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EPA Takes Step to Protect Salmon from Tire Chemicals

8Nov

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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...

Commercial Salmon Catch in Alaska Tops 200M Fish

30Aug

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Commercial Salmon Catch in Alaska Tops 200M Fish

Alaska salmon harvests statewide have now exceeded 97% of the pre-season forecast, after a large jump in the harvest total, fueled by what was likely the peak week for pink salmon harvest. As of Monday, Aug. 28, the preliminary commercial salmon total for the 2023 season stood at 200.7 million fish. That number includes 133.2 million pink, 49.6 million sockeyes, 16.6 million chums, 1.2 million coho and 185,000 kings, according to calculations of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Following weeks of trailing the 2022 (2021 for pinks) benchmark, the 2023 harvest volume is now similar to the comparison year in estimated total volume, according to Simon Marks, a research analyst with McKinley Research Group in Juneau, who’s producing weekly in-season commercial salmon harvest up...

Pacific Salmon Commission Boosts Pink Salmon Forecast for Fraser River

23Aug

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Pacific Salmon Commission Boosts Pink Salmon Forecast for Fraser River

The Pacific Salmon Commission in Vancouver, BC has adopted an increased pink salmon run size forecast of 8.57 million fish, citing the numbers of humpies caught in marine test fisheries as evidence that pink salmon abundances are grater that the pre-season forecast of 6.1 million fish. The commission said this past week that the early timing of pink salmon this year is in line with the trend in recent years toward earlier migration timing increasing the overlap between sockeye and pink salmon migration. This increases the difficulty to access international total allowable catch for pink salmon while minimizing the impacts on sockeye salmon. To date, 31,500 pink salmon were observed migrating past Mission, on the north bank of the Fraser River. Commission staff presented analys...

Limits Set on Oregon Harvest of End of Commercial Season for Chinook, Coho Salmon

23Aug

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Limits Set on Oregon Harvest of End of Commercial Season for Chinook, Coho Salmon

Federal and state authorities have set limits through Sept. 30 for the commercial troll harvest of two salmon species in Oregon’s commercial salmon troll fishery between the U.S.-Canadian border and Cape Falcon, Ore. The announcement this past week from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said harvesters would be limited to weekly landing and possession per vessel of seven Chinooks and 100 adipose marked coho salmon. The announcement comes in the wake of NOAA Fisheries consulting with the Pacific Fishery Management Council, the states of Oregon and Washington, and fishery representatives in a conference call. Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife said the harvest of Chinooks to date in that area had passed 90% of the 13,000 Chinook quota, leaving only 1,251 fish to b...