It’s the first Friday in October — officially, “Septober” for us steelheaders. Unfortunately, steelhead runs across much of the West Coast have been down this year, and now there is another blob of warm water in the North Pacific. Things don’t look good right now, but wild steelhead have withstood these types of conditions before. As long as we …
Science Friday: The value of new technology: eDNA and O. mykiss
By Natalie Stauffer-Olsen It is always exciting when new technology becomes available that can help us understand, manage and protect wild steelhead, the mavericks of the Pacific salmonids. Steelhead and rainbow trout populations can be difficult to predict, model and understand because of their very plastic (scientific term for highly variable) life histories, from juveniles to adults. What’s …
Science Friday: What happens when you cram the big’uns in with the small’ins?
We sure do love this beautiful weather! It’s almost the first day of June. Summer is officially within sight. This week’s Science Friday goes back in time over 20-years to 1997. We review a study conducted by Brett Harvey and Rodney Nakamoto. We have reviewed some of their work previously, which focused on habitat usage by adult steelhead. Today …
Science Friday: Successful habitat restoration on the Washougal River
Welcome to another Science Friday post from Wild Steelheaders United. In this space we usually review scientific studies that have implications for wild steelhead conservation and management. But we take a slightly different path this week. I was born and raised on the banks of the Washougal River in SW Washington. The poor Washougal has suffered more than most steelhead …
Science Friday: Revisiting the Carmel River Steelhead Mitigation Program
Written by Natalie Stauffer-Olsen, PhD, TU Staff Scientist Every now and then we publish something that prompts a reaction from the authors of a report we analyze or others in the science world. This happened with our recent post on the Carmel River that focused on some biological and ecological aspects explored in the paper “Size-conditional smolting and the …
Science Friday: Why is your lateral line different than mine?
Most of us working on behalf of wild steelhead love our jobs. Still, after a long week we are ready to hit the water — and share some more Science Friday steelhead knowledge. This week we touch on a study conducted by Andrew Brown at the University of Washington, along with several co-authors. The paper is here: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0059162 …
Science Friday: When fish grow and die in California
Soquel Creek is a small stream flowing into Monterey Bay about 70 miles south of San Francisco and is home to a population of winter steelhead. A group of scientists published a paper in 2009 that looked into seasonal patterns of growth, survival and movement of age-0 and age-1+ juvenile steelhead within this small California watershed. Age-0 fish are …
Science Friday: Predictions for Columbia/Snake River summer steelhead and a new study on ocean distribution
Winter steelhead season is winding down, if not over in some rivers. Time to regroup and prepare for summer runs! This Friday we have a science two-pack for you. First, a bit of cautious optimism. More steelhead are predicted to return to the Columbia River basin this year than in the past two years. Last year the upriver …
Science Friday: Can innovative methods for a wild broodstock hatchery rebuild a depleted wild population
This week we send you off with a review of a recent before-and-after study on hatchery steelhead published by Barry Berejikian and Donald Van Doornick (find the study here). The goal of this long-term study, conducted in a handful of rivers in Hood Canal, Washington, was to determine if a well-designed hatchery program could help rebuild populations of steelhead that …
Science Friday: Deschutes River (Oregon) rainbow and steelhead, how much do they overlap during spawning?
First Friday of the New Year, and we are serving up a fresh batch of steelhead science to help you further appreciate the remarkable relationship between resident and sea-going forms of O. mykiss. In this post, we review a study published in 2000 by Christian Zimmerman and Gordie Reeves, two scientists that have contributed a great deal to our …