Search Results for: lat

Contaminants in SRKWs

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 … Continue reading

Vessel interactions/noise talks

14:55 Val Veirs giving Marla’s talk on “Vocal Compensation in SRKWs” Background noise levels had mean of 110.1 DB +/- 4.1; range 98-123dB Call source level: mean of 55.3dB +/-7.4 dB Lombard effect in SRKWs is present; ~1dB increase in … Continue reading

Ken Balcomb: SRKW demographic update

First there was Mike Bigg.  Early census effort started in 1976 and was motivated by concern about the captures for aquariums which took out about 50 animals.  1976-1984 habitat use was very similar to current critical habitat!  Most encounters May-October, … Continue reading

U.S.+Canada recovery process, U.S. whale watching industry

10:00 Lynne Barre, NWFSC Critical habitat can be modified.  A future step is designating habitat outside of the inland waters of WA. Recovery plan implementation was started in 2003, well before the endangered listing in 2005. Proposed regulations are under … Continue reading

Columbia River sea otters after 100y?

Interesting that the WA sea otters (a transient orca food source?) may be expanding their range from the NW coast of the Olympic Peninsula. Though the Salish Sea habitat is certainly appropriate for them, they apparently are rarely seen east … Continue reading

Snake River Salmon on KUOW

The most prominent appeal in this discussion was whether we can move away from litigation and towards more collaborative processes to restore the wild populations of Columbia salmon and steelhead. The agreement between 3 tribes and federal agencies (the “Columbia … Continue reading

NW salmon forecasts and fisheries dates

Here is an excerpt from yesterday’s WDFW announcement that describes the forecasts for many Columbia and Salish Sea salmon runs.  To Pat’s credit, there was a quick correction to a painful error (suggesting that adipose-clipped fish weren’t hatchery fish).  In … Continue reading

A map for including killer whales in NW fisheries managment

Just happened upon this nice synopsis of how WDFW views the various processes by which fishing harvests are governed in the Pacific Northwest. For me, this helps clarify which processes we killer whale advocates could influence to bolster the number … Continue reading

Strong spring chinook run on the Columbia

Here we are in mid-February, a couple weeks into the blackmouth opening in the Salish Sea, and WDFW is opening up recreational fishing for spring (winter?) Chinook running in the Columbia [see today’s email announcement below].  This makes me wonder … Continue reading

Oil Spill Risk Management: Strategies for the future

Intro by Miles (Chip) Boothe Over 600 vessels have been escorted by the Neah Bay tug since it first started operating in 1999; 6 involved throwing lines to a vessel in distress.  This afternoon the legislature is looking at a … Continue reading