Pacific Archives - Page 2 of 220

CALIFORNIA: California salmon season faces potential third-year closure

March 11, 2025 — California’s Chinook salmon population continues to decline, prompting concerns over a possible third consecutive closure of the state’s commercial and recreational salmon fishing season.

In April, the Pacific Fishery Management Council will decide whether to impose a limited fishing season or enforce a complete shutdown to facilitate stock recovery.

Recent estimates from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife indicate approximately 166,000 Sacramento River fall-run Chinook salmon currently in the ocean, a decrease from the preseason estimate of 214,000 last year and comparable to the 2023 estimate of 169,000. These numbers reflect a significant drop from the robust salmon population observed in California’s river over a decade ago.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

El Niño Yields to Upwelling in the California Current, Renewing Productivity of West Coast Ecosystem

March 10, 2025 — According to the NOAA California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment’s annual report, the California Current Ecosystem pulled out of a strong El Niño pattern in 2024. That El Niño delayed the onset of the annual spring upwelling of nutrient-laden water that, was nevertheless strong enough to fuel the rich West Coast ecosystem and improv environmental conditions for salmon.

NOAA Fisheries scientists presented the report to the Pacific Fishery Management Council to inform upcoming decisions on fishing seasons. The report provides a snapshot of ocean conditions, fish population abundance and habitat, and fisheries landings and fishing communities’ conditions. It gives short-term forecasts and longer term projections of how conditions across the ecosystem may evolve in 2025 and beyond.

Report Highlights

Upwelling resumed even more strongly and consistently than normal, supplying a greater influx of nutrient-rich waters that improved forage conditions for many species
Productive waters supported abundant forage speciessuch as anchovy and krill and strong production of young hake and juvenile rockfish that could contribute to commercial fisheries in future years
Improved freshwater streamflows should support survival of juvenile salmon migrating downstream in California to the ocean
California sea lions found enough prey amid the El Niño warming, while experiencing harmful algal blooms that led to premature birth of pups and strandings along the coast

“Each year we learn more about how this marine ecosystem functions and what we should be watching to anticipate change,” said Andrew Leising, a research oceanographer at NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center who coauthored the new report. “We’re getting better at forecasting what is coming at us, at the same time we see some new twists.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

La Niña may end soon. What that may mean for temperatures and hurricanes.

March 8, 2025 — A long-awaited La Niña finally arrived in the Pacific Ocean in January. But less than two months later, the picture is rapidly shifting.

The World Meteorological Organization announced Thursday that the ongoing La Niña event is expected to be short-lived and that there is a 60 percent chance it will fade by May.

The pattern is the foil of the better-known El Niño and is typically known for cooling a vast swath of the Pacific Ocean. But the phenomenon has done little to break the cycle of excessive global heat that dominated during 2024 and has continued into 2025 — except in the United States. And now, signs are emerging that could spell a coming end to the pattern, raising questions about what could come next — including whether yet another record-warm year for the planet could be in the cards.

Meanwhile, a new and unexpected pattern of warming oceans in the eastern Pacific, west of South America, has sent sea temperatures soaring to more than 5 degrees above average. Called a coastal El Niño, or El Niño Costero, the pattern can affect weather near and far. Coastal El Niño events in 2017 and 2023 caused flooding rains and high rates of dengue fever in Peru.

Read the full article at The Washington Post

‘I’m Heartbroken’: California Scientists Left Adrift by Mass Federal Layoffs at NOAA

March 6, 2025 — Many in California’s science community are reeling after last week’s mass firings within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration upended workers’ lives and raised dire concerns for the climate agency’s work going forward.

At least seven people, including National Weather Service employees and staff at the National Marine Fisheries Service, or NOAA Fisheries, lost their jobs along the Central Coast.

Their stories are similar and heart-wrenching. The early-career federal workers are planning marriages, recently signed mortgages and were saving to buy their first homes. But last Thursday, they got an email saying they were “not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge, and/or skills do not fit the agency’s current needs” — many of them before their supervisors even knew.

Read the full article KQED

Fishery managers worry about effects of NOAA cuts

March 4, 2025 — The long term impacts of recent staff cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are still unknown, but fishery managers on the West Coast called the situation troubling.

On Thursday, NOAA laid off more than 800 workers as the Trump administration continues its push to reduce the federal workforce.

West Coast lawmakers have warned that the cuts — and the potential for more layoffs in the future — could endanger lives and threaten maritime commerce and the fishing industry. NOAA manages federal tribal, commercial and recreational fisheries and includes the National Weather Service, which provides weather forecast data.

For West Coast fisheries, the firings have created uncertainty for fishery management now.

This week, the Pacific Fishery Management Council, a quasi-governmental body that recommends management measures for a number of fisheries on the West Coast, will meet to begin — among other things — the process of setting summer and fall salmon fisheries.

Read the full article at KMUN

Aquaculture nonprofit sues Washington Department of Natural Resources over ban on net pen fish farming

March 3, 2025 — A Washington aquaculture nonprofit is suing the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) over its recent ban on net pen fish farming on state-owned aquatic lands in Washington.

The lawsuit, filed on Feb. 27 in Thurston County Superior Court, was brought forth by the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance. It alleges the state agency’s rulemaking process was “predetermined and inadequate,” the lawsuit states.

Net pens are large floating structures where fish or seafood are grown and have been used in the Salish Sea for four decades. In January, the DNR banned the use of commercial net pens in state waters and said the ban would help protect Puget Sound waterways.

With the ban, the lawsuit claims DNR failed to follow the Administrative Procedure Act, violated the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) and created arbitrary rules.

“DNR does not have unfettered authority to regulate aquaculture,” the lawsuit states.

Northwest Aquaculture Alliance also claims DNR’s ban harms its members by reducing or fully eliminating business opportunities.

Read the full article at KTVB

OREGON: Oregon crab fishery faces scrutiny after record whale entanglements

February 28, 2025 — Oregon’s commercial Dungeness crab fishery is under increasing pressure to address whale entanglements after a record-breaking four incidents in 2024, including one as recently as January 6th.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) has issued an advisory to crabbers, urging them to be vigilant and avoid setting gear in areas where whales are transiting or foraging; however, conservation groups like Oceana, a leading ocean conservation organization, criticized the advisory as inadequate and the voluntary measures are insufficient and they are calling for stronger, more decisive action.

Read the full article at The World Link

Conservation groups sue NOAA Fisheries over protection for Pacific Northwest spring-run Chinook salmon

February 27, 2025 — Conservation groups are suing NOAA Fisheries after the agency missed the one-year deadline for ruling on a petition seeking Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for spring-run Chinook salmon in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.

“These iconic fish are at risk of disappearing from our coastal rivers forever if [NOAA Fisheries] doesn’t act quickly,” Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) Legal Fellow Jeremiah Scanlan said in a statement. “Spring-run Chinook salmon badly need protections, but instead, the agency has taken the lazy river approach and drifted past its own deadlines.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

WASHINGTON: Imposter captain steals Westport fishing boat with crew onboard

February 26, 2025 — An imposter stole a fishing vessel — with the crew still on board — from a dock in Westport, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Police.

WDFW Sergeant Alexander was reportedly patrolling in Westport when he “heard a radio call for a vehicle theft in progress; not the usual car or motorcycle theft, but an eight-million-dollar, 80-foot commercial fishing vessel, the Jamie Marie.”

According to police, the imposter had boarded the boat, awoken the crew, and informed them that they needed to get underway. The newer crew who didn’t know the captain didn’t argue, thinking he was perhaps an alternate operator or sent by the real captain.

Read the full article at KIRO 7

CALIFORNIA: California’s 2024 fall Chinook runs worse than expected

February 25, 2025 — Fall Chinook salmon runs in 2024 in the Sacramento River and Klamath River watersheds in the U.S. state of California were far smaller than expected, according to new data from the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC).

Regulators forecast a fall run of more than 180,000 adult chinook salmon returning to the Sacramento River Basin in 2024, but the PFMC’s recently published review of West Coast fisheries estimated a run of fewer than 100,000 fish.

The Klamath River fall run also underperformed the pre-season forecast. According to the PFMC estimate, only 36,568 adult fall chinook returned to the Klamath River in 2024 compared to a prediction of 65,138 adults.

California salmon runs have been impacted by several environmental and climate-related challenges.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

News for the Pacific Region

Report Highlights