Saving Seafood

OREGON: Oregon lawmakers urge Trump admin to unlock funds for ‘catastrophic’ fishery disaster

July 14, 2025 — A group of Democratic Oregon lawmakers are calling on the Trump administration to release $7 million in authorized funding meant to address Oregon’s “catastrophic” fishery disaster.

In a June 11 letter, led by Senator Jeff Merkley, lawmakers urged Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to review and approve a spending plan that’s been resubmitted by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Lawmakers said the funding is “critical,” to help Oregon’s ocean fishermen recoup lost funds amid declining salmon populations after a fishery disaster was declared for Oregon Chinook salmon for 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Read the full article at KOIN

NOAA Fisheries weighing ESA protection for Chinook salmon

July 1, 2025 — The National Marine Fisheries Service, or NOAA Fisheries, will determine whether spring-run Chinook salmon in the Pacific Northwest warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act beginning in the fall.

Under a stipulated settlement agreement filed June 26 in U.S. District Court’s Portland division, the agency has until Nov. 3 to determine whether listing Oregon and California coastal salmon as threatened or endangered is warranted, and Jan. 2 for Washington coastal salmon.

“We are unable to comment on matters of litigation,” NOAA Fisheries spokesman James Miller told the Capital Press.

Read the full article at Capital Press

US court sets deadline for NOAA to make ESA decisions on Chinook salmon

July 1, 2025 — Following a lawsuit filed by a coalition of conservation groups, a U.S. district court has set deadlines for NOAA Fisheries to determine whether some Chinook salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest should be protected by the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

NOAA Fisheries must now make a decision on Oregon Coast and Southern Oregon/Northern California coastal Chinook by 3 November 2025 and on Washington coast spring-run Chinook by 2 January 2026.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Vitamin deficiency is killing salmon in California

July 1, 2025 –A vitamin deficiency linked to an enzyme found in anchovies that breaks down Vitamin B1, or thiamine, is threatening the survival of Chinook salmon in California and far beyond.

“An interesting piece of the puzzle is that we don’t have evidence for diminished sources of thiamine in the ocean food web,” said Nathan Mantua, a research scientist with NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Santa Cruz, Calif. “Instead, we have evidence that anchovy carry an enzyme called thiaminase that destroys thiamine in the predator’s stomach when the anchovy is digested.”

Mantua is part of the team of 37 coauthors of a new research paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America that links Vitamin B1 deficiency to the anchovy-dominated diet that likely resulted in the death of nearly half of California’s wild winter-run Central Valley Chinook salmon fry in 2020-2021.

“It has been a fascinating five years of research working with an entirely new group of people for me in our ongoing investigations into thiamine deficiency in California’s salmon,” said Mantua.

The issue came to their attention just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the U.S. in January of 2020, so they had to develop a research program at a time when there were lots of big changes happening to the way they worked in the office, on the ocean, and in rivers. In spite of all those hurdles, the group came together to rapidly develop a research network that worked together really well, he said.

A research summary released by NOAA Fisheries on June 25 notes that thiamine deficiency is linked to large-scale shifts in the ocean ecosystem, shifts that changed the prey adult salmon consume before returning to West Coast rivers to spawn. Longtime loss of habitat and water has already weakened many California salmon populations, and further declines from thiamine deficiency or other impacts may lead to their extinction, the report said.

Read the full article at The National Fisherman

Feds must decide on protections for Chinook salmon

June 30, 2025 — In a move environmentalists are hailing as an important victory for Chinook salmon conservation, the federal government has agreed to decide this year whether the fish warrants federal protections.

By Nov. 3, the National Marine Fisheries Service must decide whether so-called Oregon Coast and Southern Oregon and Northern California Coastal varieties of Chinook salmon warrant protections under the Endangered Species Act.

By Jan. 2 of next year, feds must do the same for Washington Coast spring-run Chinook salmon, according to a settlement agreement from Thursday.

The Center for Biological Diversity — joined by the Native Fish Society, Umpqua Watersheds, and Pacific Rivers — in February sued the service and two top officials after the service failed to issue 12-month findings on the groups’ petitions to list the fish.

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

Salmon, tribal sovereignty, and energy collide as US abandons Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement

June 30, 2025 — Earlier this month, the Trump administration pulled the federal government out of the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement — a deal struck in 2023 by the Biden administration between two states and four Indigenous nations aimed at restoring salmon populations and paving a way to remove four hydroelectric dams along the river system. The move is likely to revive decades-old lawsuits and further endanger already struggling salmon populations.

But hydroelectric producers in Washington and Oregon have hailed the administration’s decision, citing an increased demand for energy driven primarily by data centers for AI and cryptocurrency operations.

Anchovy Dominated Diets off the West Coast Pose New Dangers for Salmon

June 26, 2025 — A vitamin deficiency likely killed as many as half of newly hatched fry of endangered winter-run Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River in 2020 and 2021. These new findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The deficiency of thiamine, or Vitamin B1, is linked to large-scale shifts in the ocean ecosystem. These shifts changed the prey adult salmon consume before they return to West Coast rivers to spawn, scientists reported. They said the longtime loss of habitat and water has already weakened many California salmon populations. Further declines from thiamine deficiency or other impacts may lead to their extinction.

The deficiency syndrome can also affect salmon runs like the Central Valley’s fall-run that once supported valuable commercial fisheries across California. They have since dwindled to the point that commercial ocean salmon fishing in California has been closed for the last 3 years.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Seafood Producers Cooperative response to WFC lawsuit

May 22, 2025 — On behalf of the nearly 400 members of Seafood Producers Cooperative, who are very dependent on the wild chinook fishery for a large part of their livelihoods, and as such, are very supportive of conservation efforts regarding Chinook, I would like to respond to the recent news of another attempt by the Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC), in their typical fashion of accusations and demands via litigation, to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for not listing Alaska Wild King Salmon stocks under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which the WFC, in their opinion, feels is necessary.

Alaska possesses the largest coastline of all other states combined, over 33 thousand miles, with 19,000 rivers and streams that salmon spawn in. To undertake a scientific study that identifies the Chinook returns to these spawning areas is a huge task, and to complete this with any degree of accuracy could take years. With NOAA currently facing major budget reductions, it is likely that NMFS will be even more challenged in their ability to conduct the studies to determine whether Chinook ESA listing is warranted or not, in a time frame that satisfies the WFC.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Greens sue NOAA over delayed ESA decision on Alaska chinook salmon

May 21, 2025 — Environmentalists are suing NOAA for failing to issue an Endangered Species Act listing decision for Gulf of Alaska chinook salmon within one year of receiving a petition to protect the species.

In a filing before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Wild Fish Conservancy says NOAA’s listing decision delay means Alaskan chinook salmon “are more likely to continue to decline toward extinction.”

“The Endangered Species Act sets clear deadlines … to evaluate the risk of extinction and trigger action while recovery is still possible,” Emma Helverson, executive director of Wild Fish Conservancy, said in a statement. “By ignoring those deadlines, NOAA isn’t just breaking the law — it’s perpetuating the collapse of Alaskan chinook and threatening the ecosystems and communities that depend on them.”

Read the full article at E&E News

ALASKA: Alaska fishing groups denounce ongoing effort to list Chinook salmon under ESA

May 19, 2025 — Alaska’s commercial fishing sector is up in arms again over ongoing efforts to have the state’s Chinook salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a determination that could have massive impacts for the state’s fisheries.

Last year, Wild Fish Conservancy, a conservation group based out of Duvall, Washington, U.S.A., petitioned NOAA to list Alaskan Chinook salmon under the ESA, arguing that the once-abundant species had suffered chronic declines. An initial review by the agency found that ESA protections may be warranted; however, the government has yet to complete its review, completely missing its 12-month deadline for issuing a determination.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource