A multi-agency operation to research the effectiveness of non-injurious methods of hazing sea lions took place this week in the tailrace area immediately below Bonneville Dam as an attempt to disrupt the pinnipeds' pursuit of returning Columbia River spring chinook salmon.
Two University of Idaho professors participated in the nation’s most ambitious scientific effort to understand river restoration efforts that total nearly $1 billion in costs annually.
A program that pays recreational anglers to harvest northern pikeminnow from portions of the Columbia River system begins May 2.
During a daylong hearing Wednesday U.S. District Court Judge James Redden gave no hints of his leanings as attorneys for federal, state, and tribal governments, utilities, irrigators and river users debated the merits of the federal government's Columbia/Snake hydrosystem salmon protection plan.
Despite an upriver spring chinook run that has recently begun to show signs of life, Oregon and Washington fish managers this week left the closure in place on both sport and commercial fisheries on the Columbia River mainstem and in off-channel "select areas."
A "sound fence" erected last week in front of Bonneville Dams fish ladders seems to have accomplished its task, at least for now, of keeping invading sea lions out of the structure while allowing a growing pulse of upriver spring chinook salmon to swim upstream towards spawning grounds and hatcheries.
The University of Washington Alaska Salmon Program, the world's longest-running effort to monitor salmon and their ecosystems, has received nearly $2.4 million from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to expand its sampling scope and sophistication.
A continued scarcity of upriver spring chinook salmon at Bonneville Dam has forced Oregon and Washington to close Columbia River mainstem and side-channel sport fisheries to prevent further "impacts" on federally protected stocks within the salmon run.
NOAA Fisheries this week released a draft interim salmon recovery plan for the Lower Columbia River Subbasin that the agency says is the Northwest’s first comprehensive science-based recovery plan for salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a growing, pinniped-repulsion arsenal, and the animals have a growing food supply in recent days.
Despite year-to-date upriver spring chinook counts at Bonneville Dam that are the lowest on record, Oregon and Washington managers decided Wednesday to give sport anglers at least one more week of fishing on the Columbia River mainstem.
Efforts to shoo an adventurous sea lion out of fish ladders at Bonneville Dam are, officially, 1-for-1, with the offending animal diving and disappearing after two "screamer shells" were fired over his head Wednesday morning.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council sent three "Updated Proposed Action" projects ahead, but withheld its funding recommendation for five other projects pending further refinement called for by the Independent Scientific Review Panel.
The lower Columbia River commercial fleet has been docked until fishery managers see evidence that the anticipated upriver spring chinook salmon run is somewhere close to forecasts.
Federal, state and tribal officials meet today to, hopefully, cement a plan for shooing an adventurous young sea lion from the fish ladders at Bonneville Dam at a time when those passage routes are normally clogged with migrating spring chinook salmon.
With less than two months remaining before they intend to issue a "closeout" letter detailing expected costs for the 2007-2009 rate period, Bonneville Power Administration officials continued this week to take input on fish and wildlife expenditures that, at least for now, are estimated at $691.6 million per year.
NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service this week filed with the Federal Register a proposed rule to list North American green sturgeon south of the Eel River, Calif. (southern distinct population segment or DPS) as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service has accepted a Washington state citizen’s petition to list Puget Sound steelhead under the federal Endangered Species Act, saying that the petition describes significant short- and long-term downward trends for steelhead in a wide range of rivers emptying into the sound.
Three of ten hydropower projects recognized by the National Hydropower Association for “outstanding environmental stewardship efforts” are in the Columbia River Basin.
At Bonneville Dam, a sea lion has actually found its way up into the fish ladders themselves in recent days, says Rock Peters of the Army Corps of Engineers' Portland District.
Unless there's some kind of a hitch, testing will begin Monday to see how the second "removable spillway weir" in the federal Columbia/Snake river hydrosystem might treat juvenile salmon and steelhead that are making their way toward the Pacific Ocean.
The Nez Perce Tribal Executive Council Tuesday (March 29) voted to accept the terms of the proposed settlement of the Tribe’s water right claims included in the Snake River Basin Adjudication.
Oregon and Washington fishery managers this week OK'd a second 8-hour commercial fishery on the lower Columbia River mainstem while acknowledging a growing concern that the upriver spring chinook salmon run may not be as big as anticipated.
For the first time in nearly thirty years, anglers in Idaho may have the chance to fish for chinook salmon on the Upper Salmon River.
A new study published in the March 30th edition of the prestigious scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B (a publication of the UK’s national academy of science) shows that the transfer of parasitic sea lice from salmon farms to wild salmon populations is much larger and more extensive than previously believed.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
