FEDS APPROVE PLAN TO REMOVE UP TO 85 SEA LIONS IN COLUMBIA RIVER Posted on Friday, March 21, 2008 (PST)

With federal approvals in hand, the states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho are scurrying to complete details of a plan to pluck California sea lions from their Columbia River salmon gravy train as early as next month, and slate them for either execution or captive residence in faraway zoos and aquariums. Read More...

TRIBES, COUNCIL LAUD SEA LION DECISION; HUMANE SOCIETY MULLS OPTIONS Posted on Friday, March 21, 2008 (PST)

Fish advocates say a plan to lethally remove California sea lions from base of the Columbia River's Bonneville Dam is a reasoned approach for reducing the predatory marine mammals' impacts on returning salmon and steelhead that are listed under the Endangered Species Act. Read More...

LOW WEST COAST SALMON RETURNS; WHY THE VARIATIONS? Posted on Friday, March 21, 2008 (PST)

Anticipated record low returns of chinook salmon to the Sacramento and Klamath rivers, and expected low Oregon coastal coho and chinook and Columbia River coho returns, will likely leave California and most of Oregon without an ocean fishing season. Read More...

PFMC MEETING TO SET FISHERIES; SEEKS TASK FORCE ON CAUSES FOR DECLINE Posted on Friday, March 21, 2008 (PST)

The Pacific Fishery Management Council will decide during its April 7-12 meeting in Seattle how it wants West Coast salmon fisheries managed this year off the Oregon, Washington and California coasts. Read More...

CORMORANTS NOW CHAMPION CONSUMERS OF COLUMBIA JUVENILE SALMONIDS Posted on Friday, March 21, 2008 (PST)

Caspian terns winging their way to the Columbia River estuary will find their prized nesting habitat downsized this year by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in an attempt to encourage some of the salmon eating birds to settle elsewhere. Read More...

TESTS SHOW HIGH LEVELS OF PCB IN BASS NEAR BONNEVILLE DAM Posted on Friday, March 21, 2008 (PST)

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this week announced the results of tests that show high concentrations of contamination in smallmouth bass in the Columbia River, in the vicinity of Bradford Island, near Bonneville Dam. Read More...

NEW SURFACE PASSAGE SPILLWAY WEIRS TO BE TESTED AT JOHN DAY DAM Posted on Friday, March 21, 2008 (PST)

The ongoing effort to explore the benefits of surface passage for juvenile fish at federal dams takes two steps forward this spring with the operation of new "spillway weirs" at both John Day Dam on the lower Columbia River and the lower Snake River's Lower Monumental Dam. Read More...

GREGOIRE SIGNS LAKE ROOSEVELT WATER DELIVERY LEGISLATION Posted on Friday, March 21, 2008 (PST)

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire signed legislation this week that will release the largest delivery of new water to towns and farms in the Columbia Basin, and for endangered salmon, in three decades. Read More...

SCIENCE PANEL REVIEWS BIOP DOCUMENTS UNDERPINNING RECOVERY PLANNING Posted on Friday, March 21, 2008 (PST)

Three technical documents that underpin NOAA Fisheries' developing Columbia/Snake river hydro system BiOp and recovery planning are scientifically sound, for the most part, but in need of some shoring up, according to a review completed March 7 by the Independent Scientific Advisory Board. Read More...