Juvenile coho salmon transferred into Port Gamble Bay this winter are settling into a brand new net pen to rear until they are released this spring. After the 25-year-old net pen structure was severely damaged during several winter storms in 2012, the tribe decided to replace both the structure and nets. “The whole thing needed […]
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe says that changes to the Elwha River are occurring faster than anticipated since deconstruction of the two fish-blocking dams on the Elwha River started in 2011. The most recent milestone is the 4,700 chinook salmon that returned to the river this year – the most since 1992. “The overall return […]
Fisheries managers studying poor ocean survival of salmon are concentrating their research on juvenile fish and their preferred prey. Several tribes are collaborating on studies slated to begin in 2014 as part of the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project. The Tulalip, Nisqually, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Lummi, Swinomish and Sauk-Suiattle tribes are among the collaborators that […]
The Tulalip Tribes recently improved rearing habitat in a small coastal stream popular with juvenile chinook. Known to locals as “the gulch,” the unnamed stream had one of the highest densities of juvenile chinook of all the coastal streams sampled in the Whidbey basin by the Tulalip Tribes and Skagit River System Cooperative. During one […]
The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe is finding more juvenile salmon in small bays than other nearshore environments, including large estuaries in Hood Canal and Admiralty Inlet. “We’re not seeing fish near the mouths of big river systems like we expected, such as the Duckabush or Dosewallips rivers,” said Hans Daubenberger, the tribe’s habitat biologist. “Fish […]
The Upper Skagit Tribe and the University of Washington (UW) are doing a two-year study examining seasonal habitat preferences for yearling chinook and steelhead in the Skagit River. Not all juvenile chinook salmon migrate out to sea right away. They spend a few months to two years in freshwater and estuarine habitat. This study will […]
The Skokomish Tribe is studying the diet of juvenile salmon that have taken up residence in the nearly 400-acres of newly restored Skokomish tidelands in southern Hood Canal. After gently flushing out the stomachs of a small sampling of juvenile salmon with a water pick, the microscopic contents, including algae and bugs, are collected and […]
ALDER – Over 100 trees that have fallen into the reservoir behind Alder Dam will be put to use constructing engineered logjams to create salmon habitat on Ohop Creek. “Trees that wash into the lake from the river and get stuck behind the dam need to be removed before they become a nuisance,” said David […]
The Daily Herald of Everett reported on the $2 million in grants awarded to tribes by the EPA, describing how the Stillaguamish and Tulalip tribes plan to use the money: Fisheries experts for the Stillaguamish Tribe plan to use their money to conduct an inventory of culverts throughout the watersheds upon which the tribe has […]
ALLYN – A pair of smolt traps is helping the Squaxin Island Tribe get a better picture of natural salmon production in the Sherwood Creek watershed. “The Sherwood watershed is one of the most complicated systems in the tribe’s treaty-reserved fishing area,” said Joe Peters, fisheries management biologist for the Squaxin Island Tribe. Tribal biologists […]
