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Read more about the article Dairy Farm Pollution Costs Lummi Nation
An aerial photo shows a manure lagoon at a dairy farm adjacent to the Nooksack River. Courtesy of Kim Koon

Dairy Farm Pollution Costs Lummi Nation

An aerial photo shows a manure lagoon at a dairy farm adjacent to the Nooksack River. Courtesy of Kim Koon
An aerial photo shows a manure lagoon at a dairy farm adjacent to the Nooksack River. Courtesy of Kim Koon.

Whatcom County’s booming dairy and agricultural industry has cost Lummi Nation shellfish harvesters millions of dollars already, and a recent closure of shellfish beds in Portage Bay is adding to the tally.

Manure from dairy cows is discharged either directly or indirectly into the Nooksack River, which flows into Portage Bay. In September, the tribe closed 335 acres of Portage Bay shellfish beds to harvest because of high fecal coliform levels that exceeded National Shellfish Sanitation Program standards. Continued poor water quality led to the closure of two additional areas in December, bringing the total to nearly 500 acres of shellfish beds that are unsafe to harvest. More areas may have to be closed in the coming months if conditions are not improved. (more…)

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Decades old co-management benefit today’s South Sound chum salmon

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Michael West, fisheries technician for the Squaxin Island Tribe, samples a chum salmon in a South Sound creek.

Fisheries management decisions made decades ago by the Squaxin Island Tribe and their state salmon co-managers are still paying dividends for the Kennedy Creek chum run.

In the early 1980s – just a few years after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the tribe’s status as a salmon co-manager – the tribe and state made some dramatic changes.

“The most drastic step was that the tribe stopped fishing for four years to help build the run back up,” said Joe Peters, harvest management biologist for the tribe. “Such a big change wouldn’t work everywhere, but there was habitat for the chum to return to on Kennedy Creek.”

The state also stopped mining chum eggs out of Kennedy Creek to support their hatchery programs.
(more…)

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Read more about the article Tulalip Tribes Keep Track of Hatchery Salmon

Tulalip Tribes Keep Track of Hatchery Salmon

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Tulalip fisheries technicians spawn female chum salmon at the tribes’ Bernie “Kai-Kai” Gobin Hatchery.

Tribal and state co-managers continue to improve their ability to track hatchery salmon in the Snohomish watershed.

Both the Tulalip Tribes’ Bernie “Kai-Kai” Gobin Hatchery and the state’s Wallace River Hatchery recently installed new chillers to better mark hatchery chinook, coho and chum salmon.

“One hundred percent of all Tulalip chinook, coho and chum, and all regional chinook hatchery production, is now marked by location and brood year,” said Mike Crewson, Tulalip salmon enhancement scientist.

By altering the water temperature during incubation, hatchery managers can leave a distinct pattern on each fish’s otolith – a mineral structure often referred to as an ear bone, which accumulates daily rings. When fish return as adults, their otoliths are examined under a microscope to identify where and when they were released. (more…)

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Coho Salmon Eggs Put to the Stormwater Test

WSU toxicologist Jen McIntyre checks the condition of an embryo that was exposed to urban stormwater runoff. More pictures from the study can be found by clicking on the photo.
WSU toxicologist Jen McIntyre checks the condition of an embryo that was exposed to urban stormwater runoff. More pictures from the study can be found by clicking on the photo.

Peering through a microscope at the Suquamish Tribe’s Grovers Creek Hatchery, biologist Tiffany Linbo uses two pairs of tweezers to gently peel the protective layer off an 18-day-old fertilized coho salmon egg.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) biologist needs to do it without piercing the yolk sac so Washington State University (WSU) toxicologist Jen McIntyre can take a closer look at the embryo’s health and development, such as heartbeat, blood flow and eye size.

Linbo and McIntyre are looking at eggs that have been exposed to urban stormwater runoff collected from roadways in Seattle; they want to know if the embryos show signs of developmental toxicity. (more…)

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Read more about the article Tribes partner with OSU to study clam contamination
Swinomish staff and OSU students sample clams on Kukutali Preserve.

Tribes partner with OSU to study clam contamination

Swinomish staff and OSU students sample clams on Kukutali Preserve.
Swinomish staff and OSU students sample clams on Kukutali Preserve.

Researchers from Oregon State University (OSU) are studying shellfish contamination on the Swinomish reservation and nearby Fidalgo Bay.

Both the Swinomish Tribe and Samish Nation have partnered in the project with OSU’s Superfund Research Program, focusing on clam contamination on tribal lands.

Butter clams were sampled from sites in Fidalgo Bay near an oil refinery, and from the relatively pristine Kukutali Preserve. Kukutali is co-managed by the Swinomish Tribe and the state of Washington.

“We predominantly are looking for chemicals that come from fossil fuels,” said Blair Paulik, OSU Ph.D. candidate. “We were interested in seeing sites that were the extremes within the area. We expect if there’s going to be an area that’s more contaminated it will be near the refinery. We expect Kukutali to be less contaminated.”

The samples are being analyzed in Professor Kim Anderson’s lab at OSU’s department of environmental and molecular toxicology. (more…)

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Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe: How wildlife will recolonize former Elwha lakebeds

The mouse is measured for length and weight and marked as studied before being released in the former Elwha lake beds. Click on the photo for more pictures at NWIFC's Flickr album.
The mouse is measured for length and weight and marked as studied before being released in the former Elwha lake beds. Click on the photo for more pictures at NWIFC’s Flickr album.

The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe is studying how wildlife might help or hinder growth of new vegetation along the restored Elwha River.

The tribe is watching how small mammals, elk, deer and birds are taking advantage of the newly opened plains of the former lakebeds of lakes Aldwell and Mills, in partnership with Olympic National Park, the U.S. Geological Survey and Western Washington University (WWU).

“We want to see how a whole complement of wildlife species recolonize the reservoirs, and what impacts they have on the re-establishment of plants on reservoir sediments,” said Kim Sager-Fradkin, the tribe’s wildlife biologist.

For the next three years, biologists will study which small mammal species are recolonizing the reservoirs and how their presence might alter revegetation efforts because of their tendency, depending on species, to either cache or consume seeds. (more…)

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