A massive marine heatwave warmed the eastern Pacific Ocean through much of 2025, but the wind-driven upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water that drives the rich marine productivity of the West Coast kept the ecosystem healthy.
California’s Wildlife Conservation Board approved $59,642,096 in grants for 27 projects across 18 counties to protect biodiversity, restore important wildlife habitats and improve public access to nature.
The Bureau of Reclamation has launched a new three-phase prize challenge to identify innovative solutions that prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species through watercraft ballast compartments.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council has adopted three options for 2026 ocean salmon fisheries off Washington, Oregon, and California, which are available for public review.
A petition to list Washington coast Chinook salmon under the federal Endangered Species Act has been denied by NOAA Fisheries.
Fish-eating killer whales in southern Alaska have a diverse, seasonally changing diet featuring salmon and groundfish, according to a recently published study in the journal Ecosphere.
State fisheries managers have set the initial opening for recreational spring Chinook salmon angling on the mainstem Columbia River from Buoy 10 near Astoria, OR to the Oregon and Washington state line near Pasco, WA.
In August 2025, two biologists from NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Region Protected Resources Division traveled to St. George Island to conduct routine maintenance on NOAA facilities. Upon their arrival, they began receiving reports from residents about a high number of northern fur seals found dead in unexpected locations on the island.
The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s refusal to develop a national gray wolf recovery plan under the Endangered Species Act.
A debilitating hoof disease affecting elk herds across the Pacific Northwest appears to be driven not by a single pathogen but by multiple bacterial species working together, according to a study led by researchers in Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
Columbia River salmon recovery programs fared better in the 2026 federal budget than tribes, advocates, bureaucrats and biologists feared.
Forecasts for the 2026 runs of spring and summer Chinook salmon and winter steelhead into the Columbia River are coming in lower than last year’s actual returns for each of the stocks, according to a joint state and tribe stock status report.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has reached a significant goal in conservation science by gaining the ability to study more closely the behavioral patterns of the Sierra Nevada red fox in the southern Sierra Nevada.
A new study shows that interactions between wolves and cougars in Yellowstone National Park are driven by wolves stealing prey killed by cougars and that shifts in cougar diets to smaller prey help them avoid wolf encounters.
The Center for Biological Diversity released an analysis that it says shows that a two-decade, state-led voluntary conservation agreement has not produced a measurable increase in the abundance of critically imperiled Arctic grayling in Montana’s Big Hole River.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is investigating the illegal introduction of a northern pike into Pine Grove Pond, a popular family fishing site in Kalispell.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s multi-year moose monitoring project is now entering its third winter. Warmer winters, changing habitat, increased parasites, and predation impacts raise questions about the status and trajectory of Washington’s moose population.
For the fourth year in a row, recreational retention of white sturgeon in the Columbia River downstream of Bonneville Dam and in the Willamette River will remain closed, although catch and release angling is likely this year.
During 2025, Montana Fish,Wildlife and Parks staff inspected more than 120,000 watercraft.
NOAA Fisheries concluded this month that Olympic Peninsula wild steelhead is not in danger of extinction, nor will the distinct population segment of the steelhead likely become so in the foreseeable future.
Juvenile salmon encountered a mixed bag of ocean conditions off the West Coast in 2025, based on an annual analysis by NOAA Fisheries and Oregon State University researchers.
The decline, the report says, is due to marine conditions that have been mixed and trending downwards since 2023, including adverse upwelling patterns and copepod community structure.
An annual report by fisheries managers confirmed for the sixth year running that under climate change and poor river flows, smolt-to-adult return rates of Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead will not meet regional goals.
Many years ago, people built a dead end where two rivers met — and blocked an ancient pathway for migrating salmon and steelhead.
This summer, several juvenile coho salmon were spotted in the Russian River’s upper basin — a first in more than 30 years.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
