Looking for babies: Snake River sturgeon study looks at recruitment

Post Register – Fisheries managers and researchers are gaining confidence that sturgeon in the Hells Canyon reach of the Snake River are reproducing. Studies aimed at capturing young sturgeon, sturgeon larva and eggs in 2014-16 gave fisheries officials some alarm when they failed to document any young fish in Lower Granite Reservoir — a known sturgeon rearing area. A previous population Read More…

Securing SoCal Water to Benefit NorCal Salmon

Hakai Magazine – Life is perilous for juvenile chinook salmon just starting their journey to the ocean: predatory striped bass lurk in gin-clear pools; low streamflows limit access to the shrimplike amphipods they feed on; downstream sloughs halt at dead ends. As young fish navigate from spawning grounds in California’s Feather River to the Pacific, climate change is further reducing the Read More…

Saving the Mekong With Floating Solar Power

Asia Sentinel – For two decades or more, alarms have been sounding for the Mekong Delta. It is being hammered by climate change, by a proliferation of upstream dams, by unsustainable and inappropriate farming practices, by greed and political expediency. The punishment the Delta’s taking has been well reported, first in scholarly papers, then in specialized publications and appeals by Read More…

Let there be light: creeks gain visibility through restoration

Bay Area Monitor – Stroll through just about any of the cities ringing the San Francisco Bay and you’re likely walking on water. Not literally, of course. Rather, chances are that somewhere along your way, there’s a stream running beneath your feet. As land around the Bay was developed, creeks were rerouted underground through pipes called culverts for flood protection. But in some Read More…

Die-off prompts ODFW to close Wilson River to salmon angling

Tillamook County Pioneer – A recent die-off of fall Chinook salmon in the Wilson River has prompted fishery managers to close the river to all salmon angling, effective Dec. 7 – 31. The closure is from the confluence with Blind Slough (in tidewater at river mile 0.5) upstream to Jordan Creek. The river upstream of Jordan Creek is already closed to salmon angling by permanent rule. Angling Read More…

Experts say Mekong River’s new color a worrying sign

The Sacramento Bee – The Mekong River has recently acquired an aquamarine color that may beguile tourists but also indicates a problem caused by upstream dams, experts in Thailand say. The river usually has a yellowish-brown shade due to the sediment it normally carries downstream. But lately it has been running clear, taking on a blue-green hue that is a reflection of the sky. The water Read More…

On Wildlife Conservation Day, We’re Thinking About Fishing

Rainforest Trust – In 2012, the State Department of the United States declared December 4 “Wildlife Conservation Day.” They wanted to highlight wildlife trafficking and illegal trade — and recognize the important work of conservationists around the world. Poaching and wildlife trafficking is a complicated subject, sometimes more complicated than the prevailing narrative implies. Read More…

Teton Basin launches aquifer recharge pilot

Intermountain Farm & Ranch – Farmers who divert from the Teton River Basin hope a new aquifer recharge pilot program will bolster late-season flows in the system and extend their irrigation season. The Idaho Water Resource Board secured a $60,600 grant to fund the pilot in 2020 and 2021. The grant was offered by the Columbia Basin Water Transactions Program, which is funded by Read More…

Utah Lake’s endangered June suckers are bouncing back

The Salt Lake Tribune – After three decades of costly recovery efforts, Utah Lake’s June suckers have rebounded from near extinction to a point at which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed downgrading the fish’s protection status from endangered to threatened. An emergency captive-rearing program saved the large-bodied fish, but much work needs to be done to put the Read More…

Wild salmon once again swimming in potentially dangerous bloodwater…

CTV – As thick red blood gushes from a pipe on the ocean’s floor, underwater photographer Tavish Campbell holds up a large sign reading: “2019 Fish Farm Virus Still Flowing.” Campbell dove in Brown’s Bay, B.C., four times since Oct. 31 and recorded a video of what he saw underwater, almost two years after he first exposed bloody effluent pouring into the waters around B.C.’s Read More…