Federal attorneys say they won't gamble with the survival of ESA-listed steelhead, and that's why they are sticking to their BiOp recipe for a maxed-out fish barging policy in May, which is at odds with the court-ordered spill regime blessed by U.S. District Judge James Redden. ...more

Though federal fish policy managers say they have already wrung most of the survival improvement out of the hydro system, it's not stopping them from spending another $500 million over the next 10 years to boost fish survival even more. ...more

The nearly 142,000 pikeminnow caught this year in the BPA-funded bounty program was down from the typical catch of 160,000 to 200,000, but officials were quick to point out that it doesn't necessarily mean the program designed to reduce predation on juvenile salmonids is running out of steam. ...more

Like their cousins in the Snake, Upper Columbia steelhead are having a nearly off-the-charts return. By the end of last week, the 2009 run had more than doubled the 2008 return. ...more

Around 25,000 wild summer/fall chinook have made it back to the Skagit River, the largest return since 1974, when fish managers began keeping a closer eye on the run, and after the Boldt decision gave Puget Sound tribes the right to harvest half the region's surplus salmon. ...more

A new report from the Corps of Engineers has estimated that sea lions around Bonneville Dam consumed nearly 5,000 spring chinook this year, or about 2.7 percent of the spring chinook run. ...more

Several environmental groups say they intend to sue the Bureau of Reclamation to keep the agency from building a new siphon in the Odessa irrigation area of eastern Washington with $50 million in federal stimulus funding. They say it will allow too much water to be taken out of the Columbia River. ...more

On Nov. 6, members of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission approved their new hatchery and fishery reform policy. ...more

A judge from the British Columbia Supreme Court has been picked to lead an inquiry in this year's disastrous return of Fraser River sockeye, which led to a total shutdown of the commercial salmon fishery. More than 10 million fish were expected to show, but only about 1.4 million returned. ...more