For San Joaquin River, a historic reawakening

The Fresno Bee
By Mark Grossi
September 27, 2009

Three years later, some farmers have begun to doubt they will see much river water circulating back from the restoration to their fields. And they wonder whether salmon, a cold-water fish, will even survive in a warming climate over the next century.

Farmer Kole Upton, one of only four people who negotiated the restoration deal in 2006, has changed his mind about the settlement for many reasons, including the salmon issue.

New underwater robot named Beagle

American Fisheries Scociety
By Gus Rassam
September 25, 2009

The Nature Conservancy announced today the winner of a national online competition to help name its new Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). The public voted to name the deep-sea robot Beagle in honor of Charles Darwins 200th birthday and the famous research ship on which he traveled to the Galapagos. Today the Conservancy launched a study using the ROV to assess the impacts of bottom trawl fishing off Californias Central Coast, the first controlled study of its kind on the West Coast.

NOAA survey shows fewer pollock showing up

Alaska Journal of Commerce
By Margaret Bauman
September 25, 2009

Federal fisheries researchers say their latest surveys on Alaska's pollock fishery confirms that the population of the white fish remains low, and indicates numbers of incoming young fish also may be down.

NOAA fisheries researchers presented their preliminary findings in mid-September in Seattle to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council's groundfish plan team. The council will hear reports from its advisory panel and scientific and statistical committee, as well as public testimony, before making recommendations at its December meeting in Anchorage on the total allowable catch of pollock for 2010.

Administration mulls new science review of CA water

McClatchy
By Michael Doyle
September 25, 2009

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration must now figure out whether to let scientists second-guess some key California water delivery decisions.

Potential problems await, whichever way the administration moves.

Fall chinook count huge at Bonneville

The Columbian
By Allen Thomas
September 24, 2009

A mystery that began in the spring has resumed this fall in the Columbia River.

In mid-June, when the counting at Bonneville Dam shifted from spring chinook to summer chinook, the total was a record-busting 81,782 jack spring chinook.

U.S. Senate's failed water amendment

The Sacramento Bee
By Michael Doyle
September 24, 2009

WASHINGTON - A Central Valley water amendment that failed Tuesday night in the Senate nonetheless succeeded in driving a wedge between Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and some key California farmers.

Not to mention between Feinstein and Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia.

When it comes to valley ag, Sean Hannity is all wet

The Stockton Record
September 23, 2009

Sean Hannity parachuted into the San Joaquin Valley last week to broadcast another diatribe about the "man-made drought." And the maleficent minnow to blame for it.

Why, a meaningless guppy, in cahoots with environmentalists, and an activist judge - wackos who put fish before people - aided and abetted by Barack Hussein Obama, are turning the Valley into a Dust Bowl and God-fearing farmers into the Joads.

Fish managers set Columbia River gillnet seasons

The Daily News
September 23, 2009

Oregon and Washington fish managers set several Columbia River gillnet seasons during a meeting Tuesday (Sept. 22).

Gillnetting will be allowed from 9 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Friday and from 9 p.m. Monday to 5 a.m. Tuesday from Bonneville Dam downstream to the Lewis River.

Updated Columbia River salmon and steelhead returns

The Seattle Times
By Mark Yuasa
September 22, 2009

The Columbia River Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) made up of Oregon, Washington and tribal fishery managers met Sept. 21, and downgraded the Upriver Bright (URB) run to 203,000 fish at the river mouth. The pre-season forecast was 270,000.

The McNary Dam counts through September 21 totals 74,700 adult fall Chinook. Passage is typically 50% complete around September 15. Passage goals at McNary Dam have been achieved annually for over the past 20 years. The current management goal is 60,000 adults.

Obama decision protects NW salmon

The San Francisco Chronicle
By Steve Wright
September 22, 2009

We're seeing encouraging signs for Northwest salmon this year. More than 700 Snake River sockeye have returned to Idaho - the most since we began counting in the 1950s and up from just one in 1992. Snake River fall chinook are expected back in numbers not seen for decades.

This is a more promising picture of federally protected salmon in the Northwest's Columbia and Snake rivers than Chronicle readers got in an Aug. 16 editorial calling for breaching hydroelectric dams to save these salmon. The true picture is one of regional collaboration that has helped put these fish on the path to a better future.

Pollock survey shows fewer fish than anticipated

The Seattle Times
By Mary Pemberton
September 18, 2009

Pollock numbers in the Bering Sea continue to remain depressed despite expectations from government scientists that large amounts of young fish were growing to harvestable size.

Two surveys provide a dim outlook for the bland, white fish that accounts for the largest commercial fishery by weight in the United States worth about $1 billion after processing. The meat is used mostly in fish sticks and fish-fillet sandwiches and to make imitation crab meat.

World's oceans warmest on record this summer

MSNBC News
September 18, 2009

WASHINGTON - Sea-surface temperatures worldwide have been the hottest on record over the last three months, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Ocean temperatures averaged 62.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the June-August period, 1 degree higher than normal.

Strict conservation plan for Northwest salmon

The San Francisco Chronicle
By William McCall
September 16, 2009

Calling it an "insurance policy" for salmon, the Obama administration has developed a tougher conservation plan for the Pacific Northwest that includes monitoring for climate change and possible dam removal.

But a top official also said the original plan drafted during the Bush administration and completed last year was "biologically and legally sound" when combined with measures added by the Obama administration.

Killer whales die without king salmon

Discovery News
Jennifer Viegas
September 16, 2009

Some killer whale populations favor king salmon so much that the whales will actually die when numbers of this largest member of the salmon family drop, according to new research.

The study, published in the latest Royal Society Biology Letters, suggests that although killer whales may consume a variety of fish species and mammals, many are highly specialized hunters dependent on this single salmon species.

They're hopping on the Klamath

The Triplicate
By Kurt Madar
September 11, 2009

The Klamath River is back, with fishermen from all over hoping to catch a big fall-run chinook. After a couple of years of lower-than-expected catches, the Klamath is once again full of salmon.

The run is so strong that the Yurok tribe has already pulled its allocation of 30,900 fish.

Key salmon spawning rivers all but dry

The San Francisco Chronicle
By Peter Fimrite
September 13, 2009

The key spawning grounds for what was once the greatest run of salmon on the North Coast are close to being as dry as they have ever been, according to biologists and the U.S. Geological Survey.

As California bakes under a third year of drought, the Scott and Shasta rivers, near the California-Oregon border, have become little more than dry beds of rock and dirt.

Delta water bills under fire

Daily Democrat
September 12, 2009

Like rats deserting a sinking ship, more of the very people needed to support legislation that would support a far-reaching and potentially very expensive plan to revamp the state's water laws and the future of the Delta are bailing out of the process.

Last week state 5th District Senator Lois Wolk, D-Davis, pulled out as author of one of the five policy bills in the package -- a bill to create a Delta conservancy -- saying backroom negotiations among legislative leaders and some of the biggest water districts had watered down the bill.

EPA announces plan to protect salmon

Common Dreams
September 11, 2009

Today, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to place additional limitations on the use of three organophosphate pesticides - chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion - to protect endangered and threatened salmon and steelhead in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

The announcement comes in response to a series of lawsuits brought by Earthjustice aimed at removing toxic pesticides from salmon spawning streams throughout the northwest.

Fall chinook, steelhead catches in August a record

The Columbia Basin Bulletin
September 11, 2009

The 2009 season's string of peculiar, and for the most part unexplainable, Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead return numbers has continued into the fall with steelhead counts at Bonneville Dam mounting toward a potential record and fall chinook "jack" totals already in record territory.

The season started off with an adult spring chinook salmon return that was far below expectations. But on the other hand, the spring chinook jack count at Bonneville was a record. Jacks are 3-year-old spring chinook that return to freshwater after only one year in the Pacific Ocean. The strength of the jack return in one year is considered a sign of the strength of 4- and 5-year-old returns to follow.

Fish farm boom strains wild stock, study finds

MSNBC
September 9, 2009

More and more fish are being raised on farms before they end up on dinner plates around the world. Aquaculture, or the culturing of fish in a controlled environment, now accounts for 50 percent of the fish consumed globally, a fact that's putting tremendous strain on wild fish.

The big downside to fish farming: It requires large amounts of feed made from wild fish harvested from the sea.