Saving Seafood

A River Reborn: Restoring a Stronghold for Hood Canal Summer-Run Chum Salmon

August 28, 2026 — Threatened Hood Canal summer-run chum salmon represent a bright spot in Pacific salmon recovery. According to preliminary data from the Hood Canal Coordinating Council, average annual returns have nearly tripled since 2022. They’ve climbed from about 11,600 fish per year between 2018 and 2021 to roughly 32,600 between 2022 and 2025. That’s up from a low of less than 1,000 spawners in the early 1990s.

Scientists say several years of favorable ocean conditions have contributed to the recent rebound. Cooler ocean temperatures increase the food available to salmon and improve their survival at sea. But those conditions won’t last forever. Experts believe restoring river habitat will help summer chum remain resilient when the Pacific Ocean inevitably shifts back to a warmer phase in its natural cycle.

One of the healthiest summer chum populations is returning to one of the region’s most degraded rivers. The number of chum spawning in the Big and Little Quilcene rivers has quadrupled in the last 4 years. This despite 2 miles of the Big Quilcene being straightened, scoured of spawning gravel, and cut off from its floodplain.

NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Habitat Conservation, the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group, and the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe are restoring salmon habitat at two locations on the Big Quilcene River–Moon Valley and the Lower One Mile. The projects will:

  • Create spawning and rearing habitat for Hood Canal Summer chum and threatened Puget Sound Chinook salmon and steelhead
  • Improve the Quilcene Bay estuary, where juvenile salmon make their first transition to salt water
  • Stop the flooding that has plagued the town of Quilcene for generations

The restoration should finish by September, just as the summer chum return to spawn.

“Restoring the Big Quilcene River has taken tribes, nonprofit organizations, local communities, state and federal agencies, and NOAA all working toward the same goal,” said NOAA Marine Habitat Resource Specialist Chemine Jackels. “Together, we’re giving one of Hood Canal’s most important summer chum populations a healthier river and a better chance to thrive for generations to come.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Beyond the salmon crisis: Northwest may face broad loss of freshwater species

August 27, 2026 — Using eDNA to map and save lower-profile species crucial to the ecosystem, researchers say

According to a recent Convention of Migratory Species Report, migratory freshwater fish populations have dropped 81% worldwide since 1970. While Northwest Washington species face many of the same pressures as other species across the planet, the story here is a bit more nuanced, and researchers point to a unique interagency collaboration in the state as a pathway forward.

Salish Sea Chinook salmon populations are down 60% since the Pacific Salmon Commission began tracking salmon abundance in 1984, according to the 2024 State of Salmon in Watersheds report.

Around the Salish Sea, Chinook salmon provide immense ecological, cultural and economic value. According to the report, Puget Sound was once home to larger populations of Chinook and other salmon, with a greater diversity of traits than populations existing today. Only 22 of at least 37 historic Chinook salmon populations remain in this ecosystem. The remaining Chinook salmon populations are at about 10% of their historic numbers. Between 2000 and 2018, the total number of Chinook returning to the Salish Sea has shown a relatively stable trend.

These salmon populations face the same pressures as freshwater fish listed in the global report: habitat loss, harvest rates and climate change.

“All the research, all the science, all the data that’s been analyzed shows us that habitat is by far the leading threat,” said Annitra Peck, executive director of the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association. “You’ve got hydropower, you’ve got harvest management, you’ve got these other pieces that have so much to do with it, and they all definitely intersect, but habitat is in large part the driving concern. Salmon are an anadromous species; they utilize freshwater and saltwater, they need to be able to travel back and forth in their unique life cycle, and if they don’t have the habitat to do that, then that falls apart. It prevents that life cycle from continuing and that reproduction for salmon to be able to replace themselves essentially.”

Read the full article at the Salish Current

Can Habitat Restoration Help Salmon Recover? Prairie Creek Offers Clues

August 7, 2026 — When any habitat restoration project finishes, a critical question remains: Will the project help threatened fish and other species recover? Answering that question requires rigorous long-term monitoring.

At the Prairie Creek salmon habitat restoration project in Northern California, researchers from NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Habitat Conservation, Cal Poly Humboldt, and other partners have conducted monitoring before, during, and after construction to determine whether the project would improve the survival prospects of threatened Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast coho salmon.

The project transformed a former lumber mill site into wetlands, side channels, and off-channel ponds where juvenile salmon can rest, feed, and grow before migrating to the Pacific Ocean. Juvenile salmon that grow big and strong in freshwater have a better chance of surviving their time in the ocean and returning as adults to spawn.

Early findings suggest that juvenile coho salmon using the restored habitat are growing faster and experiencing higher ocean survival than prior generations from the same watershed. Preexisting monitoring data going back to 2011 gave the team an unusually long baseline against which to measure change. Their findings are also changing what scientists understand about how juvenile salmon use coastal watersheds.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries