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Biologists rush to save fish after landslide
Seattle Times
11/20/2009
A gigantic landslide that buried a highway, uprooted homes and rerouted a river in Washington state's Cascade Range left hundreds of smaller victims: fish. Fisheries biologists from 10 government agencies and private groups are working shifts to try to save the salmon and trout.
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Questions arise over Obama's salmon plan
Oregonian
11/19/2009
On Monday comes the latest in the long-running court battle over the government's plan to run its hydroelectric dams without pushing Columbia Basin salmon closer to extinction.
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Study: Farm animals devouring the world's fish
Vancouver Sun
11/17/2009
Consumer campaigns that promote sustainable seafood fail to address the fact the world's fish resources are being gobbled up by chickens, pigs, fish, and other farm animals, a study involving the University of BC concludes.
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Judge won't consider White House salmon plan
Oregonian
11/16/2009
The federal judge overseeing the balancing act between salmon and Columbia Basin dams says he doesn't think he can consider new steps the Obama administration wants to take.
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Chefs serve salmon with a message
Anchorage Daily News
11/15/2009
Chefs at more than a dozen Seattle restaurants are serving salmon dishes with a message on the side - a warning that the creature's future could be threatened by a giant gold and copper mine proposed for Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska, home to the world's largest sockeye salmon runs.
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PUD works on a plan for people and fish
Everett Herald
11/16/2009
A few years from now, there could be more salmon spawning in the Sultan River, and more chances for kayakers and boaters to get out on the water. Improving a river for people as well as fish is the key component of the Snohomish County PUD’s application to renew its federal licensing for its hydropower system, utility officials say.
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A different kind of fish toss: Planting dead salmon
Oregonian
11/12/2009
Thousands of salmon carcasses from the Sandy Fish Hatchery on Cedar Creek are being "planted" this fall in and along tributaries of Oregon's Sandy River to put needed nutrients back into the ecosystem.
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Chinook get boost from federal stimulus
KUOW
11/12/2009
Chinook salmon may be the beneficiaries of the federal economic stimulus program. Work is now underway on a three year, $7 million restoration project in Washington's Skagit River Delta. It's aimed at improving salmon habitat and flood protection for neighboring farms.
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Historic run: Coho re-enter Taneum Creek
Yakima Herald-Republic
11/12/2009
Coho salmon will be released into Taneum Creek where the removal of an old irrigation dam is giving fish access to parts of the Yakima River basin that have been off limits for more than a century.
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BC to remove gravel, despite salmon deaths
Vancouver Sun
11/12/2009
The British Columbia government plans to remove gravel from the Fraser River this winter despite a federal auditor general report that found the extraction has killed up to 2.25 million young pink salmon.
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Oregon plan to boost salmon population
Oregonian
11/11/2009
Oregon fish biologists are planning to release an extra 250,000 spring chinook smolts to Young's Bay near Astoria next spring, hoping to boost gill-netters catch of hatchery fish outside the Columbia River and reduce pressure on wild salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act.
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First microbreweries, now micro-canneries flourish
Oregon Public Broadcasting
11/10/2009
You've heard of micro-breweries. How about "micro-canneries?" They specialize in locally-caught, hand-packed albacore and salmon. A growing number of commercial fishing families are choosing to can their catch themselves.
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Canadian inquiry into Salmon crash
BC Local News
11/10/2009
The collapse of this year’s Fraser River sockeye salmon run will be the focus of a judicial inquiry ordered by the Canadian government. More than nine million salmon expected to head up the Fraser River this summer failed to arrive. Just 1.37 million sockeye did return--the worst on record.
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Views: Sockeye on the witness stand
BC Local News
11/10/2009
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to have a judicial inquiry into the sockeye salmon crisis has the potential to do more than enrich some lawyers.
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Fishermen's association supports Klamath dam agreement
Eureka Times-Standard
11/10/2009
The West Coast's largest commercial fishermen's organization announced on Monday its support for an agreement to tear out four Klamath River dams. The dams were put in beginning in 1916, and have blocked salmon from reaching hundreds of miles of spawning grounds since then. They also contribute to severe water quality problems on the river.
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Wetlands could be high & dry without dam
Medford Mail-Tribune
11/08/2009
What happens to marshy properties and miles of adjoining wetlands should Gold Ray Dam disappear is at the crux of a $5.5 million question over whether the Southern Oregon dam will be removed next year, creating 157 miles of free-flowing Rogue River to the sea.
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New antennas help biologists study salmon
Seattle Times
11/08/2009
Biologists studying salmon in the Pacific Northwest have for decades lost track of the fish just as they set out on life's last leg, to spawn and die in remote backcountry streams. That is changing, as crews have installed giant antennas in nearly two dozen rivers and streams across the region to track fish.
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Canada plans inquiry into disappearance of BC sockeye
Vancouver Sun
11/06/2009
Canada will stage a judicial inquiry into the collapse of sockeye salmon runs on the Fraser River, which have been in a two-decade decline and hit a 50-year low in summer 2009. It has prompted concerns that sockeye are heading for a population failure on the scale of the collapse of Atlantic cod.
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Spirit bears 'invisible' to salmon
BBC News
11/06/2009
On a few islands in western Canada, white 'spirit bears' walk the woods. Now scientists have discovered why these striking animals, a race of black bear, survive. White bears are less visible to fish than their black counterparts, making them 30% more efficient at capturing salmon in the islands' rivers.
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Views: Scientist stakes reputation on salmon plan
Idaho Statesman
11/05/2009
The Obama administration and the region’s federal dam managers are pinning their hopes to the scientific reputation of Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a marine ecologist from Oregon State University. And it’s a good call.
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Farmed salmon's ecological finprint measured
New Scientist
11/04/2009
The first cradle-to-grave analysis of the environmental impact of salmon farms has found that in some ways they're less harmful than, say, raising beef cattle -- but that there is plenty of room for improvement.
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Federal grant supports power, fish project
Kitsap Sun
11/04/2009
Tacoma Power will receive $4.7 million in federal stimulus money to build a new power plant at the lower Cushman Dam on the North Fork of the Skokomish River.
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Constantine wins King County exec
Seattle Times
11/04/2009
Riding a late-breaking wave of liberal support, Dow Constantine - a pro-abortion-rights, pro-labor, pro-transit Democrat - handily defeated Susan Hutchison on Tuesday in a rancorous race for King County executive. Now he has to clean up the county's budget, which is projected to face a $110 million shortfall over the next two years.
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BC natives claim landmark fish victory
Vancouver Sun
11/03/2009
The Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council claimed a legal victory Tuesday after the BC Supreme Court affirmed the right of aboriginals to sell the seafood they harvest. The court gave the aboriginal people of the west coast of Vancouver Island the right to harvest and sell fish and other seafood in their territory, although the right is not unrestricted.
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Expert: Impact of BC hydro projects on rivers unknown
Vancouver Sun
11/04/2009
British Columbia is decades behind other North American jurisdictions when it comes to confronting the impacts that hydroelectric development may have on the environment, a green energy conference heard Tuesday in Vancouver.
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