Images

The Quillayute River drains the Olympic Mountains in Washington State. The river and its tributaries provide habitat for several salmon species.

The Western Fisheries Research Center (WFRC) is partnering with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to discuss ways to monitor fish passage at Keno Dam. With the recent removal of four mainstem dams along the Klamath River, Keno Dam now stands as the most downstream fish passage challenge , and the first major obstacle for migrating salmon returning upstream.

Volcanoes tend to have seismicity that waxes and wanes over time. That’s considered normal and not necessarily a cause for concern. Let’s check on Mount Adams to see what USGS scientists are doing to learn more about its recent earthquake activity and what it could mean for this Cascade Range volcano.

Check out these photos from the field! Lisa K Weiland (sitting) and Leah Tai from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are shown above. This project is working to learn how larval lampreys use soft substrates for burrowing.

USGS scientist Jake Gregg training Alaska Pacific University graduate student Nadia Barcelona how to inject Yukon River Chinook salmon with Ichthyophonus at the Marrowstone Marine Field Station

This is a photograph of a fish wheel, one of the primary means of catching Chinook salmon in the middle section of the Yukon River.

This image is from Steve Waste's last day at the Columbia River Research Laboratory. Steve served as the Director of the Columbia River Research Laboratory, a facility of the Western Fisheries Research Center of USGS, from 2008 to 2024. He retired in 2024 and now continues to support WFRC as a Scientist Emeritus. Steve holds a Ph.D.

This is a map of the Snake River, used in the publication Back from the Brink: Estimating daily and annual abundance of natural-origin salmon smolts from 30 years of mixed-origin capture-recapture data. 

This is an image of Kenneth Tiffan out in the field. Ken works to conduct applied research to provide information that would increase our understanding of Snake River fall Chinook salmon, listed as “threatened” under the ESA in 1992. His career has focused on this unique stock and facilitating recovery efforts. 

Artificial light at night (ALAN) can be a threat to aquatic ecosystems.  Light in the sky penetrates through the water and brightens the water column. Even small increases in light at night can dramatically improve some predators’ ability to hunt and kill their prey.

USGS Western Fisheries Research Center scientists are investigating the relationship between ALAN, predators’ hunting ability, and juvenile salmon survival in Lake Washington. This includes using a new instrument that overcomes significant issues experienced when attempting to measure light at night underwater.

These are graphs detailing the number of natural origin age-0 Chinook salmon passing Lower Granite Dam over the years.

Artificial light at night (ALAN) can be a threat to aquatic ecosystems.  Light in the sky penetrates through the water and brightens the water column. Even small increases in light at night can dramatically improve some predators’ ability to hunt and kill their prey.

Artificial light at night (ALAN) can be a threat to aquatic ecosystems.  Light in the sky penetrates through the water and brightens the water column. Even small increases in light at night can dramatically improve some predators’ ability to hunt and kill their prey.

An Annual NLCD Land Cover map of centered around Lake Stevens, WA depicting 16 land cover classes.

This is Gael Kurath at her retirement party. Viruses and infectious diseases are natural components of every ecosystem. In aquatic ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) is a significant viral pathogen of many salmonid fish populations.

Photo shared by Dave Beauchamp from the first week of quantitative light measurements for the Artificial Light At Night (ALAN) project. This week was a big data collection push, with 2 boats out nightly Tuesday through Thursday, plus day activities and prep. 

Photos shared by Dave Beauchamp from the first week of quantitative light measurements for the Artificial Light At Night (ALAN) project:

This week was a big data collection push, with 2 boats out nightly Tuesday through Thursday, plus day activities and prep. 

This is a photo of a sunset in August, 2024 in Klamath Falls, OR. The Western Fisheries Research Center (WFRC) conducts work on fish health and monitoring in this area.

This is a photo of pelicans on the Upper Klamath Lake in Klamath Falls, OR. The USGS Western Fisheries Research Center (WFRC) has a field station in Klamath Falls. Scientists at the WFRC monitor suckers in the Upper Klamath Lake.

This is a photo of the fisheries scientist, Paul Hershberger, fishing for salmon predators in Lake Washington.