Is Higher Spill At Dams Helping Juvenile Salmon Passage? With Continued Low Detection Rates Of Tagged Fish, Hard To Say
November 16th, 2022
For the third straight year, high levels of spill at Columbia and Snake river dams has impacted detection rates of tagged juvenile salmon and steelhead as they migrated downstream through dams.
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Oregon, Burns Paiute Tribe Sign Agreement To Collaborate On Reintroducing Salmon, Steelhead To Malheur River
October 20th, 2022
The Burns Paiute Tribe, a federally-recognized Indian tribe, signed an agreement this month with the state of Oregon and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to collaborate on reintroducing salmon and steelhead to the Malheur River, a tributary of the Snake River. Construction of the Hells Canyon dams in 1958 blocked all anadromous fish from the Upper Snake River basin and Malheur River system.
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WSU Study Shows Drones Found Double The Number Of Potential Redds In Wenatchee River Compared To Ground-Level Observations
October 20th, 2022
Struggling salmon populations could get some help from the sky. A Washington State University study showed that drone photography of the Wenatchee River during spawning season can be effective in estimating the number of rocky hollows salmon create to lay their eggs, also called “redds.”
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Groups Petition NOAA Fisheries To List Washington’s Olympic Peninsula Steelhead Under ESA; Dramatic Declines Since 1980s
September 29th, 2022
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.
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More Recreational Fishing Opens Up On Lower Columbia, Including Hatchery Coho Angling At Buoy 10
September 14th, 2022
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.
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Angling Closes For John Day River Steelhead Due To Low Wild Fish Return; Chinook, Coho Return To Date Not As Grim
September 8th, 2022
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.
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Salmon, Steelhead Reintroduction In Blocked Areas Above Deschutes River Dams See Best Spring Chinook Return Yet
August 4th, 2022
Spring Chinook salmon are still arriving at the Pelton-Round Butte Complex of dams on Central Oregon’s Deschutes River where they are trapped and hauled upstream to Lake Billy Chinook. And so far partners Portland General Electric and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs are seeing the best annual return of the fish since they began their efforts to reintroduce Chinook, sockeye and summer steelhead above the dams 13 years ago.
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Snake River Sockeye Now Showing Up In Stanley Basin, 66 Percent That Passed Bonneville Dam Made It To Lower Granite Dam
August 4th, 2022
The first two sockeye salmon to arrive in the Sawtooth Basin near Stanley, Idaho, were trapped July 28 by Idaho Department of Fish and Game biologists and some 2,066 of the Snake River run of sockeye have passed Lower Granite Dam, 30 miles downstream of Lewiston, ID.
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Beat The Heat: Nearly 2,000 Snake River Sockeye Slip Past Reservoirs Into Salmon River Before High Temps Hit
July 28th, 2022
The majority of the run of Snake River sockeye salmon, a small segment of the largest Columbia River sockeye run since Bonneville Dam was built in 1938 (most return to the upper Columbia), have passed eight Columbia and Snake river dams and are now moving up the Salmon River.