Smolt-To-Adult returns. SARs. The BENCHMARK of Columbia/Snake River basin salmon and steelhead recovery. And in recent years the SARs benchmark – tagged, tracked fish-- is screaming bad news for Snake River salmon and steelhead. Bringing these fish back from the brink as the regional climate warms requires urgency.
Two unlikely partners agree on at least one thing: two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hydroelectric projects in the Willamette River basin should no longer generate power and both have recently supported federal legislation to study deauthorizing that production.
Since at least 2011, biologists have trapped chinook and sockeye salmon and summer steelhead at Pelton Dam on the Deschutes River and transported the fish upstream to Lake Billy Chinook for spawning in an effort to reintroduce the fish upstream of the dam.
The global abundance of salmon in the Pacific Ocean in 2020 based on commercial catch was the lowest since 1982 and in North America the catch was the lowest since 1977, despite a record number of hatchery releases the year before, according to a report released in May 2021 by the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission of Vancouver B.C.
The Canadian government last week announced a $647 million strategy to save Pacific salmon, aiming to stop the declines now while helping rebuild populations over the longer term.
Earth's climate is determined by a delicate balance between how much of the Sun's radiative energy is absorbed in the atmosphere and at the surface and how much thermal infrared radiation Earth emits to space. A positive energy imbalance means the Earth system is gaining energy, causing the planet to heat up. Now, NOAA and NASA researchers have found that Earth’s energy imbalance approximately doubled during the 14-year period from 2005 to 2019.
Sport anglers will have the opportunity to reel in salmon off the Washington coast starting Saturday, June 19 in all four of Washington’s coastal marine areas.
