Hatcheries now produce most Pacific Northwest salmon. We look at hatchery effects on natural salmon populations. We determine the effectiveness of hatcheries in rescuing, rebuilding, and maintaining genetic diversity in some of the nation’s most depleted salmon stocks, including the Redfish Lake sockeye salmon.

We apply behavioral and ecological assessments to understand how hatcheries:

Alter salmon development.
Contribute to domestication selection and fitness loss.
Influence ecological interactions with wild salmon during freshwater and marine migrations and on the spawning grounds.
Affect ESA recovery efforts…

Read more at NOAA.org

A new report spells out exactly how much Oregon’s kelp forests have dwindled over the past decade or so — and the picture is bleak.

According to a status report released by the Oregon Kelp Alliance in November, nearly 900 acres of bull kelp forest has essentially disappeared off the Oregon Coast since 2010. Only around one-third of Oregon’s kelp forests remain — important oases facing ongoing threats and stressors in a changing ocean.

For the past two years, the Oregon Kelp Alliance has been developing a tool kit to aid in the recovery of the kelp forests, piloting various approaches and techniques without a clear sense of what could work for the Oregon Coast…

Read more at OPB.org

SALEM, Ore.—The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted 2025 recreational and commercial groundfish regulations at their meeting today in Salem that continue a five-fish recreational bag limit during the popular summer months.

Nearshore groundfish species (approximately a dozen species of rockfish, cabezon, greenlings, and lingcod) are subject to joint state and federal management. The recent (2023) stock assessment for both black rockfish and canary rockfish resulted in a reduced quota for Oregon’s fisheries.  

While the year will start with a four-fish daily marine bag limit, the bag limit increases to five fish starting July 1 (with a one-fish sub-bag limit of canary rockfish all year). ODFW heard support for this approach during meetings earlier in the year when it asked for public feedback on how to accommodate the reduced quotas. This approach is expected to provide a stable fishery throughout the year, with a low risk that the bag limit will need to be further reduced in-season. The increased bag limit during the popular summer months will provide the most opportunity as many visitors come to the Oregon coast to vacation and fish during summer and ocean conditions are also much better. The commercial nearshore fishery’s bi-monthly trip limits are also reduced for 2025.

ODFW is seeking to collect more data on black rockfish to increase confidence in survey data and hopefully increase the quota; the 2025 reduction in quota would have been larger but for ODFW assessment data…

Read more at ODFW