Sockeye salmon like these are among the salmon species in peril. (Credit: Aaron Kunz) Listen (Runtime 2:57) Read For Northwest tribes, removing the four lower Snake River dams means more […]Read More
The Army Corps of Engineers began emergency repair work May 22 on a jetty that sits at the mouth of the Skagit River’s North Fork, near La Conner.
Crews will use cobble and sediment to essentially plug porous areas of the McGlinn Island Jetty. Those gaps have stranded, harmed or killed out-migrating juvenile salmon this spring, according to a press release from the Read More
The majority of captains of big commercial ships entering and leaving Puget Sound are cooperating with a request to slow down temporarily to reduce underwater noise impacts to the Pacific Northwest's critically endangered killer whales. The duration of the experimental slowdown – modeled on a similar project in British Columbia – will be extended into the new year, Read More
Fortunately, it doesn't happen very often in the Pacific Northwest that ships collide with whales. But when it does, it's upsetting, tragic and the whale probably dies. Three separate teams have developed smartphone-based systems that can alert commercial mariners to watch out, slow down or change course when whales have been sighted nearby. A recent ride-along on a big Read More
Whale watchers have spotted a record number of humpback calves in inland Pacific Northwest waters this season. There was also a record streak of Bigg's killer whale sightings that just ended, according to a local whale research nonprofit. Those observations offer some good news to offset the ongoing concern about the survival of the Northwest's iconic, but critically Read More
Research photos taken with a drone show multiple killer whales are close to giving birth in one of the Pacific Northwest's critically endangered pods. The late-stage pregnancies stirred excitement among whale watchers -- and also renewed worries about the availability of adequate food supply for the mothers and babies.Read More
About this time every year, the Pacific Northwest gets a report card from the natural world. It comes in the form of salmon run forecasts, and gives us an indication of how healthy the Pacific Ocean and our rivers and streams are. The grades are in, and here’s what you need to know about our scores.Read More
A southern resident orca appears to be emaciated, suffering from the disfiguring condition called “peanut head.” Whale researchers encountered the southern resident orcas' J-pod on New Year's Eve as they swam in Haro Strait.Read More
Officials in Canada and the U.S. are hatching a plan to temporarily capture and treat an emaciated orca. The young whale known as J-50 hasn't been spotted in nearly a week and could already be dead.Read More
Veterinarians are again trying to help the emaciated young orca named J-50, after a dramatic turn of events over Labor Day weekend.Read More
An emaciated orca from the Pacific Northwest’s critically-endangered resident killer whale population could get a pole injection of medicine under the latest preferred option of an emergency response team. Officials with the lead federal agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, described the changing situation Monday morning.Read More
An emaciated, four-year-old Puget Sound orca is drawing alarm. Whale scientists and the federal agency NOAA are weighing what it means to provide food and medicine to this endangered orca. The declining health of the orca has become apparent as it swims and feeds in the border waters between Washington and British Columbia.Read More
They threw noisemakers into the water to drive pods of orcas into the narrow cove, then blocked the way out and pulled the baby whales out of the water. Nearly 50 orcas from the Salish Sea’s population were captured this way. Today, only one of those whales is still alive.Read More
The Northwest’s beloved orcas will not survive unless humans do more to ensure adequate food and cleaner, quieter waters. That was one of the messages at a crowded signing ceremony in Seattle convened by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. The population of genetically-distinct resident orcas has dwindled to a critically low level. Only 76 remain as of the last count.Read More
