Each year, BPA pays a bounty for northern pikeminnow caught in the Columbia River. The fish, according to BPA, eat millions of young salmon and steelhead.

For 2010, BPA will pay a total of $1.2 million for 173,112 pikeminnow.

Continue reading for the full press release.

Pikeminnow program pays off big and helps save salmon
Final fish count includes record-breaking catch

Portland, Ore. – Anglers hooked large payoffs during this year’s Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Fishery Program, raking in over $1.2 million by catching 173,112 of the voracious salmon eaters.

The program provides cash for catching pikeminnow, a large member of the minnow family, in the Columbia and Snake rivers. These predators chow down on millions of young salmon and steelhead every year. Research shows that reducing the number of pikeminnow helps salmon and steelhead survival.

One angler earned $81,366 during the six-month season, breaking the individual record for catching specially tagged fish that are worth up to $500.  He hooked 13 tagged fish and earned $6,500 in the process.

“This program provides an opportunity to earn income, which is especially important during these tough economic times, and it’s good for salmon,” said Russell Porter, senior program manager for the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. “We appreciate the effort of all those anglers who participated, and we look forward to another successful year in 2011.”

Anglers get paid $4 to $8 for northern pikeminnow nine inches and larger caught in the lower Columbia (mouth to Priest Rapids Dam) and Snake (mouth to Hells Canyon Dam) rivers. The more pikeminnow an angler catches, the more the fish are worth. The first 100 are worth $4 each; the next 300 are worth $5 each; and, after 400 fish are caught and turned in, they are worth $8 each. As an added incentive, specially tagged fish are worth $500.

The annual program started May 1 and was originally scheduled to close Sept. 30. Program managers extended the season by 10 days this year, allowing rewards through Oct. 10, 2010. The official fish numbers became available last week.

Since 1991, more than three million pikeminnow have been removed from the Snake and Columbia rivers through the sport reward program. Last year, anglers caught approximately 142,000 pikeminnow. As a result of these efforts, pikeminnow predation on juvenile salmon is estimated to have been cut by 40 percent.

The program is administered by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and is funded by the Bonneville Power Administration.  Watch a video with fishing tips and program details. Get more information atwww.pikeminnow.org.

The Bonneville Power Administration, headquartered in Portland, Ore., is a not-for-profit federal electric utility under the Department of Energy that operates a high-voltage transmission grid comprising more than 15,000 miles of lines and associated substations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. It also markets more than a third of the electricity consumed in the Pacific Northwest. The power is produced at 31 federal dams operated by the Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation and one nuclear plant and is sold to more than 140 Northwest utilities. BPA purchases power from some smaller projects, including wind generators, and has more than 3,000 megawatts of wind interconnected to its transmission system.

OPB: Scientists Determine Hatchery Salmon Threaten Wild Fish

ODFW has been hazing the sea lions for about a month, and it appears to be working out about as well as it does at Bonneville. In other words – the sea lions don’t appear to be bothered much.

KGW: Hunt endorses trap & kill of Willamette sea lions

KATU: Solutions to sea lion problem debated during town hall

The Copco 1 Dam on the Klamath River. Photo courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

When government and tribal leaders gathered in Salem earlier this year to sign the Klamath basin agreements, the talk was all about dam removal. ”Hasta la vista to the dams,” said California’s Governor Schwarzenegger.

But what Schwarzenegger, Governor Kulongoski and the others glossed over is that there is no agreement to remove dams on the Klamath River. There’s only an agreement to study the issue. A decision is a couple of years away.

And now we’re seeing what could be the first attempt to take advantage of that loophole.

According to the Siskiyou Daily, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors in California are now interested in seeing if fish passages could be built around the dams – instead of removing them. The paper says the Shasta Nation has been studying using existing creeks as part of a system to help fish migrate past the dams.

See Siskiyou Daily: Fish bypass alternative analysis underway

By the way, Siskiyou County is one of the governmental groups that signed the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement.

It’s way too early to know how far this will go. But you can’t blame environmental critics for saying, “We told you so.” Sean Stevens of Oregon Wild said back in February that this is only one of the loopholes that could wreck the agreement. Here’s a clip from our interview with him.

Video: Oregon Wild’s Sean Stevens On Dam Removal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8MoyBAaNI0

Related Stories:

Klamath Hangover – Why Oregon Enviros Oppose The Deals
VIDEO: Highlights From Klamath Basin Signing Ceremony
“Hasta La Vista” Dams: Deals Signed To End Klamath Basin Water Wars

NOTE: Thanks to the Pacific Fishery Management Council for tweeting the original story.

Columbia River Sockeye Salmon. Courtesy WDFW.

The Obama Administration is walking away from what could have become the first big salmon fight of 2010.

NOAA Fisheries is dropping plans to cut off spring time spills at four dams on the Lower Snake River.

Most of the time, spills are used to help young salmon swim past dams as they migrate to the ocean. But faced with unusually low water flows this spring, NOAA proposed rounding up the fish, putting them on barges, and shipping them past dams. It says that’s the best way to help salmon and steelhead survive during a low water year.

The very idea of cutting off spills set off alarm bells with environmental groups and the State of Oregon. After a federal judge ordered increased spills in 2006, Columbia Basin salmon have had some really good years. As far as the environmentalists and Oregon are concerned, that’s not a coincidence. They filed court papers to block NOAA’s plan for barging salmon.

Another problem for NOAA – an Independent Science Advisory Board (IASB) reviewed the barging plans and gave it a thumbs down.

Barging salmon isn’t exactly dead. The plan now is to use a mixed approach, dam spills plus barging. This is what the IASB recommended about a week ago, and it’s what’s been done in the past.

Spills versus barging is a complicated and controversial issue. In the papers it filed with the court, NOAA insists that while it’s going along with IASB’s recommendations, it doesn’t agree with all of them. For example, NOAA says the survival rate of Snake River steelhead that migrate to the ocean this year could be cut in half. On the other hand, NOAA notes this gives scientists a good opportunity to study how well a mixed approach works during a low water year. Low water is a problem for salmon and steelhead because the water is warmer, making the fish more vulnerable to disease.

Environmental groups and Oregon are skeptical that the feds are merely interested in protecting fish. When water is spilled past dams there’s less water available for generating electricity, which makes the electricity more expensive.

Related Stories:

Science Panel: Don’t Cut Off Spills For Salmon This Spring
A Slow Barge To Recovery: Should Salmon Swim Or Be Shipped Past Dams?

How much fishing will be allowed varies widely along the coast. The Columbia River is having another year of strong salmon runs, good news for fishermen in Northern Oregon and Washington. For fishermen further south, the Sacramento and Klamath Rivers are doing better, but the seasons are more limited.

The news came out Thursday from the Pacific Fishery Management Council. PFMS is the federal agency that regulates West Coast salmon fishing.

North of Cape Falcon, Oregon:

Commercial fishing – a chinook season in May and June. Then an all-salmon season from July through September. Commercial boats will be allowed to catch 56,000 chinook which is double last year’s quota. The coho catch is limited to 13,000, about one-third of 2009′s quota.

Recreation fishing – a chinook season in late June. All salmon fishing opens in July and runs through September.

South of Cape Falcon, Oregon:

Commercial fishing – Along Oregon, fishing will be allowed from May through August. Off the California coast there are very short seasons in July and August.

Recreation fishing – In Oregon, fishing for chinook will be allowed from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day. Coho fishing starts in June with a limit of 26,000 fish. In California, chinook fishing will be allowed during the summer, but not coho.

As anyone who’s fished for salmon can tell you, the actual regulations are far more complex than what I’ve posted. For complete information see:

PFMC Adopted Salmon Regulations (Opens a PDF file)

These rules still need to be approved by NOAA. But that agency usually accepts them without major changes.

Columbia River Sockeye Salmon. Courtesy WDFW.

In any other part of the country, the idea might sound too crazy to be true.

The feds want changes in how they help young salmon in the Columbia River Basin migrate to the Pacific Ocean this summer. Instead of making sure there’s enough water to help salmon swim past dams, the feds propose rounding them up, putting the fish on barges, and shipping them down river.

Starting in 2006, a federal judge ordered federal officials to increase the amount of water spilled over dams during the summer. Bigger spills help salmon swim past dams and increases their chances of survival. The trade off is less water going through the turbines to generate electricity.

Many environmental groups and fishery officials believe that’s one of the reasons why Columbia River salmon runs have been doing so well recently. This year’s run is predicted to be one of the biggest ever since the dams were put in.

But this year, NOAA Fisheries says there won’t be enough water in the system to operate the dams and help salmon. So it asked the judge for permission to stop spills at four dams on the Lower Snake River by May 1st. Instead of spills, NOAA wants to collect juvenile salmon, put them on barges and transport them past the dams. It claims that’s the best way to help salmon and steelhead during dry years when water flows are low.

Barging fish past dams is nothing new in the Pacific Northwest. But environmentalist say the plans for this year go too far.

“It’s really too bad – but not too surprising unfortunately – that the administration is trying to roll back court-ordered salmon protections in order to protect the federal hydrosystem and make more money,” says Todd True, an attorney for Earthjustice. “While the proposal is presented as a way to help survival, that rhetoric simply doesn’t match the facts.”

The state of Oregon agrees. In court filings it says the data shows that during low water years, increased spills lead to big improvements in salmon survival rates.

NOAA’s plan for barging salmon has been submitted to an Independent Advisory Board which will review the idea and issue a report on April 14.

In 2002, tens of thousands of salmon died in the Klamath River after the Bush Administration decided to give farmers priority over fish and wildlife. Photo from Water Watch.

A rather disturbing story from the Times-Standard newspaper in Northern California.

Reporter John Driscoll interviewed scientists, including some from OSU, who say there’s so little water in the Klamath River we may see a repeat of 2002 when as many as 60,000 salmon died.

The problem is a tiny parasitic worm that lives in river silt. Driscoll reports that silty river bottoms are spreading across the Klamath River and scientists are finding higher concentrations of worms in those areas. Releasing more water from dams could flush away the silt and help the fish. But with the area facing a historic drought, will there be a enough water in the system to do that?

For the entire story see: Klamath River fish diseases spreading

Tip from the Pacific Fishery Management Council

Condit Dam on the White Salmon River in Washington State.

In 1999, Pacific Power, environmental groups and the Yakama Nation reached a landmark agreement to remove the Condit Dam on the White Salmon River.

More than a decade later, the dam is still there.

The delays are frustrating the Gifford Pinchot Task Force, which recently warned members that time is running out if the dam is going to be removed this year.

And here’s what it says you can do to help.

The group wants people to contact the Washington Department of Ecology and ask the agency to immediately issue a Clean Water (401) permit for dam removal. The Task Force says this is the the last big obstacle to removing the Condit Dam.

If Ecology doesn’t issue the permit this month – as in March – then dam removal will be put off for another year. Pacific Power wants to remove it in October, when low water levels make it easier to do the work. But it also needs about six months worth of prep time.

The math is pretty simple. October minus six months is April. If the Condit Dam is going to be removed in 2010, then all the obstacles have to be removed by April.

The Gifford Pinchot Task Force says the person to contact at the Department of Ecology is Loree (sounds like laur-A) Randall. Her phone number is 360-407-6068 and her email is lora461@ecy.wa.gov.

Please remember that you’re dealing with a real, live human being – not a faceless bureaucrat – so keep your comments polite and civil.

The Condit Dam was built in 1913 and is about three miles upstream from where the White Salmon pours into the Columbia River. It has no passage for fish. When it came time to re-license the dam, Pacific Power realized it would be cheaper to tear it out compared to what it would cost to add fish ladders.

The utility was ready to remove the Condit Dam back in 2006. But the Task Force says the environmental review process is the main reason we’re still waiting.

If the timing is done right, spilling more water over dams helps young salmon migrate down river to the ocean. Conservationists compare it to the ride salmon used to get when they went over free flowing waterfalls. It speeds them along during a crucial phase of life, increases their survivability, and is a heckuva lot safer that being flushed through turbines.

In petitioning for the rule change, the groups argue that the benefits of increasing spills are backed up by sound science.

“This petition needs to be granted — and fast — to help our Northwest salmon economy recover and become strong again,” says Liz Hamilton of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association. “Spill is a proven, effective action that will help to ensure that there will always be sustainable salmon runs for the people and communities that depend on them.”

When I talk with fishery managers about the recent good runs on the Columbia River, and the good run we’re expecting this year, they say increased dam spills is one of the reasons.

Oregon has already approved rule changes to allow more spillage. These groups, which also include Earthjustice and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, say Washington should follow Oregon’s example.

Washington controls spillage not through volume of water, but by limiting how much dissolved gas is allowed in the river. By easing up on that by a little bit, the groups say it can mean several millions more gallons of water over dams.