Saving Seafood

WASHINGTON: Upper Skagit Indian Tribe celebrates huge rebound of Baker River sockeye

October 17, 2025 — Nearly 92,000 sockeye salmon returned to the Baker River this year. That’s a historic milestone for nearby tribes, state wildlife officials and the hydroelectric utility that caused the decline — and helped bring the fish back.

Scott Schuyler, the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe’s policy representative for cultural natural resources, has been watching the fish run for more than 40 years.

“We basically lost this run,” said Schuyler, a tribal member and elder. “Back in 1985 the run went down to 80-ish or so fish, which is basically extinct. And it was due to hydropower that caused their demise, and it was hydropower that helped fix the run to get to where we are today.”

Schuyler said the tribe once had a fishing village called S.báliuqʷ (pronounced ‘sih-’BALL’-ih-QUE’) on Baker Lake.

“That’s where people lived and died and fished and hunted since time immemorial,” he said.

Read the full article at KNKX

WASHINGTON: WA pink salmon populations surge in some Puget Sound areas, stagnant in others

September 10, 2025 — The Puget Sound region is anticipating a substantial increase in pink salmon returns for 2025, with forecasts predicting a total of 7.76 million fish. This figure represents a 70% rise from the 10-year cycle average and is expected to be the third-largest return on record. However, some populations, like the Chinook salmon stocks, are expected to limit some salmon fisheries in the upcoming season.

The forecast marks a significant improvement from the 2023 prediction of 3.95 million, with the actual return reaching 7.22 million. The Green and Nisqually rivers are expected to see strong pink salmon returns, further contributing to the region’s positive outlook.

Dig deeper: The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has responded to the promising forecast by increasing the daily limit for pink salmon in all inner-marine areas through Sept. 30 to two additional pinks. Marine Area 8–2 remains closed due to the Stillaguamish River’s inability to meet spawning escapement goals.

Read the full article at FOX 13

US FDA recalls more shrimp after discovering radioactive contaminant

August 22, 2025 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced a voluntary recall of frozen shrimp products due to possible contamination with Cesium-137 (Cs-137), a man-made radioisotope that can elevate cancer risks through longer term, repeated low dose exposure.

The announcement comes shortly after U.S. Customs and Border Control (CBP) detected Cs-137 in shipping containers at the Ports of Los Angeles, Houston, Savannah, and Miami, with agents finding evidence of the radioisotope in a single shipment of frozen bread shrimp. The discovery led the FDA to issue an alert for frozen shrimp supplied by Indonesia-based PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati to Walmart and sold under the “Great Value” brand name.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

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

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

Viewpoint: Why the fight for Washington’s net pens matter

July 24, 2025 — In January, a sweeping and controversial regulatory decision by the Washington State Board of Natural Resources stunned a unique and diverse coalition of pro-science advocates working to preserve native-species, net-pen aquaculture in Washington state.

The coalition opposing the ban included local aquaculture companies and members of the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance (NWAA), current fisheries scientists from institutions like the University of Washington, Washington State University, and the University of Idaho, as well as former NOAA and state agency scientists, local Tribes, and dozens of regional farmers and aquaculture workers. Together, they urged the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to pursue a science-based, transparent approach in addressing concerns regarding net-pen aquaculture.

Instead, the Washington DNR Board voted to adopt a rule permanently banning all net-pen farming of native fish species on state-managed aquatic lands. In response, NWAA has filed a legal challenge seeking to overturn the rule, asserting that DNR exceeded its statutory authority and conducted a procedurally flawed process lacking in scientific integrity and public accountability.

Read the full article at the Aquaculture North America

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

WASHINGTON: Center for Food Safety sues to shut down nine Washington aquaculture sites

June 26, 2025 — The Center for Food Safety (CFS), along with a local Washington organization opposing aquaculture development, have asked a U.S. district court to shut down nine shellfish operations in the state of Washington, alleging that the federal government did not properly vet the environmental effects of those operations.

“We’re calling on the court to do what the [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers] failed to: protect our iconic marine ecosystems from being overwhelmed by plastic, pesticides, and profit-driven development,” CFS Staff Attorney Kristina Sinclair said in a statement.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Northwest tribes say Trump’s proposed salmon budget cuts violate treaty rights

June 9, 2025 — Northwest tribal officials say the Trump administration’s latest budget proposal would violate their treaty rights to catch salmon.

Among other cutbacks, the White House’s proposed 2026 budget for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would eliminate the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, the leading source of money for restoring the Northwest’s struggling salmon runs.

The Trump administration is asking Congress, which controls federal spending, to reduce NOAA’s funding to nearly half of its 2024 levels. While the budget proposal lacks many details, it singles out the $100 million salmon recovery fund and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, which had a $638 million budget in 2024, for elimination.

“If the plug is pulled, the tribe will have to do something to protect our treaty rights,” said David Troutt, head of the Nisqually Tribe’s natural resources department. “And if we don’t have the ability to do it collaboratively, we’ll look to other means, and it may drive us more quickly and more regularly into the courts.”

Federal treaties signed in the 1850s guarantee Northwest tribes the right to fish and hunt in their traditional territories in exchange for giving up most of their land.

“It’s in case law. It’s in treaties, which are the supreme law of the land, so I don’t know what more obligation than that there could be,” Lummi Nation Councilmember Lisa Wilson said.

“The guarantees were made back in the 1850s to be sure that we will be able to catch salmon forever,” Troutt said. “Well, apparently, forever ends in 2026.”

The relationship between tribes and the federal government could switch from collaborating on watershed restoration to fighting in the courts.

Tribal and state officials say the federal salmon fund is critical to keep the region’s salmon and orcas from going extinct.

“It really anchors salmon recovery across the West Coast,” said Erik Neatherlin, head of the governor’s Salmon Recovery Office in Washington state.

West Coast states harbor 28 federally threatened and endangered salmon populations.

“What will suffer are the salmon,” Neatherlin said.

And the people who rely on them.

Read the full article at OPB

Channel Fish, Trident Seafoods win latest USDA contracts for pollock, haddock

June 9, 2025 — U.S. seafood suppliers Trident Seafoods and Channel Fish Processing have won new contracts for fish products from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) worth a total of nearly USD 2 million (EUR 1.8 million).

Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based Trident Seafoods was awarded USD 530,556 (EUR 465,627) to supply 228,000 lbs of frozen pollock fish sticks and fillets, while Braintree, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Channel Fish Processing was awarded USD 1.1 million (EUR 952,791) to supply 456,000 lbs of frozen pollock fish sticks and fillets.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource