A new study reports that, for several species of oceanic sport fish, individual fish that are caught, released and re-caught are more likely to be caught again than scientists anticipated. The findings raise some interesting questions for policy makers tasked with preserving sustainable fisheries.
A recent study shows that all stocks of chinook salmon are declining along the West Coast at about the same rate and concludes that habitat and dams are not the likely culprits. It’s something far more out of our control: The ocean.
Every year about this time, NOAA Fisheries releases a memo detailing preliminary survival estimates for passage of spring-migrating juvenile salmonids through Snake and Columbia River dams – key data for assessing the impact of federal hydropower operations on 13 species of salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act. This year, however, due to Covid-19 impacts and more spill for fish, that data took a hit.
The Fish Passage Center’s annual Comparative Survival Study, providing smolt-to-adult return data and analysis for Columbia/Snake River salmon and steelhead for 25 years, should include an “impact report” to communicate “the most critical take-home messages” for policymakers.
A new study reveals the damage that a nuclear war might take on wild-caught seafood around the world, from salmon and tuna to the shrimp in shrimp cocktails.
Scientists from several fish and wildlife agencies have launched a rapid research and response effort to tackle a deficiency of thiamine, or Vitamin B1, recently found to be increasing juvenile mortality among chinook salmon in California’s Central Valley.
Historically, spring-run and fall-run chinook salmon have been considered as separate subspecies, races, ecotypes, or even as separate species of fish. A new genetic analysis, however, shows that the timing of migration in chinook salmon is determined entirely by differences in one short stretch of DNA in their genomes.
Spawn timing for wild chinook salmon in the Skagit River system in Washington is slowly occurring later in the year as the river warms due to climate change, a finding that fits with previous research. However, the trend for hatchery-origin stray chinook salmon in the same river is towards earlier spawning, according to a recent study.
Endangered steelhead in California might use its internal clock to decide when to migrate, according to a study by the University of Cincinnati.
Pacific lamprey is a relatively understudied species compared to other anadromous fish, such as salmon and steelhead. Basic biological information has been lacking and there is still uncertainty regarding its life history diversity.
Wastewater containing coronaviruses may be a serious threat, according to a new, global study led by researchers from the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).
The size of salmon returning to rivers in Alaska has declined dramatically over the past 60 years because they are spending fewer years at sea, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
People hoping to get a handle on future droughts in the American West are in for a disappointment, as new University of Southern California-led research spanning centuries shows El Niño cycles are an unreliable predictor.
Marine heatwaves across the world’s oceans can displace habitat for sea turtles, whales, and other marine life by 10s to thousands of kilometers. They dramatically shift these animals’ preferred temperatures in a fraction of the time that climate change is expected to do, new research shows.
To get a better idea of how much predation plays in steelhead populations, a couple of Nez Perce Tribe Fisheries biologists began looking for clues at a heron rookery on northeast Oregon’s Wallowa River.
To aid a research project, Idaho steelhead anglers are once again being asked to watch for tagged steelhead they might catch during the 2020-21 steelhead fishing seasons, and report tagged fish if they catch one.
Steelhead trout stir up the sediment of the river bed when building their spawning pits, thus influencing the composition of the river bed and the transport of sediment. Until now, this process could only be studied visually, irregularly and with great effort in the natural environment of the fish.
In their zeal to promote the importance of climate change as an ecological driver, climate scientists increasingly are ignoring the profound role that indigenous peoples played in fire and vegetation dynamics, not only in the eastern United States but worldwide, according to a Penn State researcher.
A new University of Alaska-led study provides the first evidence that declines in many of Alaska’s chinook salmon populations can be attributed in part to climate-driven changes in their freshwater habitats.
Caspian tern predation on steelhead smolts in the Columbia River has reduced the size of the juvenile migration by more than 20 percent each year also has reduced the number of adult steelhead that return to the river several years later.
Microplastic pollution in marine environments is concentrated most highly in coastal habitats, especially fjords and estuaries, according to a new review article.
Adult chinook salmon are returning from the ocean to rivers along North America’s West Coast at younger ages and smaller sizes (about 5 to 8 percent in the Yukon River) since the 1970s. The smaller size is resulting in a drop in reproductive potential for female salmon by 24 to 35 percent, based on total egg mass per female, according to a recent study.
Fish exposed to very low levels of chemicals commonly found in waterways can pass the impacts on to future generations that were never directly exposed to the chemicals, according to Oregon State University researchers.
Since their reintroduction to the Pacific coast in the 1970s, the sea otters’ rapid recovery and voracious appetite for tasty shellfish such as urchins, clams and crabs has brought them into conflict with coastal communities and fishers, who rely on the same valuable fisheries for food and income.
When drought reshuffles the green-up of habitats that mule deer migrate across, it dramatically shortens the annual foraging bonanza they rely on.
There is truth in the saying “you are what you eat”; even more so if you are a salmon or herring swimming off the British Columbia coast, a recent University of British Columbia study discovered.
The Center for Whale Research reported in January 2020 that L41, also known as “Mega”, is missing from L-pod — one of three family groups of the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales.
The northeast Pacific Ocean from the Fraser River to the Bering Sea is warming, but it is also becoming more crowded with hatchery pink and chum salmon produced in Alaska and Russia. The competition for food by hatchery pink salmon in a warming ocean has resulted in a 15 percent drop in survival of sockeye salmon returning to the Fraser River and other streams in British Columbia, according to a study released this week.
Ocean temperatures that in 2015 and 2016 were abnormally warm – at times more than 2.5 degrees Celsius higher than normal – stressed juvenile steelhead just entering the California Current and impacted their size and condition. Most of the change occurred in the first few days after ocean entry, according to a recent study.
A recent study found that the stray rates of returning natural origin salmon and steelhead in the upper Columbia River basin differ by river basin, sub-basin and by stream, with the larger the area the lower the straying percentage.
Discussions of drought often center on the lack of precipitation. But among climate scientists, the focus is shifting to include the growing role that warming temperatures are playing as potent drivers of greater aridity and drought intensification.
Researchers in Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences have taken a step closer to solving one of nature’s most remarkable mysteries: How do salmon, when it’s time to spawn, find their way back from distant ocean locations to the stream where they hatched?
A science panel says a key ongoing salmon survival study should better take into account potential impacts of climate change on future flows and environmental conditions in the Columbia/Snake river basin.
University of Colorado researchers have developed a method that could enable scientists to accurately forecast ocean acidity up to five years in advance. This would enable fisheries and communities that depend on seafood negatively affected by ocean acidification to adapt to changing conditions in real time, improving economic and food security in the next few decades.
Three years of “health check-ups” on Oregon’s summer resident gray whales shows a compelling relationship between whales’ overall body condition and changing ocean conditions that likely limited availability of prey for the mammals, a new study from Oregon State University indicates.
Weakened wind patterns likely spurred the wave of extreme ocean heat that swept the North Pacific last summer, according to new research led by the University of Colorado Boulder and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.
In a sampling of fish from a creek that flows into San Diego Bay, nearly a quarter contain microplastics, according to a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE. The study, which examined plastics in coastal sediments and three species of fish, showed that the frequency and types of plastic ingested varied with fish species and, in some cases, size or age of fish.
Once the run is complete, a biologist with the Washington fishery department said that some 7.5 million pounds of eulachon, also known as Pacific smelt, will have entered the Columbia River. That’s 3 million pounds more than showed up in 2019.
A new Simon Fraser University-led study looking at the effects that glacier retreat will have on western North American Pacific salmon predicts that while some salmon populations may struggle, others may benefit.
The physical condition of a female steelhead at its first spawning can predict the ability of the fish to spawn a second time a year later, according to a recent study that measured body chemicals and condition in female hatchery fish.
Across the globe, humans are using freshwater resources faster than those resources can be naturally replenished. In the Western United States, for example, water extractions from the Colorado River have exceeded total river flow, causing rapid depletion of water storage reservoirs. In addition, as these water sources dry up, species of fish, plants and animals are also adversely impacted.
For the first time, researchers have used radar and other tools to accurately measure the volume of snow produced through cloud seeding.
In 2014, a disease of epidemic proportions gripped the West Coast of the U.S. You may not have noticed, though, unless you were underwater.
Steelhead reared in a hatchery for one year consistently outperformed males reared in the hatchery for two years when competing for spawning opportunities, although one and two year old female steelhead did not differ in their ability to produce offspring, according to recent study.
Chinook salmon smolts that rear in upper Willamette River reservoirs grow much faster and are larger than their counterparts that rear in streams, according to a recent study.
A large-scale and long-term monitoring of habitat restoration projects in the state of Washington found that the size and depth of pools created by the restoration projects failed to fully remain in place after year 10 at 23 monitored projects.
The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies recently honored Idaho Fish and Game with the Ernest Thompson Seton Award for the agency’s research on the effects of air exposure on caught-and-released fish.
A recent study examining salmon hatchery operations practices in the Salish Sea (Puget Sound) in Washington State for the past 65 years finds that current practices are releasing juvenile salmon at a larger size than in the past – a size preferred by predators – and with decreasing diversity. It calls for a consideration of modifying hatchery programs to allow for more diversity by reducing this size homogenization.
There’s a long-standing belief in the freshwater fishing community that once anglers find it too hard to land a particular fish for their dinner plate, they either move on to fishing for different species or fish in new waters, giving depleted populations time to rebound.
The survival of juvenile Snake River salmon and steelhead and their eventual return to spawning streams as adults depends more on the juveniles’ size than the way they pass through hydroelectric dams on their migration to the ocean, new research shows.
Tiny threads of plastics are showing up in Pacific oysters and razor clams along the Oregon coast — and the yoga pants, fleece jackets, and sweat-wicking clothing that Pacific Northwesterners love to wear are a source of that pollution, according to a new Portland State University study.
A panel of scientists completed a review of the Upper Columbia United Tribes’ phase 1 report that describes the feasibility of reintroducing salmon and steelhead into the reaches of the Columbia River upstream of Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams.
The addition of steelhead carcasses to tributaries of the Grande Ronde River in northeastern Oregon resulted in short-term increases in the growth rates, body condition and size of juvenile chinook salmon and steelhead, factors that may contribute to their survival, according to a recent study.
Natural abundance potential of spring/summer chinook salmon in the Middle Fork Salmon River of Idaho recalculated by three biologists is far higher than most current management goals for the fish by NOAA Fisheries, the Nez Perce Tribe and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, according to a recent study.
Anglers fishing the upper Salmon River this fall and winter may notice large antennas in various locations near the riverbank.
New genetic research has identified fin whales in the northern Pacific Ocean as a separate subspecies, reflecting a revolution in marine mammal taxonomy as scientists unravel the genetics of enormous animals otherwise too large to fit into laboratories.
Traditionally it was thought that warm coastal water temperatures in Alaska were considered beneficial for salmon productivity, while the opposite was true off the coasts of British Columbia and Washington State where warmer temperatures were not as good for salmon.
The Great Alaskan Earthquake of 1964 and the tsunamis it spawned may have washed a tropical fungus ashore, leading to a subsequent outbreak of often-fatal infections among people in coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest, according to a paper co-authored by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the nonprofit Translational Genomics Research Institute.
Three conservation organizations this week petitioned NOAA Fisheries to list spring chinook salmon along much of the Oregon Coast south of the Columbia River as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
The annual budget for a panel of scientists that review fish and wildlife projects and regional research issues was cut by almost $200,000 by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council at its meeting in Corvallis, Sept. 18, and the cost savings could be used for Northern pike monitoring and suppression, according to Council staff.
NOAA Fisheries is proposing to expand critical habitat for Southern Resident killer whales along the West Coast, based on information about their coastal range and habitat use.
Technological advances are allowing commercial fishing fleets to double their fishing power every 35 years and put even more pressure on dwindling fish stocks, new research has found.
The hoary bat, the species of bat most frequently found dead at wind power facilities, is declining at a rate that threatens its long-term future in the Pacific Northwest, according to a novel and comprehensive research collaboration based at Oregon State University – Cascades (Bend).
To a certain extent, coho salmon smolts can withstand temperatures somewhat higher than previously thought to be optimal for survival and growth, and, in fact, will even grow faster and larger in higher temperatures, although survival may drop. However, the important variable in their growth over summer periods is the availability and abundance of invertebrate prey for the young salmon to eat, according to a recent study.
Three new viruses—including one from a group of viruses never before shown to infect fish—have been discovered in endangered chinook and sockeye salmon populations.
With warming temperatures, average snowfall frequency is estimated to decline across the Pacific Northwest by 2100 — and at a faster rate if greenhouse emissions are not reduced, according to a new Portland State University study.
In what the lead author says is a “thought experiment,” a new study says that solar and photovoltaic arrays – many on the site of former dams – could produce enough power to replace most hydroelectric dams in the United States, giving salmon, sturgeon, shad and other fish runs unimpeded access to spawning grounds.
Glacier-fed rivers in northern Canada may be consuming significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, according to new research by University of Alberta biologists.
Steelhead repeat spawners, known as kelts, grow quickly with greater blood fat levels soon after their first spawning, a signal that they will repeat spawning in the first year, according to a recent study.
Irrigation diversions move some water into a canal or pipeline where it can be used for irrigation, but they pose challenges for fish due to changes in water flow, damaged habitats, and blocked migration routes. A specific concern are the millions of fish that could be “entrained” or travel into a harmful environment and outside the natural flow of water because of such structures.
Hatchery females and larger chinook salmon are less likely to return to their hatchery of origin than they are to spawn naturally with wild fish in the Elk Creek basin on the Oregon Coast, even as smaller chinook and males tend to return to the hatchery, according to a recent study.
Some 48 fish and wildlife projects that will cost $43.5 million each year – hatchery work, data management, research — were reviewed and approved by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Fish and Wildlife Committee at its meeting this week in Butte, Montana.
A recent study combined ecological analysis with the social sciences, identifying a critical link between fish abundance, angler behavior and management actions.
In Oregon’s fertile Willamette River Basin, where two-thirds of the state’s population lives, managing water scarcity would be more effective if conservation measures were introduced in advance and upstream from the locations where droughts are likely to cause shortages, according to a new study.
Nearly 18,000 river kilometers (11,185 miles) of Columbia River basin streams currently has suitable habitat for an invasive predatory fish that, as climate warms, is a range that is predicted to increase by 10,000 river miles by 2080, according to a recent study.
Oregon has overestimated the historical number of coho salmon that ultimately spawned in coastal streams, according to the conclusions of a recent study, and it is likely that the number of coho spawning in Columbia River basin streams has also been overestimated.
A new study finds that the world’s marine fisheries form a single network, with over $10 billion worth of fish each year being caught in a country other than the one in which it spawned.
Recently completed research is throwing light on why steelhead with seemingly identical genetic makeup – hatchery produced and natural populations – perform differently in the wild, impacting lifetime fitness.
An ample buffet of freshwater food, brought on by climate change, is altering the life history of one of the world’s most important salmon species.
Washington tribes and state government first detected the presence of northern pike in Lake Roosevelt, the huge reservoir created by Grand Coulee Dam, in 2007 and have ramped up suppression efforts in the lake since 2014.
Recent research documented transoceanic migration in Pacific Lampreys for the first time, with one tagged lamprey traveling from the Bering Sea to the Columbia River.
Just over one-third (37 percent) of the world’s 246 longest rivers remain free-flowing, according to a new study published in the scientific journal Nature.
Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history — and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating, with grave impacts on people around the world now likely, warns a landmark new report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
Without sound decision-making, responses to seeming environmental tragedies can often make matters worse, according to ethicists who analyzed a controversial goat removal program on an Australian island.
Federally-sponsored science plays a more significant role in bringing together stakeholders and facilitating environmental governance debates than all other types of research, according to an international team of researchers.
Heavy rain over the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia and the eastern Pacific Ocean is a good indicator that temperatures in central California will reach 100 degrees in four to 16 days, according to a collaborative research team from the University of California Davis and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Climate Center in Busan, South Korea.
Coastal waters are cooling and attracting higher value, more fat-rich food — a good sign for salmon, steelhead and ocean predators, such as Orcas — after several years of unusually warm conditions (2014 – 2016), when the warm water “blob” dominated coastal conditions, according to a report released last week by NOAA Fisheries.
Findings from tests of five Columbia River fish species “intended for the dinner table” show alarming levels of heavy metals, toxic flame retardants, cancer-causing PCBs, and endocrine disrupting chemicals, according to results of a Phase 2 study, “Is Your Fish Toxic?”
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