Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
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A Washington State University researcher has found that the mating habits of salmon can alter the profile of stream beds, affecting the evolution of an entire watershed. His study is one of the first to quantitatively show that salmon can influence the shape of the land. Alex Fremier, lead author of the study and associate professor in the WSU School of the Environment, said female salmon "fluff" soil and gravel on a river bottom as they prepare their nests, or redds. The stream gravel is then more easily removed by flooding, which opens the...
Productivity of wild chinook salmon from the Columbia River to northern Alaska is subject to large-scale atmospheric and ocean circulation trends, especially the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation, according to a recent study. Other studies of coho, pink and sockeye salmon stocks have found that trends in productivity for these stocks have more to do with localized ocean trends. The study also found a more alarming trend: the differences in timing and productivity among the various wild chinook stocks are becoming more synchronous, meaning that...
Unusually warm ocean conditions off the Pacific Northwest in the last few years led anchovies, sardines and hake to begin spawning in Northwest waters much earlier in the year and, for anchovy, longer than biologists have ever recorded before, new research has found. The rapid northerly shifts in spawning may offer a preview of future conditions if ocean warming continues, according to the new study published in Global Change Biology by scientists from the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, Oregon State University and NOAA Fisheries'...
NOAA is reporting the summer of 2017 was the third warmest on record globally, with the Pacific Northwest feeling the same heat, but the region may be in for another cold, wet fall and winter. The NOAA Climate Prediction Center’s most recent El Niño Southern Oscillation outlook includes a “La Niña Watch” with a 55-60 percent chance of the pattern developing during the coming fall and winter. El Niño and La Niña weather patterns are driven by Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures, and both patterns can be powerful influences on weather a...
By The Columbia Basin Bulletin As juvenile salmon and steelhead enter the ocean, the common murre and sooty shearwater, offshore avian predators that feed on forage fish such as salmon, throw up a “predator gauntlet” while the fish are still in the Columbia River plume, according to a recent study. Plume size makes a difference with larger plumes of brackish water in May and June each year that can spread out north and south from the river’s mouth hundreds of kilometers and reach a volume of as much as 8,738 square kilometers (3,374 squar...
Ocean conditions for salmon headed to sea this year are very poor, according to recent NOAA Fisheries research surveys, and have a high likelihood of depressing salmon returns to the Columbia River in the next few years. The outlook is described in a recent research memorandum from NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center, which has been studying the ecology of young salmon entering the ocean for more than 20 years. The research has helped reveal how conditions in the ocean affect salmon survival and, ultimately, how many salmon c...
New technologies for analyzing DNA may transform how imperiled species are considered and managed for conservation protection, according to a study published in the journal Science Advances and led by the University of California, Davis. These technologies can be applied to a wide range of species around the world--from mushrooms to walruses--but the study focuses on two iconic species of Pacific salmon--steelhead and chinook. While steelhead are a legendary sport fish, chinook are considered the workhorse of the West Coast salmon industry....
Early commercial fall fishing began August 21 for both commercial non-treaty gillnetters and treaty gillnetters on the Columbia River mainstem while Idaho, due to historic low returns, suspended retention of steelhead in Idaho rivers as of August 17. For commercial gillnetters, the limited opening is for five nine-hour fishing periods, all upstream of Warrior Rock at St. Helens, Oregon. Because of the poor steelhead returns, this early fall commercial gillnetting fishery is the only fishery this fall that lower Columbia River gillnetters can...
West Coast steelhead runs are declining, and a new study pegs much of the problem to poor survival of smolts early after entry into the ocean. After entering the ocean, steelhead smolts head out over the continental shelf from wherever they enter the ocean – British Columbia, Puget Sound, the coastal areas of Oregon and Washington and from the Columbia River – and then turn north to the Gulf of Alaska where the fish all mix before returning to their natal spawning grounds. While in the Gulf of Alaska steelhead remain more dispersed and sch...
Tribes, commercial gillnetters and sports anglers began fishing August 1 as the two-state Columbia River Compact met last week to set fishing times for the fall season. Some 613,840 fall chinook are forecasted to return to the Columbia River, 96 percent of 2016’s actual return of 642,400 fish and 84 percent of the 10-year average (2007 – 2016). Of those, nearly 403,600 upriver chinook will pass Bonneville Dam, a run that is typically half done by September 9. The forecast for coho salmon returning to the Columbia River is 319,300 fish, 93 per...
The Pacific Northwest should expect continued warmer-than-average temperatures and normal rainfall August through October, according to a new long-term climate outlook developed by the NOAA Climate Prediction Center. The El Niño Southern Oscillation, measured largely by Pacific Ocean surface temperatures and resulting atmospheric conditions, is projected to be neutral this year, meaning no El Niño or La Niña conditions that can be hugely influential on weather in the lower 48 states. A La Niña pattern is credited with the colder and wetter-than...
Bald eagles continue to harass double-crested cormorants at East Sand Island in the lower Columbia River estuary, essentially bringing all nesting activity on the island to a halt. Throughout June, bald eagles have driven the cormorants from the island and onto bridges in the area to nest. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers observers have also seen several thousand cormorants nesting in Willapa Bay as well as up the coast in Grays Harbor. Culling of the cormorants was suspended April 27 due to “lack of colony formation on the island. Photos show d...
After a month with the number of sea lions hanging out at Bonneville Dam to snack on salmon, steelhead and other available fish exceeding the 10-year average, the number fell to just one, according to a June 7 report. Most of the Steller sea lions left by May 27, and by the end of the reporting period, May 13 to June 2, there were none remaining at the dam. The bulk of the California sea lions left by May 30, but one remains, the report says. During the period there were an average of 37.5 sea lions in the dam's tailrace per day. Most were Stel...
A three-year survey of the California Current System along the West Coast of the United States found persistent, highly acidified water throughout this ecologically critical nearshore habitat, with hotspots of pH measurements as low as any oceanic surface waters in the world. The researchers say that conditions will continue to worsen because the atmospheric carbon dioxide primarily to blame for this increase in acidification has been rising substantially in recent years. One piece of good news came out of the study, which was published last...
For the second time in two weeks, the estimated size of the Columbia River’s spring chinook run has been changed. Just three weeks ago, the runs size forecast was downgraded by the U.S. v Oregon Technical Advisory Committee from its initial forecast of 160,800 fish to just 83,000. On May 30, the forecast was back up to 118,000 fish, according to an announcement by the U.S. v Oregon Technical Management Committee. The 83,000 estimate was one of the 15 lowest returns on record, but most of those runs had been in the 1970's through the 1990's, a...
The regional advisory committee that forecasts Columbia River salmon runs so fisheries managers can set recreational, commercial and tribal fisheries last week cut their early season run size prediction for spring chinook in half. Recreational fishing for salmon and steelhead has come to a halt on the Columbia River, and the new forecast assures that angling will not be resumed until June 15, the cutoff date distinguishing the spring and summer runs of chinook, unless more fish begin to move over Bonneville Dam, which could prompt a revised...
Lethal removal of sea lions at Bonneville Dam is likely not reducing predation on salmon and steelhead at the dam by California sea lions (CSL). That is the general opinion of the NOAA Fisheries’ Pinniped-Fishery Interactive Task Force that met for the fifth time since 2008 in March. The task force was assigned by NOAA to review lethal removal of California sea lions and hazing operations aimed at reducing salmon predation at Bonneville Dam. Although the task force of 14 people agreed that the program to lethally remove sea lions at the dam i...
Just 3,337 spring chinook had been counted passing upstream over Bonneville Dam as of April 30, the lowest count of the fish at the dam on record for that date. Anglers in the lower Columbia River caught nearly twice that number in March and April and neared the limiting number that is calculated to protect upriver fish before fishing downstream of the dam ended April 23. And river managers said May 2 they are also allowing angling to end in the area upstream of Bonneville Dam to the I-395 Bridge. “Unfortunately, this is the lowest cumulative c...
Lethal removal of sea lions at Bonneville Dam is likely not reducing predation on salmon and steelhead at the dam by California sea lions (CSL). That is the general opinion of the NOAA Fisheries’ Pinniped-Fishery Interactive Task Force that met for the fifth time since 2008 in March. The task force was assigned by NOAA to review lethal removal of California sea lions and hazing operations aimed at reducing salmon predation at Bonneville Dam. Although the task force of 14 people agreed that the program to lethally remove sea lions at the dam i...
Recreational angling improved over the weekend in the Columbia River from the river’s mouth to Bonneville Dam, prompting the two-state Columbia River Compact this week to take a cautious approach to extending early season fishing. The Compact held its call-in hearing on April 12 and added two five-day periods for anglers downstream of the dam in the next two weeks, but scheduled a check-in hearing between the two periods in case catch of upriver fish, the limiting factor in the number of fish anglers can catch, exceeds the limit of over 6...
A new study used the same kind of models that scientists use to track disease to instead examine how some California sea lions have learned to prey on salmon gathering to ascend fish ladders at Bonneville Dam. Although sea lions commonly feast on fish, their predation on salmon at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River poses wildlife management challenges. The sea lions that gather on the Columbia each spring are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act while the salmon they are eating are protected by the Endangered Species Act. In 2008...
La Niña conditions that were a big driver behind colder and wetter weather in the Columbia Basin “are no longer present” — at least over the Pacific Ocean, according to a monthly report issued February 9 by the NOAA Climate Prediction Center. Ocean waters have been warming and climate neutral conditions are emerging, and there are greater-than-even chances of an El Niño climate pattern taking hold during the second half of this year, the report states. La Niña was expected to produce cooler and wetter weather in the four-state Columbia Basin, a...
The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted 7-2 on January 14 to implement the next phase of the state's reform policy on Columbia River salmon management, including updates to provisions for fall chinook salmon and other provisions that will reduce commercial fishing. The updated policy builds on a joint strategy by Washington and Oregon to restructure recreational and commercial salmon fisheries on the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam. Adopted by both the Washington and Oregon commissions in 2013, the policy was designed to promote...
The forecasted return of adult spring and summer chinook salmon to the Columbia River basin in 2017 will be lower than initial estimates made last year in December, but the estimate of sockeye salmon is nearly twice the size of last year’s estimate, according to an early forecast of the runs released last week by the U.S. vs. Oregon Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). TAC estimated the total run of spring/summer chinook salmon for 2017 at 160,400 fish. Last year’s early forecast was 188,800, but the actual return to Bonneville Dam was hig...
The average U.S. temperature in autumn was 57.6 degrees F (4.1 degrees above average) and surpassed last fall as the warmest on record, according to scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. Precipitation during this period was about average for the nation, with wet extremes in the Northwest and dry extremes in the Central Rockies, Gulf Coast region and interior Southeast. The month of November was the 2nd warmest on record, with an average temperature across the contiguous U.S. of 48 degrees F, 6.3 degrees above a...
