Harvest managers have been pleasantly surprised by the strength of this year's summer chinook run in the Columbia River, and have upgraded it accordingly. On June 29, they bumped up their estimate from 49,000 fish to nearly twice that--93,000--then back to 87,000 on July 5 (to river mouth). ...more

Seattle's urban sockeye run started a little late, but has picked up considerable steam in the last two weeks, as amazed tourists gawk at gobs of sockeye passing the Ballard Locks on their way to Lake Washington's Cedar River. By last weekend, the nearly 224,000 fish were estimated to have passed the locks, about 13,000 above the pre-season forecast. ...more

NOAA scientists made their annual pilgrimage to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council last week to announce their latest survival findings for fish traveling through the federal hydro system. The news was mainly good, if you like dams. ...more

Montana's request to change reservoir operations in order to benefit its resident fish was turned down two weeks ago by Columbia Basin policy managers, the latest rejection in a decade of trying. ...more

NOAA Fisheries sent its latest update to a federal judge on its progress in developing a new plan for operating the hydro system in the Columbia and Snake rivers. ...more

Oregon District Court Judge James Redden denied plaintiff environmental groups' request (American Rivers v. NOAA Fisheries) to reconsider part of his recent opinion that called for NOAA Fisheries to add upper Snake operations in its analysis of lower Snake ESA fish needs in the next hydro BiOp. ...more