The sharp decline of the sunflower sea star has prompted NOAA Fisheries to propose listing the species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. From 2013-17, an outbreak of Sea Star Wasting Syndrome killed more than 90 percent of sunflower sea stars. While Sea Star Wasting Syndrome is not well understood, it appears to be exacerbated by rapid changes in water temperature, warmer ocean temperatures, and other physical stressors. Read more

Fiero Marine Life Center is a West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network Partner who monitors and recovers protected marine mammal species in Clallam County, Washington. Responding to stranding events requires trained professionals with the right equipment, knowledge, and experience to ensure the safety of the animal and the responders. Fiero’s Executive Director, Melissa Williams, says “Our favorite success stories are not about any particular animal, but about the humans in our community.” Read more

Forecasts of fall Chinook returns, especially to the Sacramento and Klamath Rivers were so low that NOAA Fisheries has halted salmon fishing for the last two months of the salmon season that ends this May. Inseason actions include recreational and commercial salmon fisheries south of Cape Falcon off the coasts of California and southern Oregon. Read more

State fish and wildlife managers are now sharing the available alternatives for the remainder of the year’s salmon season with the public and the fishing community for public comment.

NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region is pleased to share our Public Scoping Report which summarizes the public comment received on the Notice of Intent to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Southern California Aquaculture Opportunity Areas. This Public Scoping Report provides a high-level overview of the nature and themes of the comments received. Read more

March is Women's History Month. To celebrate, we're showcasing some of our colleagues who contribute to NOAA Fisheries' core missions every day. From Research Zoologist to Communications Intern, learn more about their career journeys, day-to-day jobs, and what Women's History Month means to them. Read more

New genome sequencing shows that Southern Residents are highly inbred. Inbreeding can cut the lifespan of whales nearly in half– reducing their survival and number of offspring, and making them more vulnerable to other threats. Without a genetic influx from other populations or some other major improvement in environmental conditions, inbreeding is likely to continue the decline. Read more

A new analysis shows differences in how Southern and Northern Resident killer whales hunt for food. Researchers found female Northern Resident whales did most of the foraging, while males took on the majority of foraging among the Southern Residents. Why do these differences exist? Researchers are still trying to find out for sure, but suggest that it may be due to the different environmental and social pressures the two populations face. Read more

Robust climate indices like the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and Oceanic Niño Index predicted cold and productive ocean conditions for salmon and other species throughout 2022. However, weakened upwelling and local intrusions of warmer water resulted in poor productivity and warmer-than-normal coastal conditions in the latter half of the year. Read more

"When I was a child I used to romanticize the era of Jacques Cousteau. The thought of conducting research so effortlessly from a sail boat filled my head with lofty ideas," says NOAA Fisheries scientist, Cory Hom-Weaver. "Now that I’m in the field of marine mammal acoustics, I realize that it takes a village to prepare for field work." NOAA's Southwest Acoustic Ecology Team is preparing for a week in the field off of the Central California Coast to collect recordings of whales and dolphins. Read more

Join us online for free lectures from NOAA Fisheries Service scientists, partners, and colleagues who discuss warming waters, climate anxiety, salmon behavior, Pacific sleeper sharks, marine protected areas, and more! Join us on Thursdays at 11am Pacific. Read more

Did you know a large-scale effort of volunteer scuba divers is underway to measure young of year rockfish in Puget Sound? Tracking young-of-the-year (YOY) rockfish, meaning fish that have not yet reached one year of age, helps us understand their preferred habitats and population characteristics. Yet monitoring rockfish populations across their extensive range is too challenging for NOAA to accomplish on our own. Data from citizen scientist scuba divers will help us recover endangered rockfish. A new video highlights the effort, written and produced by Bob Friel and SeaDoc Society. Watch the Video 

Need some inspiration for dinner? Check out the Cross-Pacific Indigenous Aquaculture Collaborative Network’s newest edition to their recipe series Celebrating Spring in the Northwest: Fried Herring Roe On Kelp with Soy Sauce. View the Recipe

Image courtesy of Rachel Dickens, Food is Medicine & Indigenous Aquaculture

NOAA Planet Stewards is providing up to $5,000 in federal funding support for formal and informal educators to carry out hands-on stewardship projects with K-12 students, as well as the general public. Stewardship projects must make a substantive and quantitatively measurable impact on an environmental issue related to the educator’s community.

Projects should focus on the conservation, restoration, and/or protection of human communities and/or natural resources from environmental issues in one of the following four focus areas: marine debris, habitat conservation and/or restoration, carbon footprint reduction, carbon sequestration.

All stewardship project funding applications and supporting documents are due by June 4, 2023 at midnight PT. Learn more