The New Year’s Day opening of the popular recreational white sturgeon fishery in the Columbia River’s Bonneville and The Dalles Dam pools was nixed by Oregon and Washington at a joint state hearing last week. However, the sturgeon fishery in the John Day pool will open as normal for anglers, Jan. 1. The change in regulations begins in 2026.
Washington is predicting a huge run of pink salmon into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound this year and is encouraging anglers to take advantage of the run while they are there. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is forecasting a run of pinks of nearly 7.8 million, up 70 percent over the 10-year average.
Harvest and effort by recreational anglers during fall fisheries in the Columbia River last year are among the best in the past 45 years, according to a joint state staff report by states and tribes.
In its first in-season run size update of the 2025 spring Chinook season, the U.S. v Oregon Technical Advisory Committee on Monday, May 19, raised its expectations for the upriver run by 21 percent to 155,500 fish.
Columbia River fisheries forecasters confirmed Monday that their preseason run size forecast for upriver spring Chinook salmon was likely to be accurate, allowing Oregon and Washington to reopen recreational angling in the river between Tongue Point, near Astoria, OR, and the two-state line, near Pasco, WA.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has published preliminary harvest and value figures for the 2024 Alaska Commercial Salmon Fishery that show a dramatic decline compared to last year.
The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission has approved additional protections –less fishing pressure– for bull trout in Hungry Horse Reservoir and the South Fork of the Flathead River in northwest Montana.
Commercial troll fishermen in Southeast Alaska may soon be able to again legally fish for Chinook salmon in waters off the Alaskan shore. The SE Alaska troll fleet was facing a near shutdown of fishing after a District Court judge in May remanded NOAA Fisheries’ 2019 biological opinion and incidental take statement for the fishery.
Montana’s only native rainbow trout is making a comeback in the northwest corner of the state.
Spearfishing for bass is allowed on southwest Oregon’s Coquille River through Oct. 31. Spears, spear guns and angling with bait to take smallmouth bass is allowed, and there are no harvest size or limits.
For the fourth year in a row, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife issued an emergency rule requiring commercial whale-watching vessels to stay at least one-half nautical mile away from vulnerable Southern Resident killer whales (SRKW) this summer.
Aimed at protecting wild Pacific salmon, Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, announced this week that the Canadian Government will ban open net-pen salmon aquaculture in British Columbia coastal waters by June 30, 2029.
Oregon and Washington fisheries managers of the Compact gave recreational anglers upstream of Bonneville Dam another chance to catch spring Chinook salmon from the dam to the two-state border.
A new genetic study found that heavy fishing in the early part of the fishing season may result in younger and smaller Atlantic salmon.
Oregon and Washington this week gave anglers downstream of Bonneville Dam the go-ahead to continue spring Chinook fishing through June 15, beginning June 1, despite a predicted downturn in the forecasted run.
Recreational anglers will return to the Columbia River to fish for spring Chinook salmon beginning today, May 17, for a total of 10 additional fishing days through June 15, but only downstream of Bonneville Dam.
NOAA Fisheries denied a request by Alaskan Native communities for an emergency action requiring that no Chinook salmon be caught in the Bering Sea pollock fishery – a proposal that would basically cap the bycatch at zero and limit or close the largest fishery in the United States.
With the fishery expected to have already met its allowable catch, recreational spring Chinook fishing on the Columbia River mainstem from Bonneville Dam to the Oregon/Washington border was closed Tuesday, April 30, by fishery managers from Washington and Oregon.
Due to a lateness of the run of spring Chinook salmon and lower than expected harvest, Oregon and Washington extended recreational angling for the fish through Tuesday, April 9. The angling period set by the two-state Columbia River Compact in February began March 1 and was due to end today, Friday, April 5.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Fisheries and Oceans Canada have signed an agreement regarding the recovery of Chinook salmon in the Yukon River drainage. The agreement is focused on rebuilding the stocks to a level that they can once again provide for subsistence, as well as sport, commercial, and personal use fishing opportunities.
Fishery managers have developed options for Washington’s ocean salmon fisheries that reflect lower numbers of several coho salmon stocks predicted to return this year.
Oregon and Washington fisheries managers approved 36 days of recreational angling in the mainstem Columbia River from Buoy 10 near the river’s mouth to Bonneville Dam to kick off the 2024 spring Chinook salmon season. Fishing begins March 1 and ends April 5, which is more than a month before the spring Chinook season officially ends on June 15.
Fisheries biologists are predicting that a smaller run of upriver spring Chinook salmon will return this year to the Columbia River than had returned last year, and that fewer of those fish will be of natural origin, continuing a years’ long trend, according to a report released last week by Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife agencies.
With another good run of ESA-listed smelt expected this year into the Columbia River and a few lower river tributaries, the two-state Columbia River Compact approved this week commercial research gillnetting for the small fish through mid-March.
Oregon and Washington closed recreational white sturgeon retention from Bonneville Dam upstream to the tailwater of the John Day Dam this week. The closure began the end of the day on January 3.
The state of Washington has successfully reduced the number of commercial Columbia River gillnet licenses in the state from 240 to 67. The reduction is the result of a $14.4 million commercial license reduction program approved by the state’s legislature in 2021, and a part of a plan to move gillnet boats off the mainstem of the river and to give more of the salmon harvest to recreational anglers.
Parties to the lawsuit challenging the federal government’s 2020 environmental impact statement and biological opinion for imperiled salmon and steelhead traversing Columbia/Snake River federal dams have developed a package of “actions and commitments” that they will present to regional partners to get buy-in over the next 45 days.
Oregon and Washington this week set 2024 sturgeon winter retention seasons for recreational anglers in the Columbia River upstream of Bonneville Dam, beginning Jan. 1.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has published preliminary harvest and value figures for the 2023 Alaska Commercial Salmon Fishery, which show an increase of 69 million harvested salmon over last year. But the market value was way down.
For the first time in more than a decade, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe is exercising its treaty right to harvest salmon from the Elwha River.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal notice this week of its intent to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service for what it says is a failure to protect marine mammals from being killed by the Bering Sea Aleutian Islands groundfish trawl fisheries.
With an updated and higher fall Chinook run forecast, recreational angling for salmon will continue through the end of the year on the mainstem Columbia River from Buoy 10 to the Oregon/Washington border near Pasco, WA.
The Biden administration this week announced that the Bonneville Power Administration will provide three Upper Columbia River Tribes $200 million over 20 years for ongoing efforts to reintroduce salmon above Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams, which have blocked fish migration since 1942. The Tribes have agreed to a twenty-year pause to existing litigation while these actions are pursued.
With a higher in-season forecast of Chinook salmon tracking above the 5- and 10-year average, Oregon and Washington reopened all the Columbia River downstream of Bonneville Dam to recreational angling for Chinook and hatchery coho as of Sept. 22. The reopening is for the remainder of this year.
With an upgraded fall chinook run, fishery managers from Oregon and Washington added more recreational salmon fishing opportunity on the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam during a joint Columbia River Compact hearing Wednesday. But the hearing took an unusual turn when Washington and Oregon diverged on how much more commercial gillnetting should be allowed, and where.
The forecast for Columbia River upriver summer steelhead passing Bonneville Dam nearly doubled more than a week ago to more than 90,000 fish, with some of those fish already arriving in Idaho rivers.
With higher-than-normal numbers of adult-size sturgeon found dead in several pools of the Columbia River so far this summer, white sturgeon fishing will close on a large portion of the mid-Columbia beginning Saturday, July 29, fishery managers from Washington and Oregon announced Wednesday.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced this month that it will be conducting a study of set net harvest selectivity for sockeye and king salmon in Upper Cook Inlet. This study will take place along the Kenai Peninsula in the Upper Subdistrict of Cook Inlet at a set net site located approximately one mile south of the mouth of the Kenai River began July 8 and continuing until August 10.
Rates of Chinook salmon bycatch in the Pacific hake fishery rise during years when ocean temperatures are warmer, a signal that climate change and increased frequency of marine heatwaves could lead to higher bycatch rates, new research indicates.
Southeast Alaska commercial trollers will begin fishing for Chinook salmon July 1 after a ruling by a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that reversed an early May decision in a Washington federal district court. That previous decision shut down the summer and winter fishery.
With a lower-than-expected return of summer Chinook to the Columbia River, Washington and Oregon will close the river downstream of Priest Rapids Dam to recreational angling for the fish July 1, bringing the summer season that began June 15 –and was to go to July 31 — to an abrupt end.
All parties, both plaintiffs and defendants, along with the State of Alaska, have unsuccessfully challenged the results of a recent lower federal court decision that vacated a part of NOAA Fisheries’ 2019 biological opinion governing Southeast Alaska’s summer and winter commercial troll fishing for Chinook salmon. The litigation now moves to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
After catch data analysis showed allowable harvest impacts to wild spring chinook have been exceeded, Oregon and Washington fisheries managers on extremely short notice shut down salmon and steelhead fishing on the Columbia River.
With a flurry of spring Chinook passing Bonneville Dam daily the past two weeks, Oregon and Washington decided to reopen spring Chinook angling from Buoy 10 in the lower Columbia River to the Oregon/Washington border.
For the first time, a newly published artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm is allowing researchers to quickly and accurately estimate coastal fish stocks without ever entering the water. This breakthrough could save millions of dollars in annual research and monitoring costs while bringing data access to least-developed countries about the sustainability of their fish stocks.
A federal court this week rejected a NOAA Fisheries’ biological opinion allowing the Southeast Alaska commercial troll fishery to harvest Chinook salmon, effectively shutting down that summer and winter fishery. The ruling will be challenged by the State of Alaska, including a request for a stay so the fishery can go ahead this summer.
The number of upriver summer steelhead forecasted to return to the Columbia River basin has been declining, year after year. This year’s return of the fish is anticipated to be the lowest count of both hatchery and wild steelhead since the construction of Bonneville Dam — at only 42 percent of the 10-year average.
A new study offers a comprehensive look at the state of North American wild Chinook salmon. Researchers say findings hold new insights for fisheries managers looking to address wide-ranging declines among Chinook stocks.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is expecting a 2023 commercial salmon harvest of 189 million fish. That’s 26 million more harvested salmon than last year.
Oregon and Washington this week extended spring Chinook salmon fishing in the Columbia River downstream of Bonneville Dam by four days, two days more than was recommended by the two-state Columbia River Compact staff.
Anglers in Washington can expect similar salmon fishing opportunities this year compared to 2022, with some improved opportunities in the ocean driven by better Chinook forecasts and another large coho return, state fishery managers announced. In contrast, California ocean recreational fisheries in all areas from the Oregon/California border to the U.S./Mexico border are closed given the low abundance forecasts for both Klamath and Sacramento River fall Chinook.
With severely low forecasted returns of California Chinook salmon (Sacramento and Klamath River), the National Marine Fisheries Service has cancelled the spring 2023 commercial ocean troll salmon fishery (Cape Falcon to the California border) and the spring recreational ocean salmon fishery (March 15-May 15 from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain). This decision was made in consultation with the Pacific Fishery Management Council, and the states of Oregon and California.
By returning to spawn in the Sacramento River at different ages, Chinook salmon lessen the potential impact of a bad year and increase the stability of their population in the face of climate variability, according to a new study by scientists at UC Santa Cruz and NOAA Fisheries.
With a higher than average number of spring Chinook salmon forecasted to return to the Columbia River and pass Bonneville Dam this year, Oregon and Washington approved start and ending dates for recreational fishing in the river.
Oregon and Washington legislatures are considering bills that would move more commercial gillnetters off the mainstem Columbia River. Washington lawmakers have introduced a bill that would prohibit gillnetting in the mainstem as of January 2025 and it would renew a gillnet license buyback program it began last year that cost about $14 million.
New research examines how Chinook salmon from West Coast rivers travel through the ocean. It shows that endangered Southern Resident killer whales do not have access to as many salmon prey as previously thought.
Oregon and Washington fishery agencies announced they will not propose commercial or recreational white sturgeon fishing this year downstream of Bonneville Dam due to a projected low abundance of legal-sized fish, according to a joint status report released this week by the states.
Columbia River fishery managers are expecting a larger run of upriver spring Chinook salmon to enter the river this year and cross Bonneville Dam, but barely 10 percent of the salmon would be of natural origin, according to a recently released joint Oregon and Washington report that includes preseason run size forecasts. That compares to actual returns in 2022 when 15.5 percent of the upriver run was of natural origin.
A draft plan for managing Columbia River threatened smelt (eulachon) is out for review by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Among the plan’s features is a transparent approach to evaluating when and if commercial and recreational fisheries can be adopted.
Commercial fishers in Southeast Alaska waters may soon lose two trolling seasons for Chinook salmon in order to provide more fish for endangered Southern Resident killer whales in Puget Sound. As a result of the possible termination of that fishery, the whales could gain nearly 5 percent in available prey, according to a judge’s recent report in a Washington federal court.
Commercial fishers are already seeing more sea lions and more predator sea bird activity in the lower Columbia River, a sure sign that listed Eulachon, commonly known as smelt, are entering the river.
A Nisqually Tribe study on the effects of gillnetting and releasing chinook salmon has produced promising results, and eventually could open the door for tribal fishers to catch more hatchery fish while still protecting the natural-origin resource for future generations.
The 2022 commercial salmon fishery harvest was valued at approximately $720.4 million, an increase from the 2021 fishery value of $643.9 million, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s preliminary harvest and value figures.
The 2023 white sturgeon fishing season gets underway Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023 on select sections of the Columbia River upstream of Bonneville Dam, fishery managers from Oregon and Washington announced Wednesday.
NOAA Fisheries has finalized a report that identifies actions that the agency says have the greatest likelihood of making progress toward rebuilding populations of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River basin to “healthy and harvestable levels.” The agency had released a draft in July for limited comments.
With fewer upriver bright fall Chinook salmon now expected to return to the Columbia River, fishery managers from Washington and Oregon agreed Wednesday to close Chinook retention on the lower and middle Columbia River mainstem effective Oct. 8.
NOAA Fisheries is nearing a deadline in determining whether it should consider listing as threatened or endangered Olympic Peninsula summer and winter steelhead. All populations of steelhead on the peninsula have continued to decline since 2017 and run sizes have been so small that Washington closed fisheries on coastal rivers early this year, according to a recent petition to list the steelhead.
After an abrupt closure of the lower Columbia River to recreational angling on Sept. 2 just prior to Labor Day weekend, Oregon and Washington fishery managers this week are reopening two sections of the river to salmon fishing.
Angling for steelhead in central Oregon’s John Day River will close next week because the minimum abundance threshold for wild steelhead has not been met at Bonneville Dam. The count so far this summer is 25 percent short of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s abundance goal that would have allowed the John Day to remain open.
The challenge of managing harvest of a decent run of salmon heading up the Columbia River that is mixed with populations listed under the federal Endangered Species Act came home to roost to Thursday just before what was expected to be a busy weekend of recreational angling below Bonneville Dam.
A Seattle federal district court judge ruled this week that NOAA Fisheries’ authorization of the Southeast Alaska troll fishery violated the Endangered Species Act by approving harvest levels that fail to protect Southern Resident killer whales and wild chinook listed under the ESA.
With an uptick in the run-size forecast for summer Chinook salmon, Columbia River fisheries managers this week extended angling in the river through the end of the month. Fishing in the lower river downstream of Bonneville Dam to the Astoria Megler Bridge in Astoria was set to end July 14, but the extension allows angling in that area to continue uninterrupted through July 31. Fall Chinook fishing begins the next day, Aug. 1.
A female spring chinook salmon released as a smolt by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe in 2020 in upper Hangman Creek near Tensed, Idaho has returned to the Upper Columbia River where she will be transported around dams lacking fish passage and returned to her natal stream. She will be the first adult Chinook salmon to return to the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s aboriginal territory in over 100 years.
Columbia River fishery managers from Oregon and Washington added 13 days of summer Chinook fishing below Bonneville Dam starting today, July 1 through Wednesday, July 13. The move comes as the sockeye return is now predicted to be more than double the preseason forecast.
Following another run upgrade, fishery managers from Oregon and Washington adopted additional fishing opportunity for spring Chinook salmon in the mainstem Columbia River from the Tongue Point area near Astoria to the Oregon/Washington state line upstream of McNary Dam and increased the bag limit for Chinook to up to two adults per day.
With a second upgrade of returning upriver Columbia River spring chinook in hand, Washington and Oregon fisheries managers opened up more mainstem recreational fishing and approved a one-day mainstem commercial tangle net fishery.
With a decent run-size upgrade, should Columbia River fisheries managers allow spring Chinook fishing below Bonneville Dam through May, or let more fish pass upriver and then continue fishing in June when much of run has moved out of the lower Columbia?
Historically about one million coho salmon returned annually to the Columbia River and were abundant throughout the upper Columbia River and Snake River watersheds. By the 1980s, the fish were gone from the basin interior – extirpated. But today, in several rivers above Bonneville Dam, the coho are back.
The spring Chinook return to the Columbia River basin is heating up as fisheries and hydro managers monitor juvenile and adult salmon passage carefully at Lower Monumental Dam while spillbay repair work continues. And good angling has led to the recreational fishery closing a day early, though fish passage counts at Bonneville Dam are currently above average.
The Department of the Interior this week announced that $10.65 million provided by the infrastructure bill approved last year will be used for repairs and upgrades for Bureau of Indian Affairs-owned water systems, including improvements to three Columbia River tribal fishing access sites.
Oregon and Washington fisheries managers were forced to shut down commercial salmon fishing on the lower Columbia River Wednesday after the gillnetters caught far too many upriver spring Chinook. Several future fishing periods already approved were rescinded during a period of high prices for salmon.
Wild Columbia River summer steelhead have been declining since 2009, and Bonneville Dam counts in 2021 showed the lowest returns since 1997.
The Upper Columbia United Tribes secured over $3 million in funding in the Washington State supplemental budget for salmon reintroduction in the upper Columbia.
Seeing a steady decline in wild winter steelhead numbers and an expected 2022 return to Washington coastal streams that could be the smallest run of wild steelhead on record, the state’s Fish and Wildlife Commission closed all sport fishing on the coast and in the Strait of Juan de Fuca March 1.
The White House this week made clear it plans to be involved in Columbia River salmon recovery, saying it has engaged mediators to facilitate “public policy dialogue” with governments and stakeholders.
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted last week to change shellfish regulations to prohibit harvest of sea stars and increase the daily bag limit for non-native European green crabs to 35, changes that take effect immediately.
Barry Thom leads the West Coast Region of NOAA Fisheries and is responsible for implementing NOAA Fisheries mandates under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, Endangered Species Act, and Marine Mammal Protection Act along the U.S. West Coast from Washington to California.
With an apparently late and larger-than-predicted run of eulachon (smelt) migrating into the Columbia River, Oregon and Washington harvest managers set this week additional commercial test fishery harvest days through March 18, while Washington opened a recreational dip net fishery for smelt in the Cowlitz River. The Sandy River remains closed to recreational fishing for smelt.
Farming Atlantic salmon requires a high volume of wild-caught fish as feed but produces only a small percentage of the world’s farmed fish supply.
A forecasted upriver spring chinook salmon run that is 25 percent more than the actual run of the fish in 2021 prompted Oregon and Washington fishery managers to open the lower Columbia River to spring chinook angling from Buoy 10 west of Astoria to Bonneville Dam beginning March 1.
The number of legal-sized white sturgeon – 38 to 54 inches in fork length – in the lower Columbia River is trending downward, while the number of larger adult sized fish is trending upward, according to a recent stock status report.
Fishery managers with Puget Sound treaty tribes and the Washington Department Fish and Wildlife last week submitted a 10-year Puget Sound Chinook Harvest Management Plan intended to enable harvesting of strong stocks while minimizing impacts to stocks “in crisis.” It could mean less fishing to protect the weaker stocks.
Oregon and Washington approved the first of the year spring chinook commercial gillnetting in the lower Columbia River during a two-state Columbia River Compact hearing Tuesday, Feb. 15. Commercial fishing in lower river Select Areas begin as soon as this week.
Market squid have multiplied off the West Coast over the last two decades. They have increased especially from San Francisco north into Oregon and Washington in conjunction with warmer ocean waters in recent years, new research shows.
For the second consecutive year, Oregon and Washington are expecting a big run of eulachon into the Columbia River, and so approved a limited conservation-level commercial test fishery through February.
As salmon runs in British Columbia hit record lows, commercial fisheries along the Alaska panhandle are catching a growing share of salmon bound for B.C. rivers, alleges a new technical report issued by Canadian conservation groups
The lowest return to the Columbia River of summer steelhead on record in 2021 is prompting states to continue protections for the fish into 2022.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee this week said he is seeking $187 million during the 2022 legislative session for salmon recovery strategies, including funds for studying the impacts of breaching the four Lower Snake River dams.
Washington and Oregon this week reduced weekly sturgeon angling opportunities to three days a week in The Dalles pool during January as a way to help ensure fishing can extend to the end of the month.
After a year with the worst return of steelhead to Washington’s coastal streams, the state’s fishery agency is saying the run is in decline and will likely get worse until ocean conditions improve.
In-season management of Columbia River fisheries came to an end this week as Oregon and Washington held this year’s final two-state Columbia River Compact hearing after a spring, summer and fall of mixed salmon and steelhead returns.
Once extirpated in much of the Snake River basin, coho salmon are making a big return this year to basin tributaries, allowing Idaho and Oregon to open rivers to coho angling. Both states announced this month the opening of coho angling in the Grande Ronde and Clearwater rivers.
With a run of steelhead into Idaho that is one-third of the 10-year average and the third worst run in the last ten years, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game is dialing back the number of fish that recreational anglers can retain to one per day and three in possession.
Oregon and Washington are allowing the retention of fall adult and jack chinook in the recreational fishery downstream of Warrior Rock beginning Oct. 1.
Columbia River harvest managers have now opened recreational salmon angling from Bonneville Dam to Astoria to take advantage of a good fall chinook return (record passage at Lower Granite Dam) and a booming coho run. In contrast, the steelhead return during this period is still dismal.
Following nearly 40,000 public comments, NOAA Fisheries is approving an amendment to the fishery management plan for Chinook salmon off the West Coast. It will make more fish available for endangered Southern Resident killer whales in years when salmon returns are low.
Amid concern about record low numbers of steelhead moving up the Columbia River so far this year, state fishery managers from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have announced new restrictions on steelhead fishing in the Snake River, as well as several Snake and Columbia River tributaries.
With a continued higher than allowed catch of lower river tule Chinook salmon, listed under the Endangered Species Act, Washington and Oregon fisheries managers today shut down all salmon fishing below Bonneville Dam, except for coho fishing from Buoy 10 to Tongue Point.
Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife staffs say there is little more that can be done to protect the dismally small number of upriver summer steelhead migrating this year in the Columbia River basin short of shutting down all non-tribal fishing, and even that “would not move the needle,” one staff member said.
Due to higher-than-expected catch rates and unexpected impacts to a salmon stock listed under the Endangered Species Act, Chinook salmon retention on the Columbia River from the Buoy 10 line upstream to the Tongue Point/Rocky Point line will close effective Friday, Aug. 27.
A 60 percent drop in the forecasted run of summer steelhead over Bonneville Dam is adding to the already bad news for Columbia and Snake river steelhead returns this year, which is seeing its worst year since Bonneville Dam was built.
An informal coalition of fisheries-focused conservation groups is urging the fish and wildlife commissions in Oregon and Washington to step up to save summer steelhead in a year when their returns are at the lowest numbers since Bonneville Dam was built and in a year when water temperatures threaten their migration.
As the Columbia River at Bonneville Dam warms to over 71 degrees Fahrenheit and with expectations of the second lowest steelhead run since Bonneville Dam was built, recreational angling for fall chinook, the largest remaining run of chinook salmon on the Columbia River, begins August 1.
The Columbia Basin Collaborative this week more clearly defined who in the region is invited to participate in a process aimed at improving salmon and steelhead recovery in the Columbia River basin.
Run size forecasts for summer chinook and sockeye salmon were both downgraded by an advisory committee that predicts preseason run sizes and adjusts those forecasts, if necessary, during mid-season. In addition, the run size of Skamania steelhead came in as the lowest on record and the run of A- and B-Index steelhead heading to the Snake River so far is at its second lowest run in10 years.
The collapse in abundance of five salmon stocks in 2020 in the North Pacific Ocean is likely due to a long-lasting heat wave in the Pacific and the unusually high abundance of pink salmon in the northern Pacific in 2018 and 2019, according to a report to the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission in late May.
The global abundance of salmon in the Pacific Ocean in 2020 based on commercial catch was the lowest since 1982 and in North America the catch was the lowest since 1977, despite a record number of hatchery releases the year before, according to a report released in May 2021 by the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission of Vancouver B.C.
The Canadian government last week announced a $647 million strategy to save Pacific salmon, aiming to stop the declines now while helping rebuild populations over the longer term.
At the second public workshop of the Columbia Basin Collaborative, the four Northwest states laid out a way forward to achieve regional consensus on how to rebuild threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead stocks and advance the goals developed by the Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force.
Spring chinook salmon fishing is nearly over and summer chinook fishing begins next week. Although it may be difficult to see much of a difference between a spring and a summer chinook at Bonneville Dam, June 16 is the transition date on which all chinook that pass the dam become summer chinook.
Oregon and Washington fisheries managers are adding one more day of hatchery spring chinook angling downstream of Bonneville Dam and two days upstream of the dam to the states’ border, all over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
Another “Columbia Basin Collaborative” organizational workshop has been scheduled for next month for more discussions on finding a better way to manage and improve Columbia/Snake River salmon recovery. Such talk comes just as Washington’s governor and the state’s senior U.S. senator issued a joint statement saying “we do not believe the Simpson proposal can be included in the proposed federal infrastructure package.”
Even with a Skamania hatchery steelhead return at its lowest since Bonneville Dam was built and Cowlitz River hatchery spring chinook salmon unlikely to meet broodstock needs, the two state Columbia River Compact this week extended retention of hatchery spring chinook from Tongue Point in Astoria to the Oregon and Washington border.
A new study by researchers from Simon Fraser University and Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans reveals the trade-offs of fish biodiversity–its costs and benefits to mixed-stock fisheries–and points to a potential way to harness the benefits while avoiding costs to fishery performance.
After several years of pre-testing the gear, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said that it will begin a rulemaking process to designate the beach seine, purse seine and pound net as an “emerging commercial fishery” on the lower Columbia River. That allows the state fisheries agency to move ahead on further research that will tell how well the alternative gear works for commercial gillnetters in the river.
Despite a strong projected coho return to the state’s ocean waters, this year’s Washington salmon seasons largely reflect continued low runs of some wild chinook and coho stocks, especially in Puget Sound, state fishery managers announced yesterday.
Spring Chinook season will open in the Snake River’s Hells Canyon on Saturday, April 24 from the Dug Bar boat ramp to the boundary below Hells Canyon Dam.
A poor spring chinook run is impacting angling opportunities in two Oregon rivers. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife set regulations for fishing in the Hood and Deschutes rivers, reducing the bag limit in one river and closing the other due to an extreme low run of wild fish.
What are the next steps for the proposed regional forum, the Columbia Basin Collaborative, which held an organizational workshop in February? Organizers of this new collaborative effort aimed at recovering salmonid species in the Columbia River Basin this week issued a summary of the workshop results and what might come next.
An important forage fish that spawns in late summer and early spring in the lower Columbia River is returning this year in higher numbers than was originally forecasted.
Passage of spring chinook at Bonneville Dam is less than 40 percent of the10-year average, yet anglers in the river downstream of the dam had already harvested about 90 percent of their allowed catch of the upriver run of the fish by the end of the early spring fishing period.
Oregon and Washington fisheries managers this week determined that projected abundance of legal size white sturgeon in the lower Columbia River estuary is sufficient to justify opening angling for the fish beginning in late spring.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council has adopted three alternatives for 2021 ocean salmon fisheries off Washington, Oregon, and California for public review. Options for Washington’s ocean salmon fisheries reflect the need to minimize impacts to low forecasted abundances of coastal coho stocks while providing opportunities to access the large forecast for Columbia River coho.
The Alaska all-species salmon harvest for 2020 totaled 118.3 million fish, says the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in an annual report.
Washington state is beginning a process with a series of public meetings that will determine by May the allowed harvest of a limited number of fall chinook, coho, chum and pink salmon in offshore areas north of Cape Falcon in Oregon, up the state’s coastline and in Puget Sound.
In its first public workshop the Columbia Basin Collaborative this week outlined how the new group would be organized and how it would bring parties together to rebuild the region’s threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead stocks and advance the goals of the Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force.
Oregon and Washington this week opened spring chinook salmon angling from Buoy 10 to the Oregon/Washington border in March. The opening in the lower river is the first time since 2018 that anglers will be allowed to pursue the prized fish early in the season from Buoy 10 to the Lewis River in Washington.
Since 2010, Idaho Department of Fish and Game has been recruiting volunteer anglers to catch adult steelhead from the South Fork Clearwater River. Hatcheries rely on anglers from around the region, other states, and even other countries to collect steelhead broodstock on the South Fork Clearwater River each year.
Fisheries managers are not happy about federal hydro managers’ decision to engage in “day load shaping operations” at Idaho’s Dworshak Dam last week, a practice that has not been implemented since 1986. The biologists say such operations negatively impact juvenile fall chinook, fisheries and river ecology.
As they do every year from December through May, threatened eulachon (smelt) are returning from the Pacific Ocean and flooding into the lower Columbia River. The smelt – a 7 in., 2.5 oz. fish – may already be moving into their favorite spawning tributaries, the Cowlitz River in Washington and the Sandy River in Oregon, where their numbers peak in February.
A new report from Washington State’s Governor’s Salmon Recovery Office shows that most salmon populations in the state still are not making progress and some are teetering on the brink of extinction.
The 2021 upriver spring chinook run, if the fish come in as forecasted, would fall into the bottom 25 percent of runs in the last 40 years, according to a preseason forecast by fisheries managers.
The state of Idaho’s “Salmon Workgroup” last week released a final report that includes policy recommendations for Gov. Brad Little to consider that aim “to restore abundant, sustainable, and well distributed populations of salmon and steelhead in Idaho for present and future generations, while recognizing diverse interests throughout the State.”
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council Wednesday approved a $41 million Yakama Nation hatchery master plan aimed at increasing harvest of coho and chinook salmon in both the mainstem Columbia River and Yakima River.
Across the North Pacific, salmon fisheries are struggling with climate variability, declining fish populations, and a lack of sustainable fishing opportunities. According to a new study from a team of Indigenous leaders and conservation scientists, help lies in revitalizing Indigenous fishing practices and learning from Indigenous systems of salmon management.
By David Welch
Mr. Hawley misconstrues my shock—I am shocked because biologists monitoring survival thought it unimportant to ask why salmon survival reported elsewhere was no better than Snake River populations. Decades ago someone should have asked what was wrong with the accumulating data (and fixed it) or asked why current Columbia Basin policy laser-focused on the dams can really restore salmon populations if survival is the same elsewhere. The answer reported in our paper is that the data really are consistent with a coastwide decline but that the Columbia also has a big problem with what was thought to be the gold standard in survival monitoring—PIT tag data. This too is shocking.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has published preliminary harvest and value figures for the 2020 Alaska commercial salmon fishery, showing a 56% decrease in value from 2019.
The Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force released late this afternoon its final report saying there is “a strong sense of urgency that immediate action is needed to address salmon and steelhead declines in the Columbia River Basin.”
In a letter Friday (Oct.9) the four Northwest states announced they have agreed to work together to rebuild Columbia River salmon and steelhead stocks and to advance the goals of the Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force.
Anglers’ ability to harvest coho salmon in northeast Oregon’s Grande Ronde River for the first time in 40 years started Thursday, Oct. 1.
Estimates of the number of fall chinook salmon, coho salmon and B-Index steelhead entering the Columbia River rose again this week, but, with the exception of the B-Index steelhead and early-stock coho, abundances are still expected to fall short of 10-year averages.
With an in-season forecast this week increasing the Columbia River fall chinook salmon run by 13 percent, Oregon and Washington are opening fall chinook angling Saturday, Sept. 19, one week earlier than preseason fishery plans.
The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission at its Friday meeting adopted revised language for its Columbia River Basin Salmon Management Policy, changing the allocation of harvest between recreational anglers and commercial gillnetters under an “abundance-based approach.”
Although there has been no change in expected returns, passage of fall chinook at Bonneville is sufficient to reopen recreational angling opportunities for the fish from Buoy 10 to the Oregon and Washington border, according to the two-state Columbia River Compact at a hearing Wednesday, Sept. 9.
Oregon and Washington Columbia River fisheries managers doubled the bag limit for salmon at the popular Buoy 10 fishery from one coho to two salmon, one of which can be a chinook, Sept. 5 and 6, just in time for the Labor Day weekend.
Oregon and Washington Thursday shut down commercial gillnetting for fall chinook salmon on the mainstem Columbia River, rescinding the last of the seven 12-hour gillnet periods approved last month.
With the run of summer steelhead expected to return to the Snake River basin at about 40 percent of the 10-year average, the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Commission at its meeting Thursday, Aug. 20, reduced the number of the fish anglers in the state can keep when fishing the Salmon, Little Salmon and Snake rivers. Steelhead angling opens on those rivers Sept. 1.
Oregon and Washington opened the Columbia River mainstem to commercial gillnetters for fall chinook salmon, seven night-time openings that are to begin Monday, Aug. 10. In addition, the two-state Columbia River Compact approved continued commercial gillnetting in Select Areas in the lower river, beginning Aug. 4.
A five-year plan for non-recurring maintenance needs and infrastructure fixes at aging 35-to-40-year-old Snake River hatcheries shows a budget that is $5 million short, raising the question of who pays, according to managers and operators at the hatcheries who laid out their funding needs at the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Fish and Wildlife Committee meeting Tuesday, July 14.
Although the 50-mile long Hanford Reach has long been considered the last free-flowing stretch on the Columbia River above Bonneville Dam, it’s actually tucked into a large and very complex system of hydroelectric dams.
Washington and Oregon extended summer chinook angling through the end of July from the Tongue Point-Rocky Point line, near Astoria, upstream to the border between the two states at the Hwy 395 Bridge near Pasco, Wash. The popular Buoy 10 fishing will open August 14.
Oregon and Washington added seven more days – July 9 to July 15 – of recreational angling for hatchery summer chinook on the mainstem Columbia River, but closed shad fishing in the Bonneville Dam pool as a way to protect endangered Snake River sockeye salmon. Shad fishermen have been catching too many of the sockeye incidentally.
Washington is proposing to make several changes to its Columbia River Salmon Fishery Policy, opening the proposed draft changes to public comment until the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission meets July 31 – August 1 to approve the changes.
Oregon and Washington are opening a five-day recreational summer chinook angling period on the mainstem Columbia River beginning this weekend after an in-season forecast boosted the anticipated number of chinook entering the river by 58 percent over the preseason forecast.
The only reason there are any fisheries in the Columbia River and tributaries right now is due to the abundance of wild sockeye, wild summer chinook and wild steelhead.
The two-state Columbia River Compact this week abruptly shut down recreational fishing for sockeye salmon on the mainstem Columbia River as anglers exceeded the limit on the number of sockeye allowed.
Oregon and Washington denied a staff proposal to open a one-day white sturgeon retention fishery in the Columbia River estuary that would have begun this weekend. Instead, they put off a decision for the estuary fishery – one that usually occurs in the spring – until September.
Columbia River Treaty Tribes will begin commercial gillnetting, along with commercial platform and hook and line fishing, upstream of Bonneville Dam (Zone 6) for summer chinook next week, a plan outlined by the tribes at a two-state Columbia River Compact hearing Monday, June 8. Some platform and hook and line fishing is also planned for downstream of Bonneville.
After a drop in the spring chinook salmon forecast and dire predictions that some hatcheries won’t make broodstock quotas this year, the two-state Columbia River Compact this week shut down mainstem Columbia River fisheries.
An anticipated poor summer run of chinook salmon means no summer chinook fishing this year on the Columbia River mainstem, according to Oregon and Washington. The summer season will be limited to only sockeye and steelhead retention.
Fisheries managers say the health of white sturgeon populations in the Columbia River is healthy, but there is a paucity of detailed abundance data from the Snake River, and that each zone – lower Columbia, Bonneville Dam to McNary Dam and the Snake River –has its own issues.
After a late start for spring chinook angling on the Columbia River due to Covid-19 closures, Oregon and Washington approved a second four-day fishing period in a hearing Wednesday, May 13.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is proposing to allow more fishing from a boat or other floating device on the Sandy River starting in 2021 in order to reduce interactions between hatchery and wild fish.
Oregon and Washington fisheries managers reopened the Columbia River along their border for limited recreational spring chinook and steelhead angling, despite continued concerns about the number of people in boats and at public facilities due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
A NOAA Fisheries scientist informed the Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week that poor ocean conditions are continuing to contribute to low Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead returns.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council has adopted ocean salmon season recommendations that provide recreational and commercial opportunities for most of the Pacific coast, and are aimed at achieving conservation goals for the numerous individual salmon stocks on the West Coast.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s report on salmon run forecasts and harvest projections for 2020, and a review of the 2019 season, shows the state’s all-species salmon harvest last year totaled 207.9 million fish. The 2020 commercial harvest is projected to be much smaller.
Three ocean salmon fishery alternatives that were approved for public review Monday, March 9, by the Pacific Fishery Management Council reflect the lowest predicted return of coho salmon to the Columbia River in 20 years.
Oregon and Washington set recreational spring chinook and winter steelhead fishing seasons in the Columbia River downstream of Bonneville Dam that in April limits the number of days per week anglers will be allowed to fish. And, beginning March 1, angling for salmon and steelhead will not be allowed in the river from Warrior Rock at St. Helens, OR downstream to Buoy 10 to protect hatchery fish returning to Cowlitz and Lewis river hatcheries.
Washington and Oregon Fish and Wildlife directors are bringing the states closer to agreement on Columbia River fishery reform, including changes to mainstem commercial gillnetting and recreational/commercial allocations, at least for this year — a goal they’ve been working towards since adopting the fishery harvest reforms in 2013.
This has been a busy week for Oregon and Washington recreational and commercial fishing regulations both upstream and downstream of Bonneville Dam.
NOAA Fisheries is proposing to approve and implement fishery management plans for two overfished stocks of chinook salmon – Klamath River fall-run chinook and Sacramento fall-run chinook. The stocks are large contributors to ocean salmon fisheries off the California and Oregon coasts.
Abundance of sub-adult and adult white sturgeon in the Columbia River downstream of Bonneville Dam took a jump this year, but abundance of juvenile sized and one-year-old or younger white sturgeon is lagging, which is indicative of an extended period of low productivity, according to a report by biologists that will be given at the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting Feb. 7.
In its first hearing of the year, the two-state Columbia River Compact set a commercial smelt gillnet fishery in the lower Columbia River and approved Treaty commercial and hook and line fishing in areas upstream of Bonneville Dam.
Idaho Department of Fish and Game says it is “well on its way to meeting broodstock goals” for steelhead at Snake, Salmon and Clearwater River hatcheries.
Roy Akins and Toby Wyatt are Idaho salmon and steelhead outfitters who don’t necessarily favor dam breaching as a means to improve fish runs, but now they are willing to consider it and they are urging Idaho Gov. Brad Little to make breaching part of the discussion.
NOAA Fisheries has announced 5-year reviews of 17 Pacific Salmon species and 11 steelhead populations listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Oregon and Washington this week approved some of the last fall fishing of the year for commercial gillnetters and recreational anglers.
Oregon and Washington on Monday approved two lower Columbia River fisheries. One was for four periods (48 hours total) of commercial non-treaty gillnetting and the other for a one-day recreational white sturgeon fishery on Saturday, Oct. 12. But at a Thursday meeting three gillnetting periods were rescinded by the states due to an unexpected high catch rate during the first period.
Tribes will resume commercial gillnetting this week for fall chinook, but for the second time in two weeks one of the four lower Columbia River tribes disagreed with the decision.
All steelhead fishing on the Clearwater River in Idaho will close Sunday because the number of returning adult hatchery fish is less than the number needed for broodstock
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife last week submitted a $26 million supplemental funding request to Gov. Jay Inslee’s office.
The number of summer steelhead forecasted to pass Bonneville Dam and travel into the Snake and Clearwater rivers was downgraded for the third time this month.
Oregon and Washington fisheries managers approved an additional two and a half days of tribal gillnetting in Zone 6 (Bonneville Dam pool upstream through the John Day Dam pool) as they worried about a declining steelhead run and whether upstream hatcheries could meet their escapement goals for both fall chinook and steelhead broodstock.
After reviewing harvest information, Oregon and Washington abruptly closed the Columbia River to fall chinook angling from Warrior Rock to Bonneville Dam as of 12:01 am, Sept. 6, when it became clear that nearly 10 percent more of the fish had been caught throughout the Columbia River than was allocated.
In a hearing this week (Thursday, Sept. 5), the two-state Columbia River Compact set two Saturdays later this month for recreational angling of white sturgeon from Wauna upstream to Bonneville Dam.
The federal approval for a Snake River basin fall chinook salmon plan has given the go-ahead for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to open recreational angling in the Snake, Clearwater and Salmon rivers this week.
With a reduction in the upriver steelhead forecast by 27.2 percent, the two-state Columbia River Compact at its hearing yesterday, Aug. 28, extended the states’ ban on steelhead retention in the mainstem Columbia River that began in August to Sept. 30. The ban on retention is from Buoy 10 in the lower river estuary upstream to The Dalles Dam. The area upstream of The Dalles Dam to the John Day Dam is already closed to steelhead retention.
As of Aug. 24, Oregon will open the river from the Oregon and Washington border up to the Idaho Power dam for a fall chinook run that is anticipated to be 349,700 fish at the Columbia River mouth, which is 47 percent of the 10-year average (2009-2018) of 737,720 adult fall chinook. Still, the forecast is higher than the 2018 actual return of 293,424.
With an anticipated low return of upriver steelhead – those that will cross Bonneville Dam – in the Columbia River this year, Oregon and Washington have taken steps to protect the listed fish.
With less than half of the 10-year average of fall chinook salmon expected to return to the Columbia River this year, the two-state Columbia River Compact opened commercial gillnetting in the lower river and in pools upstream of Bonneville Dam for treaty commercial gillnetting.
Three runs of Pacific Northwest coho salmon and two runs of fall chinook have been added to the overfished list in NOAA Fisheries 2018 Report to Congress on the Status of U.S. Fisheries.
Fall seasons and regulations were set for some treaty fishing and non-treaty commercial fishing in the lower Columbia River Basin, with the Oregon-Washington Columbia River Compact’s approval on Tuesday.
Some five to 16 million salmon and steelhead had historically returned to the Columbia River basin, but just an average of two million fish return today and only 40 percent of those are naturally produced stocks. If goals in a new Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force report can be met in the next 50 to 100 years, the number of naturally produced fish could increase by eight-fold.
Idaho recently launched a collaborative effort aimed at guiding salmon-steelhead conservation policy, with the Republican Gov. Brad Little urging a diverse, appointed workgroup to consider practical goals rather than getting bogged down in complex and controversial measures such as breaching lower Snake River dams.
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.
Treaty platform fishing and commercial treaty gillnetting will begin this month for summer chinook and sockeye salmon. Tribes had not had a commercial gillnet fishery during the spring chinook run.
As of last weekend, June 1, the requirement to use barbless hooks to fish for salmon, steelhead and trout in the Columbia River is no longer mandatory.
The number of upriver spring chinook forecasted to return to the Columbia River in what was already set to be a poor year dropped by 25 percent this week.
Although the abundance of adult white sturgeon in the lower Columbia River is above conservation status as set by a joint Washington/Oregon sturgeon management and conservation plan, the fish have yet to reach desired status abundance levels, a higher number also set by the plan.
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Olympic National Park, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have agreed that it is necessary to extend the fishing closure in the Elwha River for another two years, from June 1, 2019 to July 1, 2021.
Two conservation groups have sued NOAA Fisheries to make the agency revisit its 2009 decision finding that commercial and recreational fisheries did not jeopardize survival of Southern Resident killer whales.
As a new contractor comes on board that will count adult fish at Columbia and Snake river dams over the next five years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says there will be a longer than normal transition period that will include delays in posting fish counts at six of the eight dams for as long as up to June.
NOAA Fisheries says it will take another look at offshore fisheries’ impact on the ability of Southern Resident killer whales to find and eat the prey they favor — chinook salmon.
Although smelt, also known as eulachon, are running in the Cowlitz River, their numbers are paltry and so Washington fishery managers have decided not to allow smelt dipping in the river this year.
The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will allow gillnets in the lower Columbia River mainstem during the fall chinook salmon season, similar to a regulation on commercial fishing already adopted by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission last year.
Just half the average number of upriver spring chinook salmon are forecasted to enter the Columbia River this year, a decline in abundance that will limit spring recreational angling.
Each year a significant number of upper Columbia River adult spring chinook that turn from the ocean into the Columbia don’t make it to Bonneville Dam due to non-harvest factors, according to a study published last month.
Washington State fishery managers have scheduled a variety of opportunities for the public to participate in setting salmon fishing seasons for 2019, starting with the annual statewide salmon forecast meeting Wednesday, Feb. 27.
Some 8,000 aging culverts under roads and driveways around Puget Sound block threatened Puget Sound steelhead from reaching high headwaters streams where they historically spawned, creating a major obstacle to the species’ recovery.
The number of legal-sized white sturgeon (38 to 54 inches in fork length) in the Columbia River downstream of Bonneville Dam declined in 2018 while the number of sturgeon large enough to spawn (over 65 inches FL) – adults – remained steady from 2017 numbers, according to a 2018 report by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
An innovative approach using trail cameras to capture wildlife will allow Idaho Fish and Game biologists to estimate deer and elk populations in a safer, less-invasive, and less-expensive way than the traditional method of biologists flying in aircraft and counting them.
Twenty-five years into a 100-year federal strategy to protect older forests in the Pacific Northwest, forest losses to wildfire are up and declines in bird populations have not been reversed, new research shows.
A changing climate in the 21st century will significantly alter the coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest, according to modeling by Oregon State University researchers.
Anglers can expect fewer spring chinook salmon returning to the Columbia River this year as fisheries managers are predicting a total run of 157,500 fish. That’s about 11 percent lower than the actual run in 2018 of 177,043 fish.
Nearly $1 billion has been spent on salmon recovery activities in the State of Washington since 1999 when the Washington legislature passed the state’s Salmon Recovery Act, according to an annual report released this month by Gov. Jay Inslee’s Salmon Recovery Office.
Two state fish and wildlife commissions will continue their discussions looking for next steps in reforming salmon management on the Columbia River.
Alaskan wildlife management that prioritizes reducing bear and wolf populations so hunters can kill more moose, caribou and deer is both backward and lacks scientific monitoring, ecologists say in a paper published this week in PLOS Biology.
Two conservation groups notified the U.S. Department of Commerce and NOAA Fisheries of their intention to sue saying that their “mismanagement” of West Coast fisheries is harming southern resident killer whales in Puget Sound.
Idaho anglers once again have the opportunity to fish for and harvest burbot in the Kootenai River, its tributaries and Bonner Lake in a season that started Jan. 1.
Recommendations for amendments to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program received from state and federal agencies, tribes, Bonneville Power Administration customers, environmental and conservation groups and individuals are now out for public comment.
More than 3,000 people registered for the Bonneville Power Administration’s 2018 Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Program. Combined, they spent more than 23,000 angler days catching and removing 180,271 of the salmon-eating fish.
Once spring-run chinook salmon disappear, they are not likely to re-emerge, indicates genetic analysis of the revered wild fish in a study led by the University of California, Davis. Prompt conservation action could preserve spring-run chinook, as well as their evolutionary potential.
NOAA released Thursday the 11th Fisheries Economics of the United States report which provides the most up-to-date economic statistics on commercial and recreational fisheries as well as seafood-related businesses for each coastal state and the nation.
Idaho is suspending angling for steelhead in Idaho until it can obtain an incidental take permit from NOAA Fisheries that would legally allow the state to reopen the fishing.
An innovative tool that can confirm the recent presence of any given fish species in a sample of water will be highlighted at the first National Conference on Marine Environmental DNA held in New York City. The conference began Thursday and continues today, Nov. 30.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife staff will start capturing deer in northeast Washington in early December and fit them with radio-collars as part of an ongoing predator-prey study that began two years ago.
NOAA Fisheries approved Oregon’s request to lethally remove up to 93 sea lions per year at Willamette Falls where the pinnipeds are eating as much as 25 percent of wild winter steelhead adults and up to 9 percent of wild spring chinook, both threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act.
A master plan to change spring chinook hatchery production from a segregated broodstock to an integrated brood stock more in line with the natural fish in the Klickitat River is coming to a conclusion.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife staff completed a draft evaluation of the Columbia River Basin Salmon Management Policy that was enacted to assure recreational anglers would receive a larger portion of the non-tribal harvest allocation of salmon and steelhead and that removed commercial gillnetters from the mainstem of the river.
A panel of scientists completed their review of a monitoring and evaluation plan for the new Walla Walla spring chinook hatchery on the south fork of the Walla Walla River that will produce a half million yearling spring chinook each year.
Northern pike is a fish that is broadly distributed across the northern hemisphere, but is not native to the Pacific Northwest, and it remains unwanted.
Its presence as low in the Columbia River basin as Lake Roosevelt is now posing a threat to native fish downstream of Grand Coulee Dam in what many are calling the anadromous zone where salmon and steelhead fish spawn, rear and eventually migrate to and from the ocean.
The Bonneville Power Administration is continuing to look for cuts to its Fish and Wildlife funding that, eventually, the power marketing agency hopes will total $30 million each year in savings.
Idaho Fish and Game recently reached an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to assume operations of the Hagerman National Fish Hatchery, which raises about 1.6 million juvenile steelhead for release in the Upper Salmon River Basin.
A high flying habitat restoration project is underway in Washington’s Yakima Basin, with a heavy helicopter delivering logs to the streambeds and flood plains of seven Yakima River tributaries.
A couple of thousand fall chinook adults continued to cross Bonneville Dam daily, prompting the US v Oregon Technical Advisory Committee to increase its forecast last week.
A 10-year U.S.-Canada treaty that will govern harvest of salmon in Alaska and British Columbia is set to be ratified by the two nations, the states of Washington and Oregon, British Columbia and Northwest and Columbia River treaty tribes.
The Chelan County Public Utility District commission at its meeting Sept. 18 approved a resolution to enter into a long-term, 15-year agreement with the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation for coho salmon hatchery fish rearing.
An international task force brought together by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee in March this year released a list of proposed recommendations this week that, if implemented, they hope will revive the endangered population of Southern Resident Orca whales in northern Washington and British Columbia.
Treaty commercial gillnetters, who have fished several days a week since August 27 for fall chinook salmon in Zone 6, are adding another few days this week.
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