Columbia and Snake river waters have warmed 1.5 degrees Centigrade since 1960 and the rivers could warm an additional 1.7 to 2 degrees C by 2100, all due to climate change, with implications for long-term salmon and steelhead survival.
Latest News
Judge Lays Out Schedule For Hearing On Preliminary Injunction Requesting More Spill For Fish, Lower Reservoirs At Columbia/Snake Dams
September 23rd, 2021
A request for a preliminary injunction to increase spill next year at lower Columbia and Snake river dams, as well as to lower operating pools behind the dams to aid migrating juvenile and adult salmon and steelhead, took one more step forward in federal court.
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Feds Say Despite Fish Managers’ Objections Zero Nighttime Flow Plan In Lower Snake Will Continue; ‘Clear Benefit To Region’s Ratepayers’
September 23rd, 2021
In a quick vote at this week’s interagency Technical Management Team meeting, federal river operating agencies denied a fisheries managers’ request to delay their nighttime flow plan in the Snake River that is due to begin in mid-October. Fisheries managers want to delay the operation a month and a half to December when they say fewer salmon and steelhead are migrating in the river.
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Study Analyzes Non-Native Warmwater Fish Consumption Of Juvenile Salmon In Reservoirs; Walleye Predation Much Higher Than Native Pikeminnow
September 23rd, 2021
When warmwater fish species like bass, walleye and crappie that are not native to the Pacific Northwest, but prized by some anglers, overlap with baby spring chinook salmon in reservoirs in Oregon’s Willamette River they consume more baby salmon than native predatory fish per individual, new research found.
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Understanding Gas Bubble Trauma On Juvenile Fish At Dams: Study Deep Dives Into Relationship Between GBT, Depth
September 23rd, 2021
A recent study has made a direct connection between the severity of gas bubble trauma in juvenile salmonids caused by total dissolved gas at dams and the pressure experienced in deeper water where the severity of GBT is less.
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Harvest Managers Get Upgraded Run Forecasts, Passage Numbers, Catch And Effort Stats; B-Index Steelhead Prospects Improve, Coho Reduced
September 23rd, 2021
The number of B-Index summer steelhead forecasted to cross Bonneville Dam this year more than doubled this week to 10,100 fish, with some 1,700 of those fish unclipped (most are considered wild and listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act), also more than double the preseason forecast.
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Interior Secretary Signs Confederated Salish And Kootenai Tribes/Montana Water Rights Settlement Agreement
September 23rd, 2021
Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland has signed the Confederated Salish and Kootenai-Montana Compact, formally executing the Montana Water Rights Protection Act enacted by Congress late last year.