Saving Seafood

Rising fuel costs ripple through Northwest’s fishing industry

May 15, 2026 — On a sunny morning in Garibaldi, Oregon, Jesse Coon offloads his catch. Men in waterproof fishing bibs pack salmon into ice and hose out the boat, named Steel Fin.

Standing next to stacked coolers of freshly caught fish, Coon pulls out one of the Chinook salmon his crew just caught and explains how it senses bait in the water.

“If you look at it really close, there’s actually pores — holes right there — and that’s their nervous system. And they can sense electricity that’s put off by bait fish, and every living creature,” he said.

But to find salmon, Coon has to travel miles offshore, searching for dense shoals and burning lots of fuel. Oregon’s commercial troll salmon season opened April 14, but the biggest catches typically arrive later in the summer. It’s still early in the season, and it’s hard to know how good the fishing will be.

Since the war in Iran began in late February, another factor is compounding that risk. Diesel costs have surged, cutting thousands of dollars from already thin margins.

“ It just makes your decision-making harder on when to go and when not to go, and whether to go a little early in the season when the fishing might not be quite as good. It just really feels like a gamble,” he said.

Read the full article at OPB

 

WASHINGTON: Crabbers get cracking: State’s most lucrative fishery starts with high hopes after delay

December 29, 2025 — The pots are loaded and hopes are high.

After a month-long delay, the 2025-2026 Washington commercial Dungeness crab season is underway — much to the relief of local fishermen — kicking off the most lucrative fishery in the Pacific Northwest.

Fast and furious start

Each year, the vast majority of Dungeness is landed in the first two months, turning the first few weeks of the season into a marathon for fishermen and local processors.

By noon Saturday, Dec. 27, at the Port of Chinook, South Bend Products deck boss Herman Sevilla had helped load more than half a dozen boats with thousands of pots, a typical pace for the start of the commercial crab season.

Later in the day, fishing crews were going to begin loading crab bait — a frozen mix of rockfish, tuna, herring — which is then placed in plastic or metal bait jars before going into the crab pot.

Read the full article at the Chinook Observer

Tool Uses NASA Data to Take Temperature of Rivers from Space

December 3, 2025 — New research uses more than 40 years of data from NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Landsat satellites to help dam operators improve the health of salmon fisheries.

The Columbia and Snake rivers in the Pacific Northwest contain nearly 20 dams, which provide flood control, hydroelectric power, and water for irrigation. But they also change the way the rivers flow. For the study, researchers tracked temperature up and downstream of dams using surface temperature data from Landsat satellites. Data from these satellites support our nation’s agricultural industry, including farmers and food production. Researchers found warm water downstream of dams stressed salmon, making them swim faster. The scientists developed a tool called THORR, or Thermal History of Regulated Rivers, to perform this research.

“NASA’s focus on advancing our understanding of Earth’s freshwater resources is reflected in tools like THORR, which leverage decades of satellite data to improve water management strategies,” said Erin Urquhart, program manager, Earth Action Water Resources Program at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “By making this information accessible and useful, NASA is ensuring its science directly benefits the communities and industries that depend on these resources.”

The recent study, funded by NASA, provides regularly updated information about river temperature that dam operators can use to fine-tune their operations. Faisal Hossain, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Washington and one of the study authors, explained that when water spills over the dam from the top layer of the reservoir, the water tends to be hotter, as it was warmed by the Sun. That warmer water can stress and even kill salmon, while water that’s discharged through the turbines cools the river downstream. Strategically discharging water from lower levels of the reservoir could help salmon thrive, saving dam operators time and other, costlier interventions, Hossain said.

Read the full article at NASA

Natural Resources plans hearings on energy, parks, fisheries

December 2, 2024 — The House Natural Resources Committee is planning a trio of hearings this week as it ramps up its activity following the extended recess during the government shutdown.

The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, headed by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), will hold a hearing titled “Unleashing American Energy Dominance and Exploring New Frontiers.” It’s the latest in a string of hearings focused on the new administration’s pro-development energy posture.

The Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee, led by Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), will question witnesses on sea lions eating salmon in the Pacific Northwest. Congress approved legislation in 2018 making it easier for states and tribes to kill sea lion that congregate near dams and other areas to eat the salmon.

Read the full article at E&E News

US lawmakers debate future of Lower Snake River dams and salmon recovery in the Pacific Northwest

September 10, 2025 — A bill from a Republican U.S. lawmaker that would block the federal government from removing four dams on the Lower Snake River has renewed debate in Congress over the future of salmon recovery in the Pacific Northwest.

“I have been working hard with allies of the Lower Snake River dams to ensure we do everything possible to protect them, and this hearing today marks another success in that effort. This legislation guarantees that federal funds will not be used to breach, or even study breaching, the dams and protects the Army Corps and [the Bonneville Power Administration’s] rights to control spillage operations,” U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse (R-Washington) – the sponsor of the bill – said in a release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Snake River showdown over salmon and power

July 15, 2025 — Are you an optimist? If you thought a lasting agreement over what to do about the Lower Snake River Dams (LSRD) was at hand in 2023, the answer is probably yes.

Too often, environmental challenges defy resolution. These four dams, while a clean source of hydroelectric power and a boon to agriculture in the Pacific Northwest, significantly impede the migration of spawning salmon. And while they transformed Lewiston, Idaho, into the most inland port on the West Coast, they created a series of reservoirs in which warm water and reduced velocity set the stage for predation of fish. Several salmon and steelhead runs that once were at the heart of Native American life are nearing extinction.

The four tribes whose rights to fish in “usual and accustomed places” are enshrined by treaty, along with environmentalists and fishing interests, have sued the government numerous times for failing to meaningfully protect salmon.

Construction of the first dam began in 1955. The first tribal fish-ins, so-called, were staged in the 1960s in the name of reclaiming fishing rights.

The tide, as it were, began to turn in 2016, when a federal judge found that the government’s plans for protecting fish in the Lower Snake River were inadequate and ordered a new plan — one that “might well require” breaching of the dams — by 2018.

In 2020, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied the tribes’ request to remove the dams.

In 2022, Washington’s U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee released a study that concluded that dam removal was the salmon’s best bet. Murray, The New York Times reported, had “previously resisted” this conclusion.

Finally, in 2023, the Biden administration entered a “memorandum of understanding” (MOU) valued at $1 billion with the treaty tribes to restore the wild salmon population. The agreement did not commit the United States to removing the dams, saying that was a decision for Congress. But the table was set.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Trump reverses course on salmon restoration in the Pacific Northwest

June 16, 2025 — U.S. President Donald Trump has withdrawn the federal government from a salmon restoration deal with Tribes in the Pacific Northwest region, marking the latest development in the president’s efforts to undo his predecessor’s legacy on salmon restoration in the region.

“We are dismayed that an agreement that was among the best roadmaps charted for helping Columbia Basin salmon – representing years of work by Tribes, states, and the federal government – was undone with the stroke of a pen,” Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission Chair Jeremy Takala said in a statement. “This action, done without consultation with the Tribes, dismantles what should have been celebrated as a historic achievement. If you love salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, and lamprey, the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement was a groundbreaking commitment that provided critical funding for Tribal and other hatcheries, habitat restoration, predation management, infrastructure upgrades, and support for energy projects that would be less burdensome on the environment and Tribal cultural resources.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump Withdraws From Agreement With Tribes to Protect Salmon

June 13, 2025 — President Trump moved on Thursday to withdraw from a Biden administration agreement that had brokered a truce in a decades-long legal battle with tribes in the Pacific Northwest.

The federal government has been mired in legal battles for decades over the depletion of fish populations in the Columbia River Basin, caused by four hydroelectric dams in the lower Snake River. Native American tribes have argued in court that the federal government has violated longstanding treaties by failing to protect the salmon and other fish that have been prevented by the dams from spawning upstream of the river. That legal fight is now expected to resume, with no brokered agreement in place.

In its statement announcing the withdrawal, the White House made no mention of the affected tribes and portrayed the issue falsely as revolving around “speculative climate change concerns.”

The tribes had called for the dams to be breached as a way to restore the salmon population, a proposal that has faced intense pushback because of the potential costs. A study found that removing the four dams was the most promising approach to restoring the salmon population, but also reported that replacing the electricity generated by the dams, shipping routes and irrigation water would cost between $10.3 billion and $27.2 billion.

Read the full article at The New York Times

Washington State River Restoration Project to Revive Salmon Habitat, Support Local Jobs

May 7, 2025 — This spring, NOAA partner the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership broke ground on a large-scale salmon habitat restoration project on the lower East Fork Lewis River in Washington State. This project will support the recovery of threatened steelhead and salmon on one of the few undammed rivers in the Lower Columbia River watershed. It will also inject millions into the local economy and generate hundreds local jobs in construction, heavy equipment operations, trucking, engineering, forestry, and other industries.

In addition, the work will help maintain fishing opportunities that further contribute to the local economy.

Flooding Destroys Habitat

In 1996, Steve Manlow, Executive Director of the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board, watched in horror as a 500-year flood event destroyed crucial salmon and steelhead habitat on the lower East Fork Lewis River. Flood waters breached the levees around nine abandoned gravel mining pits, fundamentally shifting the river’s course.

This once-braided, multi-channel river began flowing through the excavated pits. It formed a series of interconnected warm-water ponds that prevent salmon and steelhead from migrating upstream for much of the year. The river channel deepened, cutting off floodplain habitat and causing severe erosion downstream.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

WASHINGTON: Kitsap part of recovery effort for two Puget Sound marine species

April 30, 2025 — Two key marine species in Puget Sound have become symbols of resilience, thanks to Kitsap-based recovery programs and a senior at Bainbridge High School.

Efforts to restore bull kelp and pinto abalone, both essential parts of the marine ecosystem in Washington, may receive a boost after state leaders in Olympia and at the Department of Fish and Wildlife highlighted recovery efforts this legislative session.

Governor Bob Ferguson signed bill HB 1631 into law, designating bull kelp as the state’s official marine forest. The text of the law is simple and does not come with additional protections for the seaweed, but that’s intentional, explained Betsy Peabody, director of the Puget Sound Restoration Fund — the idea is to create a new state symbol.

“The basic idea is to recognize bull kelp forests as part of our identity — for our state, tribes, ecosystem, economies, communities, our way of life, and really see that,” said Peabody. “Sometimes we’re so enchanted with the things that forests support and feed — the birds, the fish, the orcas, all those wonderful things — that we don’t see the forest that makes those species possible. It really was just trying to make the forests that are foundational to all these incredible marine species more visible.”

Read the full story at the Kitsap Daily News