Feds approved killing birds to save fish, despite warning it wouldn't work

Photo:Peter Wallack

In an effort to protect endangered salmon and steelhead the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved plans to kill double-crested cormorants nesting on an island at the mouth of the Columbia River despite internal research showing the plan wouldn't work.

LINK (via:Oregon Live)

Wild Steelhead Gene Bank

Work will ramp up in September leading to an October recommendation where to eliminate hatchery steelhead releases and create a gene bank for wild fish in the Lewis or Washougal rivers.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has formed a 20-member steelhead management work group to develop regional plans for steelhead in the North Fork Lewis, East Fork Lewis and Washougal rivers plus Salmon Creek.

Federal fishery officials, along with Washington’s 2008 Statewide Steelhead Management Plan, are calling for designation of a network of watersheds where wild steelhead populations are “largely protected from the effects of hatchery programs.’’

LINK (via: The Columbian)

Several factors suggested for bonefish decline

A decline in prey like shrimp and crabs is not the main cause of the drop in bonefish populations in Florida Bay, according to a one-year study conducted by Audubon Florida and funded by the nonprofit Bonefish Tarpon Trust.

The study by researchers Pete Frezza, Shawn Liston, Jerry Lorenz and Michelle Robinson suggests other factors might share the blame for the decline of a sport fish that pumps $427 million annually into the Florida Keys economy.

LINK (via: The Miami Herald)

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/16/3453183/several-factors-suggested-for.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/16/3453183/several-factors-suggested-for.html#storylink=cpy

Neal knew he had caught something big

Another day, another goldfish.

BC Salmon Farm Forced to Cull 560,000 fish

Atlantic salmon farms around Vancouver Island have begun testing and formed a special outbreak management team after an IHN virus outbreak at one farm led to a site quarantine and the cull of more than half a million fish.

IHN usually kills a fish within a week of exposure and can kill up to 100 percent of an infected population.

LINK (via: The Winnepeg Free Press)

Here is what happened when the IHN virus made it's way into Chilean hatcheries.

Washington fish tested for tsunami-related radiation

Do salmon and steelhead returning to Washington rivers come with a dose of radiation from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant? Washington State Department of Health officials don't think so, but they're testing fish anyway.

LINK (via:King 5)