ODFW marine biologists and fishery managers continue their work to decrease whale entanglements in crabbing gear with good success. The frequency of entanglements has lessened over the last few years across the West Coast.
The ill-fated “Into the Wild” adventurer chronicled by author Jon Krakauer and film director Sean Penn may have been able to cross the river that turned him back had he tried a day earlier or later, research by Oregon State University suggests.
Saying that “business as usual” is not restoring threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead in the Columbia/Snake river basins, the White House released two reports this week, adding more information to the debate on the costs and efficacy of breaching the four lower Snake River dams as a path towards recovery.
NOAA Fisheries is recommending more than $95 million in funding for 19 new and continuing programs and projects to support West Coast salmon and steelhead populations, ranging from funds for efforts to reintroduce salmon and steelhead above Grand Coulee Dam, $24 million for habitat restoration in Washington and $7.2 million to Idaho Governor’s Office of Species Conservation to “fund projects that are compatible with the Columbia Basin Collaborative sustainability goals.”
With an uptick in the run-size forecast for summer Chinook salmon, Columbia River fisheries managers this week extended angling in the river through the end of the month. Fishing in the lower river downstream of Bonneville Dam to the Astoria Megler Bridge in Astoria was set to end July 14, but the extension allows angling in that area to continue uninterrupted through July 31. Fall Chinook fishing begins the next day, Aug. 1.
A female spring chinook salmon released as a smolt by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe in 2020 in upper Hangman Creek near Tensed, Idaho has returned to the Upper Columbia River where she will be transported around dams lacking fish passage and returned to her natal stream. She will be the first adult Chinook salmon to return to the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s aboriginal territory in over 100 years.
What’s the most imperiled salmon stock in the Columbia/Snake river basin? It may be the Tucannon River’s spring Chinook. The fish have taken a dive, possibly facing extinction.
The latest technology to study glaciers fits in a backpack and can be carried up steep mountains.
In the Pacific Northwest, thirteen watersheds are “intensively monitored” to provide key data on regional salmon and steelhead recovery efforts. A new report has mixed messages about the success of habitat restoration in boosting returns of adult fish listed under the Endangered Species Act.
The endangered southern resident killer whale population isn’t getting enough to eat, and hasn’t been since 2018, a new University of British Columbia study has determined.
In a new finding that goes against current conservation paradigms, re-introducing wolves and other predators to our landscapes does not miraculously reduce deer populations, restore degraded ecosystems or significantly threaten livestock, according to a new study.
Recently, a group of 23 science and policy experts from the U.S. and Canada published a review of mining risks to watersheds ranging from Montana to British Columbia and Alaska.
Oregon State University researchers will embark this month on a 3½-year partnership with the Yurok Tribe to study what the connections between river quality, water use and the aquatic food web will look like after four Klamath River dams are dismantled.
Pending shoreline projects in the Salish Sea can now proceed under a new regulatory tool, a programmatic consultation.
A federal district court this week restored comprehensive Endangered Species Act regulatory protections to hundreds of species and the places they call home.
Idaho Fish and Game staff have confirmed three separate incidents of bears attacking and killing livestock in the Panhandle’s Bonner and Boundary counties.
With numerous whales in poor body condition and several pregnancies reported, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Thursday issued an emergency order requiring commercial whale-watching vessels to keep at least one-half nautical mile away from endangered Southern Resident killer whales this summer, and all boaters are urged to Be Whale Wise and do the same.
Columbia River fishery managers from Oregon and Washington added 13 days of summer Chinook fishing below Bonneville Dam starting today, July 1 through Wednesday, July 13. The move comes as the sockeye return is now predicted to be more than double the preseason forecast.
A federal mediator told the Columbia Basin Collaborative Wednesday that his group is hoping for “an extension on the stay” of litigation over Columbia/Snake river basin salmon recovery so mediation among plaintiffs and defendants can continue to move forward.
A new study led by a University of Idaho researcher offers high-resolution details on how Chinook salmon habitats, due to climate change, are being lost on Bear Valley Creek, a headwater stream of the Salmon River in central Idaho.
Animals that live in groups tend to be more protected from predators. That idea might be common sense, but it’s difficult to test for some species, especially for wild populations of fish that live in the ocean.
While researchers have known for years that microplastics exist in Flathead Lake, the concentrations and origins of the microplastic pollution have remained a mystery.
The first-ever Monarch Butterfly Summit was held in Washington, DC, on June 22-23, a two-day gathering to share the latest science and conservation actions being taken to address the long-term population decline of the western monarch butterfly.
The Biden administration has finalized a rule rescinding a Trump-era regulation that limited the government’s ability to protect habitat that imperiled animals need to survive and recover.
The Washington Department of Ecology has started the rulemaking process to update the state’s aquatic life toxics criteria to reflect new information about toxic chemicals. Among the species of aquatic life that needs protecting are endangered chinook salmon, steelhead and Orca whales.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
