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The Best Weekly Media Round-up of Stories about Salmon and their Habitats
Salmon News
Happy Earth Day! I hope you got outside for a little fresh air today, or at the very least were able to watch some wildllife cams (my favourite quarantine pastime, other than eating baked goods).

This Earth Day, I am dreaming of where I want to go camping when this pandemic is over. I'll be heading out to the big wild beach up the north end of Vancouver Island and tucking a tent up under the trees. 

How about you? Is there a wild place you are looking forward to visiting again one of these days?

Anna

PS. Here are some of my favourite wildlife cams. 
Top 10
It's not exactly a news story, but these are some encouraging words for these extraordinary times. We thought it belonged in this week's Top 10.
“Even before COVID, there were significant tensions between user groups,” says Aaron Hill, executive director of Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

A group of people are hoping to realize their dream of turning an abandoned sawmill near downtown Courtenay, B.C., into its original form — an estuary for the Courtenay River.

What tracking the 300 million-year-old sturgeon through the Fraser can teach us about the ocean — and ourselves.
Environment Canada was told that selenium pollution emanating from a string of coal mines in B.C.’s southeast corner could lead to reproductive failure and ‘a total population collapse’ of sensitive species like the westslope cutthroat trout.
Six local salmon conservation projects are set to share in over $25,000 in grants awarded by the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF).
Province makes fishing and hunting protocol fall in line with health officer’s recommendations.
Communities right across the country, from New Brunswick to B.C., are facing the possibility of two public crises at once this spring.
The pandemic offers a temporary reprieve from the clamour of ocean noise — which can affect how whales and other species communicate, navigate and feed — and an opportunity to reflect on the consequences of human activity for marine life.
They are resilient and immunologically cunning in ways we’re continuing to discover.
Opinion
"In the past, I've marked the day in nature with friends, Instead, on this (50th!) Earth Day I will likely spend the day in my small backyard."
The salmon navigates thousands of miles of ocean and stream to spawn and die. Have we finally killed it?
February, for the first time ever, Washington State Fish and Wildlife closed the Chehalis River to recreational fishing. That closure, which included all tributaries, followed four years of awful steelhead returns well below the state’s annual goal of 8,400 returning fish.

VIDEO: This crisis can be a catalyst for shifting how we think and act, says the noted author and activist.
"If it takes going to court to stop the Trump administration’s massive deforestation and habitat destruction of the imperiled and dwindling Snake River steelhead, that’s exactly what we’ll do."
British Columbia

The mural, slated to be finished today, April 18, is meant to remind the community of humans interconnectedness with the natural world and how the arts can bring us through times of crisis and connect communities.
 Fraser River Discovery Centre has found a way to connect community members with the Fraser River – even if its doors are closed. 

A new environmental assessment raises plenty of concerns about the proposed expansion of Vancouver’s Roberts Bank shipping terminal.

With the vast majority of the globe's population under lockdown, it can feel as though the world has come to a sudden halt. And yet, in the farthest reaches of northern B.C., there remains a world that has, through all the COVID-19 turmoil, quietly and profoundly gone on as it always has
Hansen is the recent winner of the 2020 Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) saltwater salmon stamp contest.

The coastal wolves of the Great Bear Rainforest are distinct from their mainland cousins. The Calvert Island pack has found a veritable smorgasbord this spring—an all-you-can-eat buffet of squid and whale.
Canada
Mining and oil and gas projects will be allowed in an area comprising 17 per cent of the vast watershed, but with strict limits on surface disturbances.
Earlier media reports had suggested Cooke’s loss at its Manual Arm site was 77,000 fish, but a spokesperson confirms that the mortality number was instead 170,714.
Scientists used genetics and habitat modelling to examine past narwhal populations and predict what a warming future will mean for the mysterious sea creature of the Arctic.
An open letter to the Prime Minister calling for immediate transformative change to Canada’s food, agriculture, and fisheries systems from an industrial to an agroecological model.
United States
Advocates for salmon hope the timeline holds for dam removal on the Klamath River, saying it's a race against time to make sure some salmon species don't go extinct.
This year, there are restrictions on gatherings due to the coronavirus outbreak. But there is a way to watch the prehistoric love fest from your computer or smartphone.
The Eel River Recovery Project reports the total chinook run was under 10,000 this past season.
Continued low returns of key Chinook salmon stocks are expected to limit numerous Washington salmon fisheries in the upcoming season.

Dam hinders salmon migration, according to American Rivers.
Code
International

Efforts to clean up the lingering effects of the oil spill are well underway, but secrecy and deregulation have returned to the Gulf, raising the specter of a repeat.
Delaying freshwater reform would be a disastrous step backwards and could be the final nail in the coffin for our rivers, lakes and wetlands.
The Marine Farm company notified Chile's National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service of massive mortality of fish of the Atlantic salmon species.
The rise in disposable face masks and gloves being used to prevent the spread of coronavirus is adding to the glut of plastic pollution threatening the health of oceans and marine life, environmentalists warn.
Weekly Podcast Recommendation

Off Track with Ann Jones is an ABC Australia radio show and podcast which combines the relaxing sounds of nature with awesome stories of wildlife and environmental science, all recorded in the outdoors.
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