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State and federal authorities said they are investigating the deaths of six sea lions found dead at the Columbia River traps. They appeared to have been shot. The bodies of four California sea lions and two Steller sea lions were found at the traps early Sunday afternoon. There were two California sea lions and one Steller sea lion at each of two traps just below the Bonneville Dam. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and federal investigators are treating the area as a crime scene. Both species of sea lion are federally protected but Oregon and Washington state are...

I 'm with Joyce Kilmer -- "I think that I shall never see/ A poem lovely as a tree." I'm even with city Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who recently waxed poetical before the Portland City Council on the "incredible" "show-stopping" trees growing in Portland. But before I could recall the last lines of Kilmer's poem -- "Poems are made by fools like me, / But only God can make a tree!" -- Saltzman went on to say something that's creepy and chilling: "It sometimes pains me to think that we have no ability to control their destiny -- that a private...

HORSETHIEF LAKE, Wash. -- Fidelia Andy was a 6-year-old happily running coffee to tribal fishermen at Celilo Falls when the federal government signed a deal with the tribes that flooded the falls and her family's home in the rising waters behind The Dalles Dam. On Friday, more than 50 years later, Andy and other leaders of four Northwest tribes finalized a new $900 million agreement with the federal government that they hope will begin to reverse the damage done by Columbia River system dams. "We Indians gave up so much in the past," Andy, a Yakama tribal leader and chairwoman...

Salmon fishing was banned along the West Coast for the first time in 160 years Thursday, a decision that is expected to have a devastating economic impact on fishermen, dozens of businesses, tourism and boating. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez immediately declared a commercial fishery disaster, opening the door for Congress to appropriate money for anyone who will be economically harmed. The closure of commercial and recreational fishing for chinook salmon in the ocean off California and most of Oregon was announced by the National Marine Fishery Service. It followed the recommendation last month of the Pacific Fishery Management Council after...

The Humane Society of the United States has filed a request for an emergency injunction asking a federal appeals court to block the government from killing protected sea lions at Bonneville Dam. U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman rejected a request for a preliminary injunction on Wednesday even though he said the Humane Society might prevail in court with a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service and the states of Oregon and Washington. The ruling left open the possibility the states could begin killing the sea lions today. But the government and the Humane Society said they did not expect...

The future food security of millions of people is at risk because over-fishing, climate change and pollution are inflicting massive damage on the world's oceans, marine scientists warned this week. The two-thirds of the planet covered by seas provide one fifth of the world's protein -- but 75 percent of fish stocks are now fully exploited or depleted, a Hanoi conference that ended Friday was told. Warming seas are bleaching corals, feeding algal blooms and changing ocean currents that impact the weather, and rising sea levels could in future threaten coastal areas from Bangladesh to New York, experts said. "People...

Any hopes salmon fishermen had for even token chinook fishing in Oregon faded Thursday when federal fisheries managers adopted the most restrictive limits on West Coast salmon fisheries in history.The recommendation by the Pacific Fishery Management Council allows fishing for 9,000 hatchery coho salmon off Central Oregon. No other salmon fishing will be allowed south of Cape Falcon, a point between Seaside and Tillamook.That eliminates a fishery that has typically been one of the richest on the West Coast, averaging catches of more than 800,000 chinook annually from 2000 to 2005.Salmon fishing north of Cape Falcon and in Washington...

PORTLAND -- The Humane Society of the United States, Wild Fish Conservancy and two citizens have filed suit in U.S. District Court to halt the authorized killing of sea lions at the base of Bonneville Dam in the Columbia River. The lawsuit, filed Monday, had been filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., last week but it was withdrawn when the fish conservancy group asked to join it. The National Marine Fisheries Service has granted a request by Oregon and Washington to kill up to 85 animals a year over five years to protect endangered or threatened salmon runs. The...

The agreement announced Tuesday on the future of the Klamath River offers reason for cautious hope that the troubled waterway can recover from years of human intervention and abuse while meeting the conflicting needs of fish and farms. The agreement � forged by the farmers, fishermen, American Indians, government agencies and conservation groups whose views on the Klamath’s future long have clashed � achieves the seemingly impossible: a broadly supported plan to allocate the free-flowing waters of the river without dams. Therein lies the hope. And therein lies the caution. That these longtime adversaries, who for years battled over a...

PORTLAND, ORE. -- A federal agency recommends killing about 30 sea lions a year at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River to keep them from eating salmon and steelhead. It was among four proposals listed by NOAA Fisheries Service after meetings of a task force last year and requests in 2006 by Oregon, Washington and Idaho to allow removal of some of the animals, which are protected under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act. At least three upper Columbia River spring salmon runs that pass through the dam are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Sea lions, while...

Actress Hayden Panettiere has been involved in a violent confrontation with Japanese fishermen as she tried to disrupt their annual dolphin slaughter.

The growth in human population and rising consumption have exceeded the planet's ability to support us, argues John Feeney. In this week's Green Room, he says it is time to ring the alarm bells and take radical action in order to avert unspeakable consequences. We humans face two problems of desperate importance. The first is our global ecological plight. The second is our difficulty acknowledging the first. Despite increasing climate change coverage, environmental writers remain reluctant to discuss the full scope and severity of the global dilemma we've created. Many fear sounding alarmist, but there is an alarm to sound...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryOctober 19, 2007 President's Radio Address   President's Radio Address  Audio       In Focus: Environment THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This weekend, I will join millions of Americans in one of our favorite national pastimes: fishing. I'm going to be on the Chesapeake Bay. For those who love fishing, the most important thing is not the size of your catch but the enjoyment of the great outdoors. Every year, millions of Americans grab their tackle boxes and head out to their favorite fishing holes. No matter where they drop their lines, they build memories that last...

From time to time, Tom Brokaw, former anchor of NBC’s “Nightly News,” is going to stop by and bring us a story that captures his attention. This time, he has a fish tale that will likely hit you right where your taste buds are, and might have you looking twice at the menu. For his report for “Today,” Tom talks to G. Bruce Knecht author of “Hooked: A True Story of Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish,” about how this popular fish has been so overfished that it is now disappearing from the world’s oceans.

Close window Published online: 2 November 2006; | doi:10.1038/news061030-10 Sayonara, sushi...Time could be running out for seafood.Heidi Ledford Salmon, like all seafood: predicted to collapse by 2048.Alamy What's your favourite seafood dish? Seared scallops? Salmon sashimi? Grilled shrimp? Enjoy it while you can, because by 2048 it could all be gone. A recent survey of global fisheries data says that seafood stocks around the world will collapse within 50 years — if we don't change the way we treat the world's oceans1. "That's the end of the line," says Boris Worm, a marine conservation biologist at Dalhousie University in...

WASHINGTON, DC, August 7, 2006 (ENS) – The federal government is failing to respond to alarming evidence that the oceans are in crisis, ocean experts told a Senate panel last week. Two years after a federal commission called on the Bush administration and Congress to aggressively overhaul the nation's ocean policy, key recommendations have not been implemented and critical ocean research efforts face deep funding cuts. The state of the oceans is not good and "is getting worse," said Leon Panetta, a former California Congressman and cochair of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative. Pollution, overfishing and coastal runoff are damaging...

MILLINGTON, Md. - American eels are crafty fish, able to slither up rocks and around branches in just a tiny bit of water. But it turns out they're not the strongest swimmers — and dams throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed may be blocking their natural migration patterns and contributing to a sharp population decline. Maryland biologists are hoping to boost the fortunes of the American eel, which is found across the Atlantic coast but is most abundant in the Chesapeake and its tributaries. Even in the Chesapeake, though, eels aren't doing so great. Scientists believe they're being stymied in part...

Agency Delays Salmon Disaster Declaration WASHINGTON (AP) - West Coast salmon fishermen waiting for up to $80 million in disaster relief from a sharply curtailed fishing season are caught in a dispute between a regional fisheries office and the national headquarters. A disaster recommendation from a regional office of the National Marine Fisheries - which cleared the way for the fishermen to receive aid - was overruled by officials at the agency's suburban Washington headquarters. A final decision is not expected until February, well past the end of the fishing season, said Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., who is furious over...

Federal regulators have voted to impose severe restrictions on salmon fishing off the coasts of Oregon and Northern California to protect dwindling populations in the Klamath River. The Pacific Fishery Management Council decided to close about 700 miles of coastline to commercial salmon fishing for most of June and July. Those are generally the most productive months of the season.

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. PORTLAND, Ore. - Conceding that using hatcheries to supplement dwindling salmon populations is harming wild salmon species in some cases, the Bush administration plans to move away from the practice in favor of a more direct solution: Catch fewer fish. James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, announced the new policy Wednesday at a meeting of salmon scientists, many of whom have concluded that wild Pacific salmon will become extinct this century without big changes in how the harvest is managed. "Our goal is to minimize and,...