Saving Seafood

Oregon State recognized with national engagement award for efforts to reduce whale entanglement

August 27, 2025 — A collaborative research and outreach effort led by Oregon State University to protect whales and sustain Oregon’s commercial Dungeness crab fishery has been recognized as one of four regional winners of the 2025 W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award.

The Oregon whale entanglement project, a transdisciplinary team led by Leigh Torres, researcher in OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute and Oregon Sea Grant Extension marine mammals specialist, now advances to the national stage, where it will compete for the C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award and a $20,000 grand prize to further its work.

This is the second consecutive year OSU has received a Kellogg regional award and the third time in the university’s history.

“We are beyond excited when faculty like Dr. Leigh Torres get national recognition for their engaged scholarship,” said Marina Denny, associate vice provost for engagement in the OSU Division of Extension and Engagement. “This honor reflects the strength of OSU’s partnerships with our Oregon coastal communities and our shared commitment to environmental stewardship and economic resilience.”

Read the full article at Oregon State University

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

Trump revokes agreement to protect salmon

July 28, 2025 —A September 2023 presidential memorandum of understanding (MOU) from the Biden administration called for the elimination of four Snake River dams that the MOU said contributed to the near extinction of 13 salmon and steelhead fish populations that return each year to the Columbia Basin from the Pacific Ocean to spawn.

Supporters of the Biden MOU say the fish are important to local tribal health and sovereignty and to basin ecosystems, and the declines are affecting southern resident orcas off the coasts of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. The orcas eat the salmon.

The 2023 agreement was between the federal government and four Lower Columbia River tribes — Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, and the Nez Perce Tribe, as well as the states of Oregon and Washington. The tribes want the dams removed.

Opponents argue that the dams support river navigation for maritime barge operations, passenger vessels, irrigation, and emissions-free hydropower for nearby communities and should be maintained.

Read the full article at WorkBoat

OREGON: Oregon seeks public input on endangered orca management strategy

July 25, 2025 — The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking feedback on its draft Endangered Species Management Plan for Southern Resident Orcas.

The agency presented its findings and how it plans to support the endangered species during a virtual meeting on July 9, and is currently accepting comments through Aug. 15.

ODFW’s draft plan includes continuing to work to restore healthy salmon populations, protect orcas from development in Oregon waters, and focus on education efforts. In addition, the proposal includes new plans to increase salmon hatchery production, explore the possibility of regulations for boaters, and additional data collection efforts.

Read the full article at KOIN

Marine heatwaves impact maturation of black rockfish

July 24, 2025 — A newly released study by Oregon State University and NOAA Fisheries researchers shows that marine heat waves in increasing frequency are having an impact on the growth and maturation of black rockfish in Oregon and Washington.

“We do know that the occurrence of marine heatwaves is more often and more intense,” said Claire Rosemond, now a fisheries biologist at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Newport, Ore. “There are some monitored ocean indicators that can help us understand if the coming year would be warmer or cooler, but it is harder to predict how hot or how cold.”

Results of her dissertation while at OSU with fisheries biologist Melissa Head, also of the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, and Scott Heppell, a professor at OSU ‘s Department of Fisheries Wildlife and Conservation Sciences, were published on June 3 in the journal Ecological Applications.

The study investigated the impact of intense and less intense marine heatwaves on black rockfish reproduction and growth along the Pacific Coast between 2014 and 2021.
They found that while black rockfish exhibited elevated growth during intense marine heatwaves, their maturation was delayed. In fact, during intense marine heatwaves, maturation was postponed, reproductive success was lower by one third, and parasite prevalence in ovaries was nominally high.

Younger females were large at age during intense marine heatwaves, and throughout the last decade, growth rate coefficients were higher than what is typically expected for slower-growing fishes like rockfishes.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

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

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.