Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

The Suquamish Tribe recently pulled up the bones of a gray whale from Agate Pass, with hopes of rebuilding the skeleton for educational purposes.

The tribe acquired the remains of the juvenile whale in July 2011 after the mammal beached itself and died near Silverdale. After biologists gathered tissue samples, the tribe wrapped the whale in net material and towed it to Agate Pass to let …

For the Quinault Indian Nation (QIN), it is a grim truth that to protect the marine resources that sustain them, they must meticulously inventory those resources.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska graphically demonstrated the need to quantify baseline populations of marine and intertidal life. To accomplish the task, QIN and other tribal communities are using a common data-gathering method established by the Multi-Agency Rocky …

It’s a mixed bag of razor clam populations on beaches from Copalis to Kalaloch, an annual survey by the Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife shows. While some beaches had fewer clams available for harvest, others had more.

The co-managers use seawater to pump razor clams to the surface inside a 3-foot-wide mesh tube sunk vertically into the beach sand, enabling …

Bull elk on the north Olympic Peninsula are surviving today at roughly the same rate as they did in the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to early results of a two-year study by the Makah Tribe.

The tribe is halfway through the second year of a bull and calf elk survival study to update survival rate information gathered in the 1980s. “We want to be …

The new NWIFC Magazine is now online and features the celebration of the removal of the Elwha Dams. You can download the magazine (and over ten years of archives) here.

From the Magazine:

The thunderous beat of drums in the tribal gym sounded louder than usual: the beat harder, the men’s voices deeper, the women’s voices louder and the smiles bigger during the Lower Elwha Klallam

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The Lummi Nation distributed sockeye salmon to tribal members last month for families to can and store for the winter.

“The tribe puts fish away as much as possible when we have an abundance, for ceremonies and all the functions that the tribe sponsors,” said Randy Kinley Sr., policy representative for the tribe. “It’s very important to take care of your people’s needs culturally.”

The fish …

Rocky Barker has a great post over at the Idaho Stateman about the history behind the restoration of the Elwha River and how the struggle for treaty rights played into that:

The most touching moments of the celebration marking the beginning of the end of the Elwha dams were tribal. They were the smiling faces on the children of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe who

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The thunderous beat of drums in the tribal gym sounded louder than usual: the beat harder, the men’s voices deeper, the women’s voices louder, the smiles bigger during the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s dam removal celebration Sept. 17.

For nearly 100 years the tribe waited to celebrate the moment – the demolition of the Elwha River’s two fish-blocking dams, which have violated the tribe’s treaty rights …

For the next two days, discussion around research and monitoring the removal of the Elwha River dams will be the center of the Elwha River Science Symposium. We’ll be live blogging the events of the symposium here.

You can find out more about the symposium (including a program) here.