The Fish Passage Center this week released a "preliminary analysis" concluding that survival levels of juvenile salmon migrating "in-river" through the lower Snake River this summer were "the highest recorded in recent years."
Current efforts to save wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest and California almost certainly will fail.
That’s the grim conclusion of 33 salmon scientists, policy analysts and wild salmon advocates participating in a year-long initiative to create policy options that would sustain wild runs of salmon in the West.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials say they will provide the construction costs if other entities pay ongoing operations and maintenance and monitoring expenses that are necessary to eliminate costly March spill that is intended to flush hatchery-produced tule fall chinook salmon through Bonneville Dam.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Sept. 1 that it is initiating a status review of the Yellowstone cutthroat trout to determine whether to propose listing the species as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
Researchers at Oregon State University have created a “benthic terrain modeler,” software that can be used with a geographic information system to provide a significant new way of describing the ocean sea floor and the fish and other marine species that probably live there.
Veteran Columbia River basin fish biologist Bruce Suzumoto will assume the daunting task of balancing hydrosystem and power needs with those of imperiled fish when he takes over Oct. 17 as assistant regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries' Hydropower Division.
Fishing for fall chinook on the lower Columbia River mainstem has remained slow for both sport and commercial anglers but, with a return to the river's mouth of 671,400 adults anticipated, officials expect the dam to burst soon.
Idaho could take on a bigger role in managing federally protected wolves as soon as September.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Region Fisheries Program has begun a three-year review of the Columbia River Basin salmon hatcheries it owns or operates with the aim of producing recommendations about how they might best be run to achieve Endangered Species Act recovery goals while providing sustainable fisheries.
Scientists have identified a prolific parasite that preys on mud shrimp – a native species of West Coast estuaries – and threatens to decimate mud shrimp populations, raising concern for the fragile, complex ecosystems of these coastal inlets.
With water temperatures at unusually high levels in the lower Columbia River, it appears that spawning-minded adult fall chinook salmon are biding their time in the Pacific Ocean.
A series of "scoping" meetings are planned later this month to discuss the potential hatchery project that the Bonneville Power Administration has proposed for funding on the Columbia River in central Washington.
As the court-ordered summer spill for fish continues this month at four federal Lower Snake River dams and McNary Dam on the Columbia River, researchers are continuing efforts to learn more about the fish most impacted by that spill -- subyearling Snake River fall chinook.
Non-native commercial fishers have harvested nearly 3,000 chinook and 1,000 sturgeon over the past week in the lower Columbia River, roughly half their allocation for the "early August" season.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council on Wednesday recommended $157.2 million in Columbia River Fish and Wildlife Program project spending during fiscal year 2006.
A final environmental review has been released for a project that would use toxins to remove fish from 21 lakes in and around Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex to protect Westslope cutthroat trout from hybridization, but final decisions approving the project have yet to come.
Two sockeye salmon have returned to their spawning grounds in the shadows of the Sawtooth Mountains.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday ruled that a lower court’s order to spill water for fish passage during late summer at five federal Columbia Basin mainstem dams did not abuse the court’s discretion and was “well-grounded in governing statute.”
In the wake of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling upholding a lower court order requiring spill at Snake and lower Columbia River dams this summer, federal officials, who argued vigorously against the spill, say they will continue pursuing a consensus approach to hydro operations, as well as region-wide recovery plans.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has authorized the killing of up to two wolves near Dworshak Reservoir in Idaho.
Agents for the federal agency are hunting the wolves following repeated attacks on livestock.
The number of dead and dying Common Murres washing ashore along Oregon's beaches has increased dramatically during the last week.
The dieoff appears to involve adult birds and is likely the result of stress due to a lack of food associated with unusually low oceanic productivity along the west coast this year.
New salmon rules go into effect for the lower Columbia River Aug. 1, when the fall salmon season gets under way from Buoy 10 upstream to Bonneville Dam.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday that six members of the Copper Basin wolf pack, located near Hailey, Idaho, were lethally controlled on July 20 after repeated depredations on livestock.
Knowledge about the effects of harvests on naturally spawning Columbia River salmon and steelhead populations has advanced notably but the region still lacks the data and tools necessary to determine whether recovery efforts are hindered by carefully managed fisheries.
Idaho Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo says a key fish restoration effort in the upper Columbia Basin is an example of how collaboration can serve as an alternative to listings and litigation under the Endangered Species act.
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