Tag Archives: coho salmon
Endangered coho salmon: California’s comeback kid with ‘surprisingly strong’ spawning season, says NPS
California’s coho salmon have made a surprising comeback. The 2023-24 spawning season is on track to be the best in more than 15 years, said the National Park Service in a statement. “On one of the creeks, Olema Creek, the one that we saw the most spawning on, we thought we’d see somewhere in the neighborhood of around 40 nests,” National Park Service Fishery Biologist Michael Reichmuth said. “And we’re looking at double that. So, that’s a pretty big surprise and encouraging to see those kinds of numbers because it means the fish had high survival through their life, getting to that point.” “We had an epic day on Olema, with a single-day count of 150 adult coho salmon. This is the highest single-day count that we have (ever) recorded,” he said. Video, photos, more, >>click to read<< 14:31
British Columbia: Pollution expert aims to create ‘water champions’
Peter Ross, an internationally recognized expert in water pollution, looks out over the sparkling waters of Burrard Inlet and sees something others do not. Invisible chemicals tend to be out of sight and out of mind, says Ross. But they leach into watercourses and into the marine food chain, creating “an invisible crisis.” “There are 500,000 chemicals on the global marketplace,” he said. Many of those will surreptitiously make their way into the food chain. Salmon heading up the Fraser River are also “basically running a gauntlet,” said Ross, “past wastewater treatment plants, past farms, past pulp mills, past refineries and storm drains.” Pollution is also an issue in drinking water,>click to read< – A global problem? 6PPD quinone: The environmental contaminant killing Coho salmon-An everyday chemical has been found to be highly toxic. Contamination of waterways is responsible for what had been the unexplained mass deaths of Coho salmon. We take a look at 6-PPD quinone, >click to read<14:39
8 Day Southeast Trolling Shutdown to Start Friday
Southeast Alaska’s commercial troll salmon fishery will close for eight days, starting Thursday, due to low abundance of coho salmon, state Fish and Game officials announced today. The fishery will reopen August 15, they said. “The point of the closure is to try to move fish to the inside,” said ADFG Commercial Troll Management Biologist Grant Hagerman. “They’re not being exploited, they’re passing through the fishery… You’ve got this eight-day closure based on the below average (coho) catch rates and below average returns.” Hagerman said coho catches were low in all six trolling areas. >click to read< 10:07
Hoopa Valley Tribe Plans Federal Lawsuit to ‘Protect Salmon on the Brink of Extinction’
The Hoopa Valley Tribe (Tribe) today announced that it will file a lawsuit within 60 days unless federal agencies reduce the numbers of Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed Klamath-Trinity origin Coho salmon being killed in the Pacific Ocean. Klamath River origin Coho salmon have been listed as a ‘threatened species’ under the ESA since 1997. Without analysis or formal ESA re-consultation, regulations of the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) were changed this year to allow more Coho salmon to be injured or killed, although they are protected by the ESA. “We will not stand by while the federal agencies kill our salmon,” said Hoopa Tribal Chairman Ryan Jackson. >click to read<13:30
CB Island Fisheries nets Masset’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award
When C B Island Fisheries stepped up to process sport-caught fish this spring, it saved a half-dozen jobs from swimming away off-island. “They greatly expanded this year,” says Masset Mayor Andrew Merilees, who presented the award last week to CBI General Manager Al Frick. After 22 years in business, CBI is a “heartstone” business that goes to Masset’s origins as a fishing community, said Merilees, but this year they took a new and much-needed turn when Haida Wild, the only other fish processor in Masset, stopped handling sport-caught fish this spring. click here to read the story 18:37
Yes, no, maybe
Only days after over-seeing the deaths of nearly 90,000 Upper Cook Inlet coho salmon in two commercial drift gillnet openings in the belief the coho run was late and strong, fishery managers with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have changed their minds. An emergency order issued Sunday cut commercial fishing time in the northern Inlet in half and restricted drift netters to drift “Area 1” south of Kalgin Island, along with a corridor near the mouth of the Kenai River. The Area 1 restriction pushes the fleet down into the wide, unconstricted part of the Inlet where it is harder to find the fish. click here to read the story 16:57
Yurok Tribe Files Intent to Sue National Marine Fisheries Service and the Bureau of Reclamation
In response to massive fish disease outbreaks in back-to-back years on the Klamath River, the Yurok Tribe submitted a 60-day notice of intent to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Bureau of Reclamation. “We cannot stand by and do nothing while our salmon hover over the brink of extinction,” said Thomas P. O’Rourke Sr., Chairman of the Yurok Tribe. “We will not continue to watch water managers jeopardize the fate of our fish and our river.” 91 percent of the juvenile, Klamath salmon were infected with a deadly parasite in 2015, as were a nearly identical number of fish in 2014. Given the nearly 100 percent mortality rate associated with the disease, approximately 90 percent of the Chinook salmon and likely an equal quantity of coho died in the main-stem Klamath River during those years, according to the notice. This year’s predicted adult salmon run is one of the lowest on record, which forced the Yurok Tribe to make a difficult decision to completely forgo all commercial fishing in 2016. Read the rest here 15:22
To Save Its Salmon, California Calls in the Fish Matchmaker
On a frigid morning in a small metal-sided building, a team of specialists prepared to orchestrate an elaborate breeding routine. The work would be wet and messy, so they wore waders. Their tools included egg trays and a rubber mallet, which they used to brain a fertile female coho salmon, now hanging dead on a hook. Diana Chesney, a biologist, studied a piece of paper with a matrix of numbers, each one denoting a male salmon and potential match for the female coho. “This is the bible,” she said of the matrix. “It’s what Carlos says.” Read the article here 12:57
Call of the wild: Coho salmon get ready to leave net pens for the ocean
About 442,000 coho salmon will be released from net pens near Tongue Point into the Columbia River Wednesday as part of the Clatsop County Fisheries Project select-area fishery program. The salmon, which came from the Oxbow Fish Hatchery in Cascade Locks, spent the last couple of weeks in the net pens while they smolt — a physical process which readies them to go to the ocean —and imprint the scent of the area so they can return for sport and commercial fishing. Read the rest here 14:40
Where have all the Whittier coho gone? – commercial seiners being scrutinized
For the past five years, coho salmon smolt specifically released for 
have failed to return as adults. Other nearby coho salmon fisheries in Prince William Sound, which have the same smolt, have not experienced the same declines in returning adult coho. “A possible reason for this is the commercial seiners primarily, not the drifters or setnetters,” Lofland said. “The seiners have started concentrating on the west side of the sound. They are very efficient, and they fish around the points. Read the rest here 12:32
OK to Catch More At-Risk Salmon if Monitored, Scientist Says
A federal decision allowing commercial fishermen to catch five times the usual amount of endangered coho salmon this year should not be a cause for alarm, said Dr. Brian Riddell, president and CEO of the Pacific Salmon Foundation, a non-governmental organization working to conserve salmon. Read more here 21:42
California drought threatens coho salmon with extinction
The lack of rain this winter could eventually be disastrous for thirsty California, but the drought may have already ravaged some of the most storied salmon runs on the West Coast. Read more@sfgate 11:44
Tangle net experiment: Columbia River fishermen try out gillnet alternative
Even with a chance at late returning coho salmon, few commercial gillnet fishermen will be out with tangle nets on the Columbia River in the next two weeks. more@dailyastorian 22:26
Commerical Fishing for Nushagak Coho to Opened Thursday about 15 minutes ago!
Commercial Fishing for coho salmon in the Nushagak district is set to open at 9 a.m. Thursday and Togiak Seafoods will be buying. General Manager Voita Novak says one tender, the Sea Trek II left Togiak at about 4 a.m Wednesday, headed to the Nushagak. Novak is asking fisherman to contact the tender Thursday morning on Channel 72. more@kdlg
