Little new information surfaced at a House committee hearing on alleged Bush administration arm-twisting over the science developed by federal agencies charged with enforcing the Endangered Species Act. ...more

Preliminary recommendations for changes to hatchery operations in the Lower Columbia River were unveiled at this week's meeting of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. It's the first product of the Hatchery Scientific Review Group, charged with the task of examining hatchery programs throughout the Columbia Basin. ...more

A House subcommittee heard testimony Aug. 2 on a bill that would allow the "lethal removal" of salmon-munching sea lions near Bonneville Dam. ...more

The Pacific Legal Foundation has announced that it will appeal a recent ruling [Trout Unlimited v. Lohn] in U.S. District Court in Seattle that tossed out the current NMFS policy allowing some hatchery fish to be counted when making ESA listing decisions. Then, just two days ago, another ruling on hatcheries was announced in Oregon District Court that the PLF said it will also take to the Ninth Circuit Court. ...more

The Department of Justice announced July 30 that it would not petition for a rehearing of a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel's ruling that backed up a 2005 decision [NWF v. NMFS] in U.S. District Court that threw out the 2004 BiOp. ...more

Sockeye runs this year have been all over the map, but the further north it was he better off they were. Alaska's Bristol Bay saw a bang-up year, where one area, at Nushagak, saw the second largest harvest since 1883--just shy of 8 million fish. Nearly 30 million were caught in all the Bay this year. ...more