Saving Seafood

Pacific salmon restoration efforts see massive influx of funding from US Congress

December 30, 2024 — As Pacific salmon navigate their way upstream to spawn along the U.S. West Coast, they desperately need patches of cold water to rest and replenish.

Historically, log jams provided many of these fish refuge by diverting the flow of rivers and creating deep, cool pools of water for salmon to recover on their epic journey. Due to human interference, many of those naturally occurring barriers and the adjacent wooded areas that created them are gone, degrading salmon habitats and making passage more difficult for the species.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Canada announces plans for new British Columbia salmon hatchery

December 23, 2024 — The Canadian government has announced plans for the construction of a new Pacific Salmon hatchery in the province of British Columbia, which will be run collaboratively by the Tŝilhqot’in National Government and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).

“Canada is investing today to support the conservation and restoration of vulnerable Pacific salmon populations, such as Chilcotin Chinook, for the long term,” Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard Diane Lebouthillier said in a statement. “Under the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative, we are partnering with Indigenous Peoples, governments, stakeholders, and communities to ensure that Pacific salmon are safeguarded for Indigenous communities and Canadians with a deep and enduring connection to these iconic fish.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ESA protections will continue for Pacific salmon, steelhead

December 17, 2024 — Federal protections for four West Coast salmon and steelhead species will remain in place for at least another five years, even as some populations have made progress toward recovery, according to NOAA.

The decision, based on formal status reviews, means restoration of salmon runs will continue for California coastal chinook salmon, central California coast steelhead, California Central Valley steelhead and Southern Oregon/Northern California coast coho salmon.

The combined fishery, which extends from the San Francisco Bay to the southern Oregon coast, includes key river runs from California’s Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada. Those habitat areas continue to “suffer from habitat loss as development and other threats compromise spawning and rearing habitat [that are] particularly important in preparing young salmon for a life at sea,” NOAA Fisheries said last week.

Read the full article at E&E News

Biden admin announces USD 99 million for Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund

December 5, 2024 — The U.S. Department of Commerce will provide USD 99 million (EUR 94 million) in annual funding for Pacific salmon and steelhead recovery efforts through the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF), the government announced 4 December.

“Since day one, the Biden-Harris administration has been committed to salmon recovery along the West Coast, and this new funding will help NOAA boost efforts to aid Pacific salmon survival and recovery,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Biden-Harris Administration, NOAA makes $99 million available for Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund

December 4, 2024 — Today, the Department of Commerce and NOAA Fisheries announced up to $99 million in funding through the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF) for conservation and recovery projects focusing on Pacific salmon and steelhead. This funding — which includes $34.4 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) — will advance state and tribal efforts to restore salmon populations and habitats, and bolster climate and economic resilience in surrounding communities.

“Since day one, the Biden-Harris Administration has been committed to salmon recovery along the West Coast and this new funding will help NOAA boost efforts to aid Pacific salmon survival and recovery,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “This investment, made possible thanks to President Biden’s commitment to investing in America, will help get Pacific salmon populations closer to the healthy and abundant levels our West Coast ecosystems and communities need, and help create new jobs that enhance climate resilience along our coasts.”

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

OREGON: Wyden, Merkley announce more than $35M in federal funds for salmon recovery

August 23, 2024 — Senators Wyden and Merkley are announcing some major funding to support salmon recovery in Oregon.

The two U.S. Senators announced Wednesday that both Oregon and the Klamath Basin are receiving more than $35 million from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund. The federal grant program helps to restore Pacific salmon and steelhead.

The money will be distributed between the Klamath River Inter-Tribal Fish and Water Commission and the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.

Senator Merkley says Oregon’s salmon population is critical in sustaining the state’s commercial and recreational fisheries as well as being a crucial part of the cultural heritage of Oregon’s Indigenous Tribes.

Read the full article at KOBI

Funding announced for 14 salmon recovery projects

August 7, 2024 — NOAA and the Department of Commerce announced more than $105 million in recommended funding for 14 new and continuing salmon recovery projects and programs. The Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF) will fund these state and tribal efforts along the West Coast and Alaska. The projects include habitat restoration, stock enhancement, sustainable fisheries, and research and monitoring in California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska.

The funding comes from Fiscal Year 2024 annual appropriations, $34.4 million under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and $7.5 million under the Inflation Reduction Act. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo shared, “This $105 million investment, made possible thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda, will build on decades of salmon recovery work while helping Pacific coast tribes and Alaska Natives sustain their communities and cultural traditions in the face of climate change.”

These investments will supplement state and tribal programs that provide demonstrable and measurable benefits to Pacific salmon and their habitat. “This is a result of the most ambitious climate agenda in history, and I am proud that nearly half of all funds in this announcement are being awarded to Tribal applicants,” Raimondo stated. This will aid in the recovery of 28 Endangered Species Act (ESA)-listed salmon and steelhead species, as well as non-listed ESA salmon and steelhead that are necessary for native subsistence or tribal treaty fishing rights, and for those in the Columbia River Basin, these efforts will help meet the President’s goal of restoring healthy and abundant salmon, steelhead and other native fish in the Basin.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

US promises $240 million to improve fish hatcheries, protect tribal rights in Pacific Northwest

July 26, 2024 — The U.S. government will invest $240 million in salmon and steelhead hatcheries in the Pacific Northwest to boost declining fish populations and support the treaty-protected fishing rights of Native American tribes, officials announced Thursday.

The departments of Commerce and the Interior said there will be an initial $54 million for hatchery maintenance and modernization made available to 27 tribes in the region, which includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska.

The hatcheries “produce the salmon that tribes need to live,” said Jennifer Quan, the regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region. “We are talking about food for the tribes and supporting their culture and their spirituality.”

Some of the facilities are on the brink of failure, Quan said, with a backlog of deferred maintenance that has a cost estimated at more than $1 billion.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Canada to ban open-net salmon farms in British Columbia waters by 2029

June 20, 2024 — Canada will ban open-net salmon farms off the coast of British Columbia by the middle of 2029 in order to help protect dwindling wild Pacific salmon populations, the federal government said on Wednesday.

Salmon are a culturally and ecologically significant species on Canada’s west coast, but more than half of the 9,000 distinct populations in British Columbia are in a state of decline, according to the Pacific Salmon Foundation.

WASHINGTON: The decline of Pacific salmon is ‘death by a thousand cuts,’ expert says

December 14, 2023 — For all the impacts of other endangered species on the human communities they coexist with — owls and timber harvesting, wolves and ranching — there are few species that have affected more people than the decline of Pacific salmon.

And the people who have arguably been hit the hardest: the tribes of the Pacific Northwest.

“Salmon is really the heart of our culture. We’re salmon people,” said Donella Miller, a citizen of Yakama Nation. “When we’re born, we drink our mother’s milk, but salmon was always our first food. That was the first solid food that I ate.”

Miller is also the fisheries science manager for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. She helps evaluate hatchery programs, oversees the commission’s genetics lab in Idaho and manages their river ecology projects.

The threats facing salmon aren’t any one thing — and that’s what makes them so vexing.

“It’s a complex issue and you can’t pinpoint one specific thing,” Miller said. “I refer to it as death by a thousand cuts.”

Read the full article at WITX