Unlimited Salmon/Steelhead News Update...

[Woolly Bugger]

Feed starving whales farmed salmon, say scientists
Radical idea that led to an orphaned orca being returned to the wild could help endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales.

https://seawestnews.com/feed-starving-whales-farmed-salmon-say-scientists/

[Woolly Bugger]

Last significant population of wild Atlantic salmon swim the Saco River

There are three significant species of fish that migrate up the Saco River in the spring. Atlantic salmon, river herring, and American shad all migrate upriver as adults to spawn in the same stream where they were born.

Many migratory fish species are critically endangered or threatened. Significant causes are man-made barriers, such as dams or sluices or power generation facilities, which disrupt the natural flow of rivers and modify or prevent their usual migratory routes. Pollution, especially prior to the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts of the 1970s, was also a significant driver that led to endangering and threatening these species. It's important to keep our river clean.

In fact, the last significant remaining wild Atlantic salmon populations in the United States are found only in Maine. In order to address this challenge of making hydropower while allowing safe fish passage, a variety of methods to ease fish migration upstream
have been developed.[quo

https://www.pressherald.com/2020/05/21/last-significant-population-of-wild-atlantic-salmon-swim-the-saco-river/

[Woolly Bugger]

An Atlantic salmon returned to the Penobscot in May. Here's what this rare occurrence means.

>>>Atlantic salmon are returning to the Penobscot River at a steady pace thus far. Fisheries staffers from the Maine Department of Marine Resources said the 176 salmon that have been counted thus far are the fifth most to have reached the counting facility by May 29 in the 42 years that salmon have been counted on the river.

Among those fish was a rarity: A male that was making a return trip to the river to spawn.

https://bangordailynews.com/2020/06/03/outdoors/an-atlantic-salmon-returned-to-the-penobscot-in-may-heres-what-this-rare-occurrence-means/

[Woolly Bugger]

Climate change is cooking salmon in the rivers of the Pacific Northwest

>>>The Tulalip Indian Reservation sits on the east side of the Puget Sound, about 40 miles north of Seattle, Washington, where the change in seasons is marked by the arrival and departure of salmon. At the heart of the reservation is Tulalip Bay, where salmon return every spring and fall before swimming upstream to spawn.

http://redgreenandblue.org/2020/06/06/climate-change-cooking-salmon-rivers-pacific-northwest-video/

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Last Call; Saving Atlantic Salmon


>>> Will wild native Atlantic salmon go the way of the passenger pigeon, or will we be able to bring them back from the brink of extinction as we did the bald eagle, our National Bird, or bison, our National Mammal? As the lights dim on the "King of Fish," we must ask ourselves, are we doing everything we can to prevent the loss of the nation's iconic Atlantic salmon? The answer, sadly, is no....

https://midcurrent.com/conservation/last-call-saving-the-nations-atlantic-salmon-from-extinction/

[troutrus]

"For roughly eighty years, longer than most who are reading this have been alive, the first Atlantic salmon caught in America each season was delivered to the President of the United States. The first fish went to President Taft in 1912, and the last, befittingly, to part-time Maine resident and avid Atlantic salmon angler President George H. Bush in 1992."

Current classless white house resident is satisfied with a pollock samich from Mickey D's.

[Woolly Bugger]

As salmon dwindle in LaHave River, calls grow for DFO to focus on St. Marys River

>>>Absolutely right, there's salmon in this river. There's salmon all through this river," said Scott Beaver of the St. Mary's River Association.

"We see them, we see them under the bridges, we see them jumping in the evenings. They are in the estuary now. With low water right now, there's a run ready to come up. We know they're there."

Finding out how many adult salmon return to spawn is key to understanding whether the population is healthy enough to reopen the river to salmon angling, which is one of the association's goals.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/dfo-salmon-lahave-river-angling-fishing-ban-st-marys-river-1.5608780

[Woolly Bugger]

Saving Canada's wild salmon: rescuers pin hopes on fish ladder and salmon cannon

>>>en Gord Sterritt walked to the dusty edge of a cliff in western Canada last summer, he saw a disaster unfolding in the frothy waters below. In December 2018, a natural landslide had caused large chunks of rock to fall from the steep canyon walls that hem in the northern sections of British Columbia's Fraser River.

The crashing boulders – 75,000 cubic metres of rock – created an impassable barrier. But because of the remote location, the damage wasn't discovered until the following June: just as millions of wild Pacific salmon were beginning to spawn up the river.

"When I saw it, I realised what we were up against," said Sterritt. "The magnitude was just ... awe-inspiring. And not in a good way."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/15/canada-wild-salmon-fish-ladder-salmon-cannon-british-columbia-aoe

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http://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/26066/20200616/canadas-wild-pacific-salmon-decline-facing-aftermath-landslide.htm

>>>Fish ladder and salmon cannon to the rescue
Fortunately, the fish ladder and salmon cannon have brought much-needed hope to the rescue operation this year. The terrace ladder is being built to allow salmon to travel through channels of water flowing slower than the river.

According to the maker of the device, Whooshh Innovations, the transported salmon will then be gently deposited back into the water, past the boulders in the river.

[Woolly Bugger]

The River Rambler Episode 24

>>>I'm joined by Greg Fitz this week, and we had a great talk. We go over how he got into fishing, the joys of boats, writing a novel and the work he's doing with the Wild Steelhead Coalition.

Listen to "Episode 24 - Greg Fitz" on Spreaker.

[Woolly Bugger]

>>>BELLINGHAM, Wash. – A dam on the Middle Fork of the Nooksack River will soon come down, allowing the river to flow freely for the first time in almost 60 years.

https://kgmi.com/news/007700-dam-on-nooksack-river-to-be-removed/

[Woolly Bugger]

Fish are thriving in the Penobscot as shad returns shatter record

>>> Each spring and summer for more than 40 years, anglers and conservationists have turned their attention to the Penobscot River at this time of year as they wonder how many Atlantic salmon will return as part of the annual run.


https://bangordailynews.com/2020/06/19/outdoors/penobscot-shad-returns-shatter-record/

[Woolly Bugger]

Report finds historic low for numbers of large wild Atlantic salmon


>>>A group advocating for the conservation of wild Atlantic salmon says the number of adult salmon returning to North America rivers fell to near historic lows last year.

The Atlantic Salmon Federation's annual "State of Wild Atlantic Salmon Report" released today indicates returns for large salmon were the third lowest in the past five decades.

The federation says there has been a "continuing a downward trend that threatens the sustainability of the species."

The group's scientists estimate 103,900 large salmon returned to the 86 rivers studied in 2019, down from estimates of about 131,800 the year before.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/atlantic-salmon-low-1.5626825

[Woolly Bugger]

>>> After a decades long battle on Washington State's Elwha River, a coalition of environmentalists, scientists and locals succeeded in having two dams demolished. Six years later, scientists are monitoring the river and larger ecosystem as they recover from a century of abuse. And one of the best ways to do the research? Snorkeling Class III whitewater.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dirtbag-diaries/id218290471?i=1000484018766

[Aka]

https://inletkeeper.org/2020/07/13/chinook-salmon-declines-related-to-changes-in-freshwater-conditions/