Orcasphere

This oregonlive.com article presents some great factoids for the orca conservationist.  These are my favorite excerpts:
The total spent by the agency [BPA] since 1978 is about $12 billion. That spending shows up in your power bill. About 15 percent, or $11, of the average Nortwesterner’s monthly electricity charges goes towards salmon, according to the Northwest [...]

I’m not convinced it is worth worrying much about climate change and northwest salmon when there is so much we can do to assist their recovery on shorter time scales and locally.  While the effects on water temperature and runoff could be huge, I’ll place my bet on the oceanographic variations exerting the strongest control [...]

It seems a crisis is emerging on the Fraser River.  For those of us in the U.S. working to restore salmon runs, this article provides a glimpse into the complexity of Fraser River management and science (and politics).

Where have all the salmon gone?

And where on Earth are our public watchdogs? Scientists tipped them to this [...]

Jeff Grout (or the reporter) needs to clarify why they reject the suggestion that sea lice infestation are responsible for this summer’s poor returns!http://www.straight.com/article-249317/hotter-water-linked-poor-sockeye-returns

UBC’s Scott Hinch has studied how ocean and river temperatures affect salmon. 

August 27, 2009
Hotter water linked to poor sockeye returns
By Carlito Pablo
A UBC fisheries expert’s warning from the [...]

WDFW NEWS RELEASE
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
http://wdfw.wa.gov/
July 10, 2009
Contact: Lora Leschner, (425) 775-1311 ext. 121
Portion of the Skagit Wildlife Area will close as work resumes on estuary restoration
OLYMPIA – Beginning July 15, the 175-acre Headquarters Unit of the Skagit Wildlife Area will be closed to public access as [...]

Sandra O’Neill, Contaminants in salmon
We’ve heard that S and N residents are both eating mostly Chinook.  Why are the southern residents more contaminated than the northern residents?
Contaminants in fish are determined by:

where they live
what they eat
how long they are exposed
how fat they are

Chinook and Coho have elevated [PBDE] because they stay close to shore, while [...]

8:35 John Ford, resident KW foraging ecology

What may have caused the simultaneous declines in the N and S residents during the late 1990s?  Nutritional stress?
We compared expected and observed births and deaths, where expectations were based on period of unlimited growth (‘73-’90).  There were two phases of increased mortality in adult/juvenile fe/males: late 90s for [...]

Tina Wyllie-Echeverria
Collaboration with Eric Beamer and Kurt Fresh (tows), and many students/volunteers
1950-2006, about 50 sites around the San Juans have been sampled and have found juvenile salmon.  Of 656km of SJI shoreline, 430km is rocky beach.  Tow nets (164 tows at 37 sites, monthly from Apr-Sep) caught juveniles of 5 species and 785k fish overall; [...]

Anne Shaffer
Focus on central and western strait, trying to identify restoration actions associated with dam removal on the Elwha.   The area is also an important migratory corridor, ultimately seeing about 85% of the outflow from the Salish Sea.  430 seines in many habitat types over last 18 months, 16 snorkel surveys, 2 yrs surf smelt [...]

Jason Toft
Comparing along-shore snorkel surveys between cobble beach, sand beach, rip rap, deep rip rap, and overwater structure.
We see biggest difference when you have sub-tidal modifications.
Gastric lavage of juvenile Chinook: insects dominate in shallow habitats, plankton/benthic dominate when shoreline is steep.
At Olympic sculpture park, we looked at pocket beach and subtidal bench before and after [...]