salmon – Fishermens News

NPAFC Workshop to Focus on Climate Change’s Impact on Salmon, Trout

6Dec

By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments

Fishermen's News Online, News

NPAFC Workshop to Focus on Climate Change’s Impact on Salmon, Trout

A two-day workshop planned for June 4-5 in Vancouver, British Columbia by the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC), is to focus on abundance and distribution trends of Pacific salmon and steelhead trout in a changing North Pacific Ocean. The workshop was announced Nov. 30. Its objectives include a range of topics, from improving knowledge of the migration, growth and survival of salmon and their environments, to discussing application of new and development technologies and analytical methods to research and manage salmon. NPAFC has embarked on a new Science Plan to build on the previous international cooperative research that was conducted within the International Year of the Salmon (IYS). NPAFC officials said that the primary goal of the 2023-2027 Science Plan is to...

NOAA Study Focuses on Marine Heatwave Impacts on Chum Salmon

6Dec

By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments

Fishermen's News Online, News

NOAA Study Focuses on Marine Heatwave Impacts on Chum Salmon

Federal fisheries scientists who have been studying Western Alaska chum salmon for nearly two decades say recent marine heatwaves in the eastern Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska may have had a critical role in the survival of juvenile chum salmon. The study, published Nov. 30 by NOAA Fisheries, states that researchers also suspect the marine heatwaves subsequently impacted adult chum salmon returning to western Alaska rivers. The study was led by Ed Farley, a program manager with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and co-author Kathrine Howard, a statewide fishery scientist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “Recent declines in chum salmon and subsequent closures of commercial and subsistence fisheries in western Alaska, coinciding with years of record warm water tempe...

29Nov

By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments

Fishermen's News Online, News

Fisheries Board Takes Up Proposal to Lower Salmon Production at Alaska Hatcheries

Extensive public testimony is anticipated during the Alaska Board of Fisheries (ABF) meeting in Homer, which concludes Dec. 1, on a proposal to greatly reduce salmon production at Alaska hatcheries. Final action isn’t expected until 2024. Proposition 43 would amend the Cook Inlet Salmon Enhancement Allocation Plan to reduce hatchery production to 25% of the year 2000 production, as was promised in 2000. The proposition, introduced by the Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee, contends that there’s an over-production of hatchery pink salmon threatening wild Alaska salmon stocks. Art Nelson, executive director of the fisheries board, said the ABF would receive public testimony on Proposition 43 at Homer and may discuss it to some extent during committee work, but not vote o...

EPA Takes Step to Protect Salmon from Tire Chemicals

8Nov

By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments

Fishermen's News Online, News

EPA Takes Step to Protect Salmon from Tire Chemicals

Environmental Protection Agency officials have announced an intention to publish an advanced notice of rulemaking under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to gather information that could be used to ban use of a chemical used in tires and found to be lethal to coho salmon. The decision, announced on Nov. 2 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was in conjunction with the EPA’s decision to grant a petition submitted in August by the Yurok Tribe in California and the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, and the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, both of Washington state. The petition asked the EPA to consider establishing regulations prohibiting the manufacturing, processing, use and distribution of the chemical N-(1,3-Dimethylbutyl)-N’-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine (6PPD) in tires. ...

Analysis Shows Pink Salmon’s ‘Incredible’ Sense of Direction

18Oct

By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments

Fishermen's News Online, News

Analysis Shows Pink Salmon’s ‘Incredible’ Sense of Direction

Results of University of Alaska Fairbanks’ DNA analysis of a massive database on pink salmon shows a remarkable ability of the fish to spawn at nearly the same spot within streams that their parents did. The project, which reviewed genetic data from over 30,000 pink salmon, taps into an ongoing study in Alaska’s Prince William Sound that has collected DNA samples from pink salmon carcasses since 2011. The Alaska Hatchery Research Program (AHRP) samples pink salmon in 30 streams, including five where researchers try to get samples from every salmon returning to spawn. The AHRP is a collaboration of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), nonprofit hatcheries, the fishing industry and academia, largely focused on the impact of hatchery fish on wild salmon populations. T...

Analysis for Minimizing Chum Bycatch to Begin in Bering Sea Pollock Fishery

11Oct

By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments

Fishermen's News Online, News

Analysis for Minimizing Chum Bycatch to Begin in Bering Sea Pollock Fishery

Federal fisheries managers have approved analyzing changes to chum salmon bycatch management measures to minimize bycatch of western Alaska chum salmon bycatch to the extent practicable in the Bering Sea pollock fishery, while achieving optimum yield in Bering Sea groundfish fisheries. A statement issued Monday, Oct. 9 by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) in Anchorage cited standards 9 (the Bering Sea pollock fishery) and 1 (the Bering Sea groundfish fisheries) of the Magnuson Stevens Act National Standards. The council is focused on bycatch of western Alaska origin chum salmon. The decline of the chum returning to spawn in the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers in recent years has had a negative impact on this source of subsistence food for residents of villages along...

Study Confirms Salmon Spawning in Arctic Rivers

11Oct

By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments

Fishermen's News Online, News

Study Confirms Salmon Spawning in Arctic Rivers

A new study at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences has confirmed that salmon are spawning in an Arctic Ocean watershed, suggesting that at least some salmon species could be expanding to new territory due to climate change. Researchers found about 100 chum salmon in the Anaktuvuk and Itkillik rivers on Alaska’s North Slope. Both rivers flow into the Colville River, which empties into the Arctic Ocean. All the fish caught by researchers in mid-September 2023 were either actively spawning or had finished spawning at sites where groundwater appeared to be flowing to the surface, said Jeff Richardson, communications manager for the college. Similar conditions have supported chum salmon reproduction throughout their typical range. Westle...

2023 Runs to All Bristol Bay Districts Exceed Forecasts

27Sep

By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments

Fishermen's News Online, News

2023 Runs to All Bristol Bay Districts Exceed Forecasts

Preliminary data compiled by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game show that the run of sockeye salmon run to Bristol Bay in 2023 was 54.5 million fish, with runs to every district within this easternmost arm of the Bering Sea exceeding preseason forecasts. Data show that the run itself was the eighth largest inshore run since 2003 and 17% above the 46.7 million average run for the latest 20-year period, stretching from 2003 to 2022. All sockeye salmon escapement goals were met or exceeded, with a total bay-wide escapement of 13.9 million fish, according to the preliminary document issued on Sept. 22. The ex-vessel value of salmon harvested in Bristol Bay in 2023, calculated by using the fish ticket weight and price paid for each species, totaled $117.4 million for all salmon...

Feds Fund Salmon Restoration in Upper Columbia River Basins

27Sep

By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments

Fishermen's News Online, News

Feds Fund Salmon Restoration in Upper Columbia River Basins

A historic agreement struck between the Biden-Harris administration and three Native American tribes calls for investment of over $200 million in federal dollars over 20 years to restore salmon populations in the Upper Columbia River Basin. The agreement, announced by the Interior Department on Sept. 21, includes that $200 million over 20 years from the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal power marketing administration under the Energy Department, to advance the tribally led plan. In support of that effort, the Interior Department announced that agency would provide $8 million over two years through the Bureau of Reclamation. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland noted that since time immemorial tribes along the Columbia River system have relied on Pacific salmon, steel...

Pacific Salmon Foundation Activates Drought Pilot Project

13Sep

By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments

Fishermen's News Online, News

Pacific Salmon Foundation Activates Drought Pilot Project

A collaborative rapid response group at the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF), with funding from the Province of British Columbia, has approved $76,000 (in Canadian dollars) to activate four projects to help combat adverse impacts of climate change on salmon. The effort to save salmon from drought conditions was announced by the PSF in early September. Project goals include digging dry gravel bars in the Coldwater River at sites supporting high densities of salmon, to creation of cool groundwater refuge areas for fish, to narrowing channel width and increasing water depth at Joseph Creek to ensure that salmon fry at Dunn Creek Hatchery have enough water to migrate through. The Coldwater River project is led by Scw’exmx Tribal Council and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Ca...