Raising sons is an exhausting experience that leaves killer whale mothers far less likely to produce more offspring, new research shows.
Oregon and Washington fishery agencies announced they will not propose commercial or recreational white sturgeon fishing this year downstream of Bonneville Dam due to a projected low abundance of legal-sized fish, according to a joint status report released this week by the states.
A new report on the status of U.S. wildlife conservation reveals that 40% of animals, 34% of plants and 40% of ecosystems nationwide are at risk. The analysis — Biodiversity in Focus: United States Edition — was compiled by NatureServe, a nonprofit organization that assembles conservation data from a national network of scientists and organizations.
In partnership with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is looking for public feedback on a draft report studying proposed next steps to restore flows for fish in the Yakima River delta.
Wolves on an Alaskan island caused a deer population to plummet and switched to primarily eating sea otters in just a few years, a finding scientists at Oregon State University and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game believe is the first case of sea otters becoming the primary food source for a land-based predator.
The western bumble bee was once common in western North America, but increasing temperatures, drought, and pesticide use have contributed to a 57% decline in the occurrence of this species in its historical range, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey-led study.
There is a “preponderance” of evidence that sea lions and seals (pinnipeds) in Washington’s Salish Sea and outer coast have contributed to the decline of salmon and steelhead in state waters, concludes a recent report by the Washington State Academy of Sciences.
The Center for Biological Diversity submitted a petition this week asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce sea otters to a large stretch of the West Coast. Threatened southern sea otters occupy only 13% of their historic range, and a small population of the animals currently lives on California’s central coast.
A long-term Pacific Northwest study of landslides, clear-cutting timber and building roads shows that a forest’s management history has a greater impact on how often landslides occur and how severe they are compared to how much water is coursing through a watershed.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week announced the completion and publication of the final recovery plan for the Meltwater Lednian stonefly and Western Glacier stonefly.
A chemical used in the production of toilet paper and 'forever chemicals' have been found in the bodies of orcas in British Columbia, including the endangered southern resident killer whales.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal notice this week of its intent to sue two federal agencies for approving a habitat conservation plan in the upper Deschutes River that it says fails to ensure that Wickiup Dam water-release operations won’t drive the threatened Oregon spotted frog extinct.
One way to cool overheated summer and fall Columbia River waters might be to lower reservoir levels at the river’s dams. Drawdowns could reduce the size of the reservoirs so there is less water to heat under the summertime sun and it could reduce travel time for juvenile salmon and steelhead through the dams as the river would take on more of the characteristics of a free flowing stream.
By anyone’s measure, sockeye salmon runs have skyrocketed since 1997 in the Okanogan River basin when a transboundary workgroup decided to begin efforts to reintroduce the fish into Okanogan Lake in British Columbia, according to tribal biologists speaking at this week’s Northwest Power and Conservation Council meeting.
A team of scientists generally gave good marks for a long-term, three-phase plan by the Upper Columbia United Tribes to reintroduce salmon and steelhead upstream of two major Columbia River dams that have blocked passage of the fish for 80 years.
NOAA Fisheries has approved $2.3 million for Trout Unlimited to conduct a planning and feasibility assessment for the removal of Enloe Dam on Similkameen River, a tributary of the Columbia River. The dam has blocked salmon and steelhead passage for 100 years and, if completed, its removal would be the largest habitat restoration action in the Columbia River Basin.
NOAA has partnered with McKenzie River Trust to increase natural floodplain connectivity along Finn Rock Reach in Oregon’s McKenzie River. The project is restoring important habitat for threatened Upper Willamette River Chinook salmon.
Completing a process that began with a relicensing application from PacifiCorp in 2004, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has unanimously approved the removal of four dams on the Klamath River in Oregon and California.
Double-crested cormorants will eat many times more salmon and steelhead per bird as a proportion of their diet the farther they are pushed upstream in the Columbia River estuary, according to a presentation this week at the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Fish and Wildlife Committee meeting.
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources has ended the remaining two finfish net pen aquaculture leases on Washington’s state-owned aquatic lands.
The growth rate of seafood farming worldwide peaked in 1996, according to new University of British Columbia research, highlighting the importance of rebuilding wild fish stocks to feed future demand.
As marine species continue to decline worldwide, the southern resident killer whale population — which now stands at 75 individuals — along the west coast of North America, has baffled scientists who are trying to understand why this population is struggling.
Conservationists filed a formal notice this week of their intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for once again denying Montana’s Arctic grayling population Endangered Species Act protections. Arctic grayling is a freshwater fish in the same family (Salmonidae) as salmon, trout, and whitefish.
New research from the University of Oxford, Yellowstone National Park, and Penn State, published this week in the journal Science, may have finally solved why wolves change color across the North American continent.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized protections for the emperor penguin, a flightless seabird endemic to Antarctica, under the Endangered Species Act. The emperor penguin is listed as a threatened species and includes a section 4(d) rule that tailors protections for the species. The impact of climate change on sea-ice habitat, where the species spends the majority of its life, is the primary threat to the penguin.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
