Category: Salmon

Salmon habitat preparation delayed for Yale Reservoir

4/14/2016

The Columbian ~

ARIEL — State and federal fishery officials, along with PacifiCorp, have agreed to delay the preparation of Yale Reservoir and its tributaries for the reintroduction of salmon and steelhead.

PacifiCorp’s federal license to operate Merwin, Yale and Swift hydroelectric dams on the North Fork of the Lewis River calls for the utility to have a downstream fish passage facility at Yale Dam operational by June 26, 2021.

The settlement agreement between PacifiCorp and the fish agencies, Forest Service, Indian tribes and local governments also requires a “habitat preparation plan’’ beginning five years prior to fish passage.

Last year’s heat wave doomed nearly all Okanogan sockeye salmon

4/13/2016

The Seattle Times ~

Amid last summer’s drought and heat wave, some 98 percent of Okanogan basin sockeye salmon died before they reached upstream spawning grounds, a report presented to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council Wednesday says.

DNR study sees seagrass recovering in Puget Sound

3/22/2016

Bellingham Herald -

Critical eelgrass beds are showing signs of recovering in parts of Puget Sound, including Hood Canal, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.

A new DNR report found sites with increased eelgrass outnumbered sites with declining eelgrass between 2010 and 2014. The rebound was most pronounced in lower Hood Canal.

Floodplain experiment points to water policy solutions to support both salmon recovery and agriculture

3/3/2016

West Sacramento News-Ledger -

UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, the California Department of Water Resources and non-profit organization California Trout have launched an expanded experiment to better understand how the Sacramento River system can support healthy salmon populations.

Groups ask for emergency measures to protect salmon runs

2/25/2016

The East Oregonian -

Environmental groups are asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for emergency measures to reduce fish mortality caused by high water temperatures in the Columbia and Snake rivers.

Last year took a massive toll on sockeye salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers, as high water temperatures killed hundreds of thousands of fish returning from the Pacific Ocean.

Skagit salmon weigh in at half of what they usually do; blamed on warm ocean

2/24/2016

The Seattle Times -

The Skagit River coho run of 2015 ranked as the worst on record, and the few salmon that did make it back to freshwater spawning grounds were scrawny and undersized.

The Skagit River coho run of 2015 ranked as the worst on record, and the few salmon that did make it back to freshwater spawning grounds were scrawny and undersized. While an average adult coho spawning in the Skagit weighs some 6 to 8 pounds, the vast majority of fish that returned last fall weighed only 3 to 4 pounds.

DNA evidence shows that salmon hatcheries cause substantial, rapid genetic changes

2/17/2016

EurekAlert -

CORVALLIS, Ore. - A new study on steelhead trout in Oregon offers genetic evidence that wild and hatchery fish are different at the DNA level, and that they can become different with surprising speed.

The research, published today in Nature Communications, found that after one generation of hatchery culture, the offspring of wild fish and first-generation hatchery fish differed in the activity of more than 700 genes.

New record set for fall chinook redds in Snake River

2/8/2016

Tri-City Herald-

Fall chinook returning to the Snake River have set a new record for the third year in a row.
Data released by the Nez Perce Tribe show a new record of 9,345 redds, or gravel nests, were built by returning adults in the Snake River Basin between Lower Granite and Hells Canyon dams.

Tribes seek to restore Columbia salmon runs

2/7/2016

Seattle Times-

Some Northwest Indian tribes in the next 20 years want to achieve a long-held dream: restoring wild salmon runs above the giant Grand Coulee Dam.

The construction of Grand Coulee in the 1930s blocked salmon runs that historically ran into the millions of fish each year, killing what had been a way of life for Indian tribes in the region.

Elwha River beach, sea life settling into a new normal

2/6/2016

Peninsula Daily News-

Port Angeles — The beach at the Elwha River mouth and the sea life that has taken up residence in the newly expanded delta seem to be settling into a new normal, according to scientists studying the Elwha River restoration project.

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