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- Columbia Basin Bulletin - October 25, 2025
Columbia Basin Bulletin - October 25, 2025
Hells Canyon White Sturgeon In Decline, Invasive Quagga Copper Treatment, More Salmon Milestones After Klamath River Dam Removal... and more
Columbia Basin Bulletin
October 25, 2025
The population of white sturgeon from Hells Canyon Dam to Lower Granite Dam is in decline, with fewer juvenile sturgeon found in both the 101 miles of free-flowing river and 36 miles of reservoir water. That decline began when the lower Snake River dams were completed, according to information provided by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at last week’s Northwest Power and Conservation Council meeting.
For the third consecutive year, Idaho poisoned a section of the Snake River near Twin Falls to rid the river of dangerously invasive quagga mussels first found in 2023.
Salmon are making further progress in their return to the upper Klamath Basin, with fisheries biologists from ODFW and The Klamath Tribes celebrating a series of firsts as salmon reach areas where they have been absent for over a century.
Although no chum salmon have showed up yet at spawning grounds downstream of Bonneville Dam, fishery managers and dam operators agreed this week to a phased-in beginning for chum flows as a way to save Lake Roosevelt water for spring flow augmentation and to protect resident fish in the lake.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fishery managers will hold two virtual town halls on coastal steelhead to review 2024-25 returns, present 2025-26 run forecasts, and summarize proposed fishing regulations.
In addition to continuing tribal commercial gillnetting upstream of Bonneville Dam that is currently targeting the fourth largest run of coho salmon in the last 10 years, tribes also received approval this week from the two-state Columbia River Compact for a little-known fishery that commercially removes from the John Day Dam pool non-native fish that prey on salmon and steelhead.
