The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Runs of Columbia River summer and fall chinook salmon, sockeye salmon and upriver steelhead are predicted to again have a poor year, but the forecasted run of coho will be higher than recent runs of the fish. Oregon and Washington recently...

Oregon and Washington have opened this year a portion of the lower Columbia River to spring chinook fishing four times since March 1. However, passage of the prized chinook at Bonneville Dam is just 12 percent of the 10-year average as of May 1, and...

Though Oregon and Washington added two more days of fishing for spring chinook in the lower Columbia River last Saturday and Sunday, there are signs of a lower than forecasted return of spring chinook. As of last week, just 184 fish have crossed...

NOAA Fisheries saw the lowest number of juvenile coho salmon in 21 years in offshore test nets in 2017, leading to low returns of coho to the Columbia River basin one year later in 2018 when the fish were adults. However, in 2018 NOAA netted many...

Coastal waters are cooling and attracting higher value, more fat-rich food -- a good sign for salmon, steelhead and ocean predators, such as Orcas -- after several years of unusually warm conditions (2014 – 2016), when the warm water “blob” domin...

Once spring-run chinook salmon disappear, they are not likely to re-emerge, indicates genetic analysis of the revered wild fish in a study led by the University of California, Davis. Prompt conservation action could preserve spring-run chinook, as...

Once spring-run chinook salmon disappear, they are not likely to re-emerge, indicates genetic analysis of the revered wild fish in a study led by the University of California, Davis. Prompt conservation action could preserve spring-run chinook, as...

From The Columbia Basin Bulletin Warm and dry has been the story for the Pacific Northwest in recent weeks, contributing to a region-wide snowpack deficit that may continue for months to come, according to speakers participating in a drought and...

After last year’s winter weather that one meteorologist at a conference last weekend called boring, this upcoming winter for the Pacific Northwest will be largely the same – a little drier and warmer than normal. Four Portland weathermen spoke to...

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife staff completed a draft evaluation of the Columbia River Basin Salmon Management Policy that was enacted to assure recreational anglers would receive a larger portion of the non-tribal harvest allocation of...

By The Columbia Basin Bulletin With the fall chinook run on the Columbia River running about 75 percent of what was already a low preseason expectation, Oregon and Washington closed salmonid fishing from the river’s mouth to the Oregon/Washington b...

By The Columbia Basin Bulletin With an estimated 40 percent decline in the forecasted steelhead run upriver of Bonneville Dam, the states of Oregon and Washington last week closed the mainstem Columbia River to steelhead retention. The states made th...

New research shows how accelerated melting of glaciers in the Cascade Mountain Range could dwindle late summer stream flows in decades to come, taking previous work on glacial melt to a new level. A peer-reviewed study is slated for publication in...

Commercial fishing of fall chinook for both Treaty and non-treaty gillnetters opens over the next couple of weeks. The two-state Columbia River Compact at its meeting in Richfield on Aug. 14 approved 9 hours of commercial gillnetting each night...

Hot and dry weather has yielded emerging drought conditions across much of Oregon and Washington, but healthy streamflows persist throughout much of the basin mostly due to last winter’s ample snowpack. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown issued a press r...

A draft report to northwest governors on Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program costs in 2017 was released in early May for review by the public, with the total program costs coming in at $450.4 million, about 18 percent of the Bonneville Power Adm...

New data indicates that gillnetting may not be as harmful to steelhead as previously thought. The ability of commercial gillnetters to fish the mainstem Columbia River has mostly been removed by harvest reforms in Oregon and Washington, citing gillne...

The initial period after ocean entry for Columbia River basin juvenile salmon and steelhead is when most of the mortality occurs during their lives at sea, so ocean conditions – temperatures and nutrient supplies – during that period are cri...

Colder and wetter-than-average conditions persisted across the Pacific Northwest in November, with a La Niña weather pattern becoming well established and strengthening during the month, and the outlook is for much of the same going into March....

More spring chinook salmon will be heading upstream to the upper Columbia and Snake rivers in 2018 compared to 2017 returns, according to an early forecast of fish returns by the US v Oregon Technical Advisory Committee. TAC is forecasting a spring...

By The Columbia Basin Bulletin A forecast for La Niña conditions in the Pacific Northwest has been raised to an advisory, with colder and wetter weather seen in October now expected to continue throughout the winter. During a Nov. 16...

By The Columbia Basin Bulletin Meteorologists at their recent annual winter weather forecast conference came to near agreement on three things: The 2016-17 winter was unusually nasty; weather this coming winter will likely be influenced by a neutral...

By the Columbia Basin Bulletin A Washington State University researcher has found that the mating habits of salmon can alter the profile of stream beds, affecting the evolution of an entire watershed. His study is one of the first to quantitatively...

Researchers at NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center are reporting a never-before-seen phenomenon in Alaska waters—an influx of strange organisms that resemble flattened, translucent sea pickles. It may sound like déjà vu. A similar story made headl...