Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
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In its meeting, December 2, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to extend the transition period through 2017 to implement the Columbia River Fisheries Reform aimed at removing gillnetters from the lower Columbia River mainstem. The extension will allow further consideration by commission members and consultation with management partners. The commission will consider the reform policy again, including actions for 2017 fisheries and beyond, at their Jan. 20 meeting in Salem. Meanwhile, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will...
Major forest die-offs due to drought, heat and beetle infestations or deforestation could have consequences far beyond the local landscape. Wiping out an entire forest can have significant effects on global climate patterns and alter vegetation on the other side of the world, according to a study led by the University of Washington and published this week in PLOS ONE (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0165042). “When trees die in one place, it can be good or bad for plants elsewhere, because it causes changes in o...
Lower Columbia River gillnetters told the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission Nov. 9 that fishery harvest reforms initiated in 2013 are not working economically, while salmon and steelhead anglers accused the commission of vacating its promise to get gillnetters off the river. As many as 150 people attended the Salem commission meeting and public forum on mainstem fishery harvest reforms, where comments were heard on a proposal by ODFW that would continue gillnetting in some areas of the mainstem river. The harvest reform package, also known as...
A lower river organization is just beginning to track and map where marine debris is located in the Columbia River estuary, but it needs help from people to identify where the debris is located and what kind of debris it is. The Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership is asking for help to identify small to medium scale marine debris in the lower Columbia River from Bonneville Dam to the river’s mouth. It will then map the debris and develop plans for cleanup, the organization said. Marine debris can harm fish and wildlife habitat, affect water q...
From the Columbia Basin Bulletin As it reviews preliminary results of the 2016 commercial gillnetting and recreational angling season on the Columbia River at its meeting this week, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will also begin considering statutory changes to Columbia River fishery harvest reform that could extend gillnetting on the mainstem river in 2017, beyond the reform deadline. The controversial harvest reform of 2013, also known as the Kitzhaber Plan, would effectively remove commercial gillnetters from the mainstem Columbia...
Juvenile chinook salmon density in shallow habitats downstream of Bonneville Dam is largely due to time of year, but density does differ across habitat types. The best habitats, according to a recent study, included those with higher percentages of tree cover, acceptable dissolved oxygen levels and higher emergent vegetation. The study looked at 63 months of data (2007 – 2012) from two tidal freshwater areas in the Columbia River – the Sandy River delta just east of Portland and a stretch of mainstem river downstream (river mile 68 to 88) tha...
NOAA is reporting that summer temperatures across the contiguous United States, June through August of this year, were the fifth highest on record, and a forecast for a La Niña weather pattern emerging has been downgraded to a “neutral” forecast that could mean continued warmer-than-average temperatures in the Pacific Northwest through the fall and winter. Climate and weather experts recapped summer weather on Sept. 15, showing that the Northwest states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana all experienced warmer-than-average temp...
NOAA Fisheries and the Wild Fish Conservancy have stipulated that the agency will not disburse Mitchell Act funds to 10 Northwest hatcheries until the federal agency has completed its hatchery biological opinion and incidental take statements for the disbursements. NOAA Fisheries estimated the BiOp and incidental take statement will be completed between October 1 and December 1, 2016. The stipulation was reached August 2 in Oregon U.S. District Court in the Wild Fish Conservancy vs National Marine Fisheries Service court case that began March 3...
A new kind of “bank” NOAA Fisheries has approved in southwest Washington will use a novel approach to fund restoration and long-term protection of more than 300 acres of prime wetland and river habitat along the Coweeman River east of Kelso, promoting recovery of threatened salmon and steelhead. Developers may purchase credits from the Coweeman River Mitigation Bank to offset the impacts of new developments within the same region along the lower Columbia River. The credits effectively represent shares in the mitigation bank, whose private spo...
Fall chinook salmon passage at Bonneville Dam is within expectations, but catch of the fish is lagging in the popular Buoy 10 fishery for recreational anglers. The finding prompted the two-state Columbia River Compact on August 25 to liberalize a catch restriction on unmarked chinook and coho salmon that had previously been set in place for the Buoy 10 fishery, and it added two new non-Indian commercial gillnetting nights to a fairly packed August of fishing for the gillnetters. In addition, the fall chinook fishery began this week for...
The Wild Fish Conservancy is seeking an injunction and restraining order to block the continued use of Mitchell Act funding for salmonid hatchery operations in the lower Columbia River system. The conservancy contends Mitchell Act funds were intended to support hatchery operations that help rather than harm wild fish populations. The complaint seeking an injunction and restraining order was filed July 13 in an Oregon U.S. District Court. It signals an effort on the part of plaintiffs to accelerate proceedings related to a March 31 lawsuit that...
NOAA Fisheries research indicates that after accounting for harvest, in some years as many as 45 percent of the salmon tagged in the estuary disappear before reaching Bonneville Dam, according to a presentation in mid-July to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. In 2010, researchers for NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency that oversees the Endangered Species Act for Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead, began a research project to better understand what happens to the fish in the 140 miles between the ocean and Bonneville Dam when...
From The Columbia Basin Bulletin With the current 10-year federal court agreement – U.S. v. Oregon-- that guides Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead harvest set to expire next year, federal agencies have announced their intention to prepare a joint environmental impact statement to help guide a new harvest agreement post-2017. “Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA),” say the federal agencies in a Federal Register notice, “this notice announces that NMFS and USFWS (together, the Services) intend to prepare a joint E...
The Columbia Basin is possibly looking at a summer with progressively diminishing water supplies, because of similar conditions that developed last year across the basin. Mountain snowpacks were at or near average by mid-April in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, but warm temperatures — in some cases record highs — fueled an early snowpack runoff that peaked on some waterways weeks ahead of historic expectations. The Natural Resource Conservation Service issued reports for the four states in June that indicate similar outlooks for the res...
2,394 birds shot this year Plaintiffs in a federal case in which they seek to stop the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from continuing to shoot and oil double crested cormorant eggs in the lower Columbia River estuary called talk of “devastating impacts” on salmon by the birds’ predation “little more than a biological soundbite.” In their supplemental brief federal defendants said the plaintiffs’ brief was just a rehash of what the court has already heard and resolved. Attorneys for the plaintiffs – the Audubon Society of Portland and others ...
As Oregon and Washington canceled the second Bonneville Dam reservoir white sturgeon season and opened up more fishing for commercial gillnetters in the lower Columbia River select area fisheries, the run of sockeye salmon already has exceeded pre-season estimates. The count of sockeye at Bonneville Dam June 22 was 168,989, already far more than the pre-season forecast of 101,600 fish predicted late last year by the U.S. v Oregon technical advisory committee. The average 50 percent passage date for the fish is June 27. “The sockeye run is obvio...
After snatching and eating almost 9,000 spring chinook salmon and steelhead through May 31, the number of pinnipeds lurking at Bonneville Dam has dropped to just one, a California sea lion. Steller sea lions were completely absent by the end of May. Sea lions at Bonneville this year ate more than twice what they’ve averaged over the past ten years. Of the estimated 8,986 fish, California sea lions (CSL) ate 71 percent of the adult salmonids – both spring chinook salmon and steelhead – while Steller sea lions (SSL), those found most commo...
The estimated size of the upriver spring chinook salmon run was reduced by nearly 5 percent last week by the U.S. v Oregon technical advisory committee (TAC). Still, the two-state Columbia River Compact, which met May 18, set additional recreational and non-Indian commercial fishing dates. Recreational fishing was open on the Columbia River mainstem downstream of Bonneville Dam last weekend. The Compact met May 16 and set recreational openings for Friday through Monday this Memorial Day weekend and June 3 through June 15. "We're hoping to...
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission at its March meeting reviewed fishery harvest reforms on the Columbia River that effectively remove commercial gillnetters from the mainstem river by 2017 but allows gillnetting in the lower river in select areas. The three-year transition will be complete by next year. It consists of harvest allocation shifts, with recreational anglers taking a larger chunk of the mainstem fishing while commercial fishing transitions to select off-channel areas, such as...
Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead, which are from the same species, but of differing stocks, enter the river’s estuary and the ocean at different times and at different sizes, a variation that contributes to the resilience of the fish. Because these fish begin to grow rapidly when entering the ocean, the timing differences between early-arriving fish and those fish that arrive later give the early migrating fish a growth advantage, according to a recent study. That timing advantage allows early-migrating fish to reach larger sizes s...
The early phase of recreational spring chinook season on the lower Columbia River ended April 8, one day earlier than the Saturday deadline set in January by the two-state Columbia River Compact. The Compact agreed at its hearing April 7 to close the fishery based on projections that the catch of upriver chinook salmon will reach the initial 7,515-fish harvest guideline a day ahead of schedule. The closure also applies to steelhead and shad in the 145 mile stretch of river from Buoy 10 at the river’s mouth to Bonneville Dam to protect the m...
The public is invited to comment on a new plan designed to align state fisheries and hatchery operations to support the recovery of wild salmon and steelhead populations in the lower Columbia River Basin. The Lower Columbia Conservation and Sustainable Fisheries Plan, jointly produced by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board, is available for review at www.lcfrb.gen.wa.us. Comments on the plan will be accepted through Jan. 22 via email at info@lcfrb.gen.wa.us or postal mail: LCFRB, 2127 8th...
The National Weather Service has warned for months that this year’s El Niño weather pattern will be among the strongest on record, with predictions for higher-than-normal precipitation and warmer-than-normal temperatures in the Pacific Northwest that have proven to be true. The latest El Niño update, issued on Dec. 10, predicts the pattern will continue. The forecasts for the El Niño Southern Oscillation — a pattern of warm-water conditions in the equatorial Pacific Ocean — have taken shape in the form of a deluge of heavy snow and rain in...
The number of fall chinook passing Bonneville Dam continues to mount with nearly 1,000 more fish over the dam last week, increasing the record run to 954,376, or 212 percent of the 10-year average, according to NOAA Fisheries’ Paul Wagner at the November 18 Technical Management Team meeting. The previous record of 953,222 fish set in 2013 was exceeded when the count went to 953,541 fish as of November 12, the most fish passing the dam since it was built 77 years ago. Daily passage numbers are declining from 229 fish per day Saturday, to just 7...
An outright ban on the common use of plastic "microbeads" from products that enter wastewater is the best way to protect water quality, wildlife, and resources used by people, a group of conservation scientists suggest in a new analysis. These microbeads are one part of the microplastic problem in oceans, freshwater lakes and rivers, but they are a special concern because in many products they are literally designed to be flushed down the drain. And even at conservative estimates, the collective total of microbeads being produced today is...
