About half the salmon populations in British Columbia and the Yukon are below their long-term average spawner abundance, according to the Pacific Salmon Foundation, which released its third State of the Salmon report last week.
Water running off busy roads in California carries the pollutant 6PPD-quinone at levels that could harm two endangered salmonid species Endangered coho salmon and steelhead trout live and spawn in habitats surrounded by human activity, such as the San Francisco Bay area.
Less favorable ocean conditions mean marbled murrelet chicks take longer to leave the nest, making them more vulnerable to predation, according to a new study of the iconic Pacific Northwest seabird by Oregon State University scientists.
There has been much debate regarding the impact that trawling has had on Alaska fisheries, especially given that some of our state’s salmon, crab, and halibut stocks are struggling.
New research suggests that that sea lice from fish farms kill wild salmon.
Up to 95 per cent of the wild juvenile salmon that migrate past fish farms die as a result of sea lice infestation from the farms, concludes research results recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America.
Changes in the northern Alaskan Arctic ocean environment have reached a point at which a previously rare phenomenon—widespread blooms of toxic algae—could become more commonplace. These blooms potentially threaten a wide range of marine wildlife and the people who rely on local marine resources for food.
In the 1970s key themes in salmon conservation research were logging, dams, harvest and hatchery-produced fish and their interaction with wild runs of fish.
Rapid destabilization is now a diagnosis rather than a warning for the future.
Last year Mother Nature ignored expectations, providing the Columbia River Basin with a better than average snowpack and water supply to buoy fish, water crops, generate power and provide for other water uses.
A La Nina has developed and will extend through the second winter in a row, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center — a division of NOAA’s National Weather Service. La Nina is a natural ocean-atmospheric phenomenon marked by cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator and is translated from Spanish as “little girl.”
Water birds in the Columbia River basin consume large numbers of out-migrating juvenile salmon and steelhead every year. Three government management plans targeting four avian predator breeding colonies have met with mixed results, according to a recent report by Northwest experts.
Fisheries biologists this week downgraded two Columbia River fish return forecasts, dropping the fall Chinook forecast 9 percent and also predicting a return of A- and B-Index summer steelhead that would be the worst return of the fish since Bonneville Dam was built in 1938.
The tributary of the Scott River in Northern California’s Klamath Basin once supported coho salmon, but as it diminished, so did they.
Unchecked climate change may leave some Arctic predators surviving off of marine “junk food,” according to a new University of British Columbia study.
Industrial-scale illegal fishing continues to undermine ocean sustainability, coastal livelihoods, and global seafood markets—despite decades of regulation and recent advances in surveillance technology, according to new University of British Columbia (UBC) research.
According to the 36th annual State of the Climate report, greenhouse gas concentrations, global sea level, and ocean heat content all reached record highs in 2025.
Oregon State University scientists are teaming with commercial fishermen on a new research effort to rapidly identify the home river basin of chinook salmon found in the Pacific Ocean using genetic testing.
Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing threats to marine wildlife. It is estimated that more than 700 marine species, from blue whales to small barnacles, have had interactions with plastics in the oceans. Plastics now make up 80% of all marine debris and can be found everywhere, from surface waters to deep-sea sediments.
When grizzly bears clamber onto the talus slopes high in Glacier National Park, they’re searching for an abundant, fatty meal: army cutworm moths.
A team of scientists has devised a more accurate way to predict the effects of climate change on plants and animals — and whether some will survive at all.
Fish hatcheries are a critical part of the effort to restore salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest. But hatchery fish are less likely than wild ones to return from the ocean to spawn — and one reason may be hatchery noise.
Yukon River Chinook salmon have been declining for decades. These declines have limited salmon harvest and posed hardships for local communities that depend on these fish for their food sovereignty, culture, and livelihoods.
A panel of scientists recently completed their review of a wide-ranging project aimed at restoring much of the degraded habitat along the John Day River in Central Oregon.
A large marine heatwave has bathed parts of the West Coast in very warm ocean waters over the past year, breaking temperature records in the Pacific. NOAA has also announced that El Niño has developed in the tropical Pacific and is predicted to intensify to a moderate or strong level this fall.
Japan’s Okayama University of Science and Murakami City in Niigata Prefecture, have launched a joint research project to cultivate chum salmon in a land-based aquaculture system using The Third Water at the university’s Next-Generation Aquaculture Center. The juvenile salmon delivered from Murakami earlier this year have grown to an average weight of 23 grams and an average length of 13 centimeters and are now thriving in a 35-ton tank.
Murakami has been known as one of Japan’s leading salmon-producing regions along the Sea of Japan coast since the Heian period (794–1185). In recent years, however, climate change has altered the distribution of marine species, resulting in increased predation on released salmon juveniles by species such as yellowtail and Spanish mackerel that have expanded northward into the region. Consequently, the number of salmon returning to local rivers has declined dramatically.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
