Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
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NOAA Fisheries saw the lowest number of juvenile coho salmon in 21 years in offshore test nets in 2017, leading to low returns of coho to the Columbia River basin one year later in 2018 when the fish were adults. However, in 2018 NOAA netted many more juvenile coho than in 2017 and that signals a better adult coho run in 2019, according to a briefing this week at the Northwest Power and Conservation Council in Portland. Much of the reason is improving ocean conditions – cooler water than the ocean warmup during the 2014 – 2017 “blob” with mo...
Hot and dry weather has yielded emerging drought conditions across much of Oregon and Washington, but healthy streamflows persist throughout much of the basin mostly due to last winter’s ample snowpack. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown issued a press release Wednesday announcing a drought emergency declaration for Wheeler County. It is the seventh Oregon county under a drought emergency, joining Klamath, Grant, Harney, Lake, Baker and Douglas counties. Drought declarations allow for increased flexibility in managing water to ensure that limited s...
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...
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...
A chum salmon reintroduction project has quietly and successfully moved beyond its fifth year in the Columbia River between Astoria and Clatskanie. Once one of the most abundant of salmon species in the Columbia River, chum salmon made up as much as 7 percent to 10 percent of historical salmon runs, with as many as 1 million fall-run chum salmon returning to the river in 1928. That was the same year that the commercial harvest of chum was 700,000 fish. The species went into decline due to harvest and as habitat degraded, and has been in...
The forecasted run of fall chinook salmon into the Columbia River rose to 1,095,900, more than 15 percent higher than the preseason forecast of 925,300 chinook. Reporting the increase Sept. 17 to the two-state Columbia River Compact, the U.S. v Oregon Technical Advisory Committee said that of the higher forecast, 685,000 fish are upriver bright chinook and 139,500 are Bonneville Pool Hatchery tule chinook. That, said TAC’s Stewart Ellis, is the third largest run of fall chinook and the second largest run of upriver bright chinook on record. P...
The Columbia River Compact on Wednesday approved a new round of commercial fisheries for both tribal and non-Indian commercial netters on the mainstem Columbia that will likely bring to a close what has been a record-breaking harvest on a near-record return of chinook salmon and a revived coho salmon run. “In 2014, the tribal fishery has set a record for modern times for open days of commercial gill-net fishing and had record total catches,” according to an Oct. 8 staff report prepared by the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and its...
Tribal and non-tribal commercial fishers, as well as lower Columbia River anglers, are sweeping in tens of thousands of salmon this year even while fishery managers keep a close watch on impacts to protected stocks such as so-called “B” steelhead bound for the most part for Idaho and wild Lower River Hatchery fall chinook salmon tules. The salmon return to the Columbia-Snake river system in 2014 has been huge, though slightly below expectations. In preseason the Technical Advisory Committee’s federal, state and tribal members predicted that...
The Columbia River Compact on Aug. 12 gave the green light to the first commercial seine fishing for salmon on the lower Columbia River mainstem since the nets were prohibited under state law by Washington in 1935 and by Oregon in 1950. The pilot fisheries approved by the bi-state panel will involve 10 permit holders, six approved to use beach seines and four to use purse seines. They are limited to individual fish quotas (IFQ) of 500 chinook kept and 250 coho salmon kept for the beach seiners and 750 chinook and 450 coho for purse seiners....
Aug. 1 marked the opening of the long-awaited fall fishing season on the mainstem Columbia River, which this year is expected to see a record number of fall chinook salmon, a run of coho spawners forecast to be 156 percent of the 2004-2013 average and a summer steelhead return similar to the 10-year average. And both sport and commercial fishers are off and running, even though only the very beginnings of the 2014 fall chinook and coho runs have returned from the Pacific Ocean. Through August 6, 2,492 adult fall chinook had swum 146 miles up...
Menacing “El Nino” signs have eased though not disappeared. But another potential salmon nemesis – an apparent warm phase Pacific Decadal Oscillation – has made an appearance with warmer than average sea surface water conditions from the Gulf of Alaska and the eastern Bering Sea down to the so-called California Current off the coast of Oregon and Washington. “It should be noted that those Columbia/Snake River spring chinook and steelhead stocks that entered the ocean this spring and traveled to the Gulf of Alaska to feed may experienc...
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week announced it has extended by 15 days the public comment period on a draft plan detailing possible alternatives to reduce predation by double-crested cormorants on juvenile salmon and steelhead that are listed under the Endangered Species Act. A large number of cormorants nest each spring and summer in the Columbia River estuary. Their primary colony site is East Sand Island, which millions of listed salmonids must pass on their way to the Pacific Ocean. Comments on the Corps’ draft Environmental I...
A next big step down a “presumptive path” toward phasing out non-tribal commercial gill-nets on the lower Columbia River will be the deployment late this summer of 10 permit holders equipped with beach and purse seines, equipment that had been outlawed on the river for more than 60 years. The late fall salmon fisheries stem from fishery management policies adopted in 2013 by the Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife commissions “intended to promote the conservation and recovery of wild salmon and steelhead and provide fishery-related benef...
The sockeye salmon tally this year at the lower Columbia River's Bonneville Dam on July 8 set a record for any season since the construction of the dam was completed in 1938 and the counts began. Mid-summer sockeye spawners counted passing Bonneville through July 8 totaled 526,367, and counting. The record for an entire season was a 515,673 fish count in 2012. Another 12,858 sockeye were counted passing the dam July 9 to up the record to 539,225. Fishery officials as of July 7 estimated that...
The Cathlamet Channel in southwest Washington is about to become the state’s second off-channel or select area commercial gill-net fishery. In a state that has few potential off-channel sites for rearing and fishing on the lower Columbia River, this may be the only remaining site available in Washington. The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission approved in January 2013 new limits in the lower Columbia on non-tribal, gill-net fishing in the mainstem of the river as a way to reduce the impact of commercial fishing on wild salmon and steelhead...
A higher-than-anticipated early commercial catch of upriver spring chinook in Columbia River estuary “select areas” forced Oregon and Washington officials to rescind six fishing periods that had been scheduled this week. The upriver spring chinook are bound for hatcheries and tributary spawning grounds above the Columbia’s Bonneville Dam in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Some, however, on their journey inevitably wander through the off-channel select areas, where terminal fisheries are intended to harvest hatchery produced chinook that are r...
