A new system combines decades of fisheries data and statistics to visualize West Coast fisheries and how they have changed over time.
The Pacific Fishing Effort Mapping Project was led by researchers at NOAA, state wildlife departments, and the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. It consolidates location and catch data from fishing vessels with landings and economic figures into revealing maps and charts of major West Coast fisheries. It then shows how they may be affected by other ocean uses. For instance, the new system turns data on the catch value of groundfish into a landscape of colors depicting the West Coast, where the highest value catch areas stand out boldly.

Summer weather is arriving earlier, lasting longer and packing more heat than it used to—and it’s happening faster than scientists had previously measured.

Alaska’s glaciers respond to climate change by melting for three additional weeks with every 1 degree Celsius increase in the average summer temperature, data from satellite-mounted radars show.

A new study from the University of British Columbia has found that artificial turf fields across Metro Vancouver leach 6PPD-quinone, a chemical known to kill coho salmon, into municipal stormwater systems—and the contamination persists long after the fields are installed.

A massive marine heatwave has dominated waters off the West Coast since last summer. This marks only the third time on record that such a large section of the coastal ocean has remained so warm for so long—particularly into winter months—without it being an El Niño, NOAA scientists report.

Canada is failing in a decades-old pledge to monitor the health of Pacific salmon, according to new research from Simon Fraser University. 

Climate change is skewing the North Pacific storm track northwards quicker than current weather predictions have estimated, moving winds and rains closer to the arctic and leaving cooler and drier conditions in the Northwest, according to a recent study published in the journal Nature.

In the aftermath of historically severe wildfires in 2020, a study of Cascade Range watersheds found that stream vertebrates are doing surprising well, highlighted by flourishing fish populations.