocean uses. For instance, the new system turns data on the catch value of groundfish into a landscape of colors depicting the West Coast, where the highest value catch areas stand out boldly.
Salmon are becoming river ‘ghosts’ as brutal droughts and violent floods cause unprecedented losses on their treacherous journey to the Pacific Ocean, scientists say.
A major study 10.1111/gcb.70854 led by the University of Essex, NOAA Fisheries, University of California, Davis, and Cramer Fish Sciences found that young Californian Chinook salmon face a deadly double threat from extreme weather and the destruction of historical wetland habitats they rely on.
Joanne Thompson, Canada’s Minister of Fisheries, has announced a next step in strengthening the long-term conservation and rebuilding of wild Pacific salmon with the expansion of mass marking of all DFO (Fisheries and Ocean Canada) hatchery-origin Chinook salmon in southern British Columbia.
Above: Geographic distribution of the revenue for trawl-caught groundfish in 2024 and 2016–2024 along a portion of the U.S. West Coast. This sample image from the Pacific Fishing Effort Mapping tool illustrates how data is visualized. Credit: NOAA Fisheries A new system combines decades of fisheries data and statistics to visualize West Coast fisheries and…
The Washington Department of Ecology is seeking public input on plans to clean up contamination from the former Columbia Gorge Aluminum smelter near the John Day Dam.
A model developed by Washington State University researchers can predict how transmission towers might fail and collapse in extreme wind events. The work, reported in the journal, Engineering Structures, could someday help power companies identify the most vulnerable transmission towers in extreme wind events and determine which should have retrofits to reduce the power outage…
Above photo: Fire-damaged Detroit, Oregon, following the 2020 Labor Day blazes. A new wildfire risk assessment tool that takes social vulnerability into account indicates more than 400 communities in the Pacific Northwest are at greater risk than previously thought. However, researchers at Oregon State University and The Nature Conservancy say their assessment tool could inform…
U.S. Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-WA), Co-Chair of the Puget Sound Recovery Caucus, has introduced her “6PPD Task Force Act.” The bill creates a task force to bridge together federal, state, tribal, and industry voices to coordinate further 6PPD-quinone research. 6PPD-quinone is a toxic chemical from tires that runs off into stormwater and ends up in […]
The public has had its say in the scoping round for the Cascade Renewable Transmission project, a more than 100-mile transmission line proposal that, if approved, would include 80 miles of line buried beneath the Columbia River from The Dalles to Portland. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is currently writing the project’s draft…
For the litigation over river operations for Columbia/Snake River salmon and steelhead, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has set a briefing schedule for the federal government’s appeal of rulings by a lower court in Portland. But the Court has yet to say whether it will stay the lower court’s rulings as the legal wrangling…
Following a decline at the end of 2024, the Washington Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Annual Report shows that the minimum year-end wolf count increased by more than 17% at the end of 2025. In Oregon, the minimum known count of wolves in Oregon at the end of 2025 was 230 wolves, compared to 204…
The 2026 Northern Pikeminnow Sport-Reward Fishery will open May 1, offering anglers the chance to earn cash while helping protect vulnerable salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake rivers. The fishery will be open daily through Sept. 30 at most locations. In 2025, anglers turned in 150,456 qualifying northern pikeminnow, with each angler averaging […]
The Alaska all-species salmon harvest for 2026 is expected to be 72 million less fish than in 2025. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game released the annual statewide salmon run forecast and commercial harvest projection report: Run Forecasts and Harvest Projections for 2026 Alaska Salmon Fisheries and Review of the 2025 Season. The Alaska […]
Above table shows the years ranked low to high (numbers) based on whether ocean conditions are favorable or unfavorable for juvenile salmon survival. It’s an impossible task to manage salmon and steelhead ocean mortalities along the entire west coast of the United States, so fishery managers should concentrate more on influencing the environment along Washington’s…
Oregon and Washington added one more day of recreational spring Chinook salmon angling on the Columbia River at a virtual two-state Columbia River Compact hearing this week. The one-day opening is Saturday, April 18, from Buoy 10 near Astoria to Bonneville Dam. Although several Columbia River recreational advisors, some of whom are sportfishing guides, pleaded…
Above photo: TMMC-1-91, also known as ‘Ladybug’, swimming in central San Francisco Bay – pictured with the skyline of the city. This individual later died. Photographer: Josephine Slaathaug © The Marine Mammal Center. Gray whales migrate from Arctic waters full of food to the lagoons of Baja Mexico — but as the climate crisis gathers…
Above: Map of the Yakima River Basin with the Bateman Island Causeway project location marked with a red star. Credit: Yakima Basin Fish & Wildlife Recovery Board Every summer, salmon and steelhead returning to the Yakima River swim hundreds of miles from the Pacific Ocean toward their spawning grounds in central Washington. But as they…
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