Saving Seafood

Counting salmon is a breeze with airborne eDNA

December 1, 2025 — During the annual salmon run last fall, University of Washington researchers pulled salmon DNA out of thin air and used it to estimate the number of fish that passed through the adjacent river. Aden Yincheong Ip, a UW research scientist of marine and environmental affairs, began formulating the driving hypothesis for the study while hiking on the Olympic Peninsula.

“I saw the fish jumping and the water splashing and I started thinking — could we recover their genetic material from the air?,” he said.

The researchers placed air filters at several sites on Issaquah Creek, near the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery in Washington. To their amazement, the filters captured Coho salmon DNA, even 10 to 12 feet from the river. Scientists collect environmental DNA, or eDNA, to identify species living in or passing through an area, but few have attempted to track aquatic species by sampling air.

This study, published Nov. 26 in Scientific Reports, shows that eDNA can move between air and water — a possibility scientists hadn’t accounted for even though aquatic animal DNA sometimes appears in airborne study data.

The researchers then merged air and water eDNA with the hatchery’s visual counts in a model to track how salmon numbers rose and fell during the fall migration. Although the amount of salmon DNA in the air was 25,000 times less than what was observed in the water, its concentration still varied with observed migratory trends.

“This work is at the edge of what is possible with eDNA,” said senior author Ryan Kelly, a UW professor of marine and environmental affairs and director of the eDNA Collaborative. “It pushes the boundaries way further than I thought we could.”

Read the full article at UW News

ALASKA: 2025 Alaska salmon harvest valued at $541 million

November 5, 2025 — Alaska’s 2025 commercial salmon harvest totaled 194.8 million fish, valued at approximately $541 million — a significant increase in both catch and value compared to the previous year, state fisheries officials announced Nov. 4.

Preliminary figures released by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) show that the 2025 harvest increased by 88% from the 2024 total of 103.5 million fish, which was valued at $304 million. The statewide ex-vessel average price per pound for all salmon species also rose compared to 2024.

Sockeye salmon accounted for about 58% of the total value ($315 million) and 27% of the total harvest (53 million fish). Pink salmon comprised 21% of the value ($114 million) and 61% of the harvest (119 million fish). Chum salmon contributed 14% of the value ($78 million) and 10% of the harvest (20 million fish). Coho salmon made up about 4% of the value ($21 million) and 1% of the harvest (2 million fish).

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

A Lifeline for Salmon: UCSC and NOAA Join Forces to Secure a Future for California’s Most Iconic Fish

October 30, 2025 — Nearly every day for the past 20 years, scientists from UC Santa Cruz and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have waded into Scott Creek, a 12-mile-long burbling stream in Santa Cruz County just a few miles north of Davenport.

Dressed in waders and toting bags and buckets, these scientists navigate the stream’s chilly waters and muddy banks in search of coho salmon. Along the coast of central California, coho salmon are endangered. But the young salmon in Scott Creek may hold the key to the species’ recovery.

As the southernmost population of coho in the state, the salmon in Scott Creek are adapted to warmer and drier conditions than their more northern cousins. By studying the evolution, ecology, and genetics of this population, scientists at UCSC and NOAA hope to gain insights that could help them ensure the survival of the species throughout California.

The project at Scott Creek is one of many that UCSC and NOAA have undertaken together to prevent the extinction of California’s iconic salmon. Since joining forces 25 years ago, the federal agency and the university have become the largest and most strategic force fighting to conserve salmon in California. But with climate change, habitat loss, overfishing, invasive species, and poor water management posing an ever-greater threat to salmon survival, the salmon-saving team continues to have its work cut out for it.

Read the full article at UC Santa Cruz

ALASKA: Ex-vessel value of 2025 Bristol Bay salmon harvest rated at $215.3 M

September 30, 2025 — Bristol Bay sockeye salmon harvests of 41.5 million fish for 2025 exceeded the forecast by 18 percent, and with catches of Chinook, chum, and coho salmon, put the season’s exvessel harvest value at $215.3 million.

That total was 7 percent above the 20-year average of $200.7 million, and those prices may not include incentives for icing, bleeding, floating, or production bonuses, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said in the annual Bristol Bay season summary released on Sept. 25.

Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association officials, who are already planning their 2026 marketing campaign, said that the average weight of the drift gillnet caught red salmon was 5.1 pounds.

The overall nationwide demand for all Alaska salmon has been upbeat.

Read the full article at the the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Alaska salmon harvests near 185 million fish

September 11, 2025 — Commercial harvesters delivered nearly 185 million salmon to processors through Sept. 9, with all five species exceeding 80% of the annual projects as the season nears its end.

Coho harvests stood at over 2 million fish, up from 1.7 million a week earlier and were expected to continue for a few more weeks, although weekly harvest of all other species has declined in line with past harvest timing, said Simon Marks, who compiles weekly in-season harvest reports for McKinley Research Group on behalf of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.  Marks’ in-season reports for the year concluded on Sept. 9.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Environmentalists fail to prove Oregon dam kills coho salmon

August 22, 2025 — While a controversial southern Oregon dam may delay the migration of a threatened species of salmon, the impact isn’t significant enough to violate federal environmental laws, a federal judge in Portland ruled on Thursday.

“This court concludes that plaintiffs have not proven by a preponderance of the evidence that defendant is liable for ‘take’ of Oregon Coast coho salmon under the Endangered Species Act,” U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut wrote in the 35-page findings of fact and conclusions of law.

A coalition of environmental conservation groups and fisheries organizations led by WaterWatch of Oregon sued the Winchester Water Control District in 2020, accusing the district of violating the Endangered Species Act through its operation of the Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River. The groups argued the dam causes illegal take of Oregon Coast coho salmon by blocking access to spawning habitat and attracting fish to impassable areas of the dams with leaks.

“This is a disappointing decision, but it doesn’t change the fact that coho salmon are listed under the Endangered Species Act and Winchester Dam needs to come out,” Jim McCarthy, WaterWatch’s southern Oregon program director, said in a statement. “It’s a flawed and outdated dam and the court recognized the dam has significant issues. Our campaign to remove the dam continues.”

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

ALASKA: Alaska salmon harvest tops to 129 million fish

August 15, 2025 — Alaska’s 2025 commercial salmon harvest reached over 129 million fish through Aug. 12, with sockeye, keta and coho catches appearing on pace to reach total annual projections.

Those projected 2025 harvests would add up to 214.6 million salmon, including over 138 million pink, 52.9 million sockeye, 20.8 million keta, 2.3 million coho and 144,000 kings.

Data compiled by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game showed the statewide pink harvest at 62.3 million fish, followed by 51.3 million sockeyes, 14.5 million chum, 888,000 coho and 150,000 king salmon.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

A single dry winter decimated California’s salmon and trout populations

April 4, 2025 — A single severely dry winter temporarily, but dramatically, altered the ranges of three fishes — Chinook salmon, coho salmon, and steelhead trout — in California’s northern waterways.

In a new study, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, biologists found that the unusually dry winter of 2013-2014 caused some salmon and steelhead to temporarily disappear from individual tributaries and even entire watersheds along the northern California coast.

“California is at the southern end of the range for several species of salmon and trout, and because of a whole host of impacts, from colonization and engineered control of western rivers to climate change, these populations have been decimated,” said study lead author Stephanie Carlson, the A.S. Leopold Chair in Wildlife Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. “Our findings provide a glimpse into how an individual extreme event can trigger the widespread and sudden collapse of multiple populations and species and potentially result in longer term range shifts.”

During California’s historic multi-year drought of 2012-2016, the 2013-2014 winter was remarkable for having both very little rain and an extremely late start to the rainy season. By the time the first large rainstorms arrived in late January and early February 2014, many streams and rivers in Northern California were very low, and in some, the mouths had dried up completely, preventing salmon and steelhead from completing their annual voyages upriver to spawn.

The study examined how the drought affected Chinook salmon, coho salmon and steelhead trout, all part of the genus known as “salmonids,” in 13 coastal watersheds ranging from Marin to Humboldt counties. While all three fish species were impacted, Chinook salmon were able to cope by shifting their breeding activities downstream. However, fish monitoring data from the summer of 2014 revealed that steelhead trout had been eliminated from a number of individual tributaries, and coho salmon disappeared entirely from three coastal watersheds.

Read the full article at UC Berkeley 

Endangered California Coho Salmon Experience Record-Breaking Spawning Season on Mendocino Coast

March 5, 2025 — Last winter, endangered Central California Coast coho salmon (CCC coho) returned to Mendocino Coast rivers and streams in the highest numbers since monitoring began 16 years ago. Monitoring led by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to track their population status estimated more than 15,000 adult CCC coho returned to spawn during the 2023–24 season. The Ten Mile and Noyo rivers exceeded recovery targets set by NOAA for delisting CCC coho under the Endangered Species Act, and the Big and Garcia rivers experienced record returns.

While the overall numbers remain low compared to the species’ past abundance, NOAA scientists are excited by the results.

“I remember in the 1990s monitoring streams where water temperatures were too hot for CCC coho and lacking in structure, and I thought they would never come back in my lifetime,” says NOAA San Joaquin River Branch Chief Jonathan Ambrose. “I’ve been at NOAA Fisheries for 25 years, and we’ve changed the trajectory for CCC coho salmon. A lot of people think it’s too late—it’s too hard to bring back endangered species. This is a prime example of why it’s not too late or too hard.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

NEW YORK: NY food bank netted huge haul of 13,000 fresh salmon. The catch? The fish were alive

January 30, 2025 — A New York food bank was offered a huge donation of fresh fish this month — but it came with a catch.

LocalCoho, a soon-to-close salmon farm in the small upstate city of Auburn, wanted to give 40,000 pounds of coho salmon to the Food Bank of Central New York, a mother lode of high-quality protein that could feed thousands of families.

But the fish were still alive and swimming in the farm’s giant indoor tanks. The organizations would need to figure out how to get some 13,000 salmon from the water and then have them processed into frozen fillets for distribution to regional food pantries.

And they’d need to do it fast, before the business closed for good. LocalCoho is ceasing operations this Friday.

Thanks to dozens of food pantry volunteers willing to help staffers scoop up the salmon, the team was able to empty the tanks in a matter of weeks and cold pack tons of fish for shipment to a processor.

“The fact that we only had weeks to execute this really ratcheted up the intensity and the anxiety a little bit,” said Brian McManus, the food bank’s chief operations officer. “I knew that we had the will. I knew we had the expertise.”

Tackling food waste has been a daunting challenge for years both in the U.S. and around the world. More than one-third of the food produced in the U.S. is never eaten and much of it ends up in landfills.

Read the full article at The Associated Press