Category: Fish Trap Journal

WFC’s 2017 research on the Columbia River fish trap has been peer-reviewed and published in the journal of Fisheries!

We are happy to announce that Wild Fish Conservancy staff are once again hip deep in the Columbia River for our fourth year of commercial fish trap research.

We’re proud to share this new video with you, a short film made in conjunction with North Fork Studios that highlights the incredible progress being made on

In 2016 and 2017, WFC biologists evaluated post-release survival of Chinook salmon and steelhead from an experimental fish trap. The research proved promising – with

Wild Fish Conservancy’s Pound Net Project is ongoing, and we’re currently preparing for future projects. In the meantime, we invite you to watch this short

Test fishing is finished on the Columbia, and we are very pleased to announce that the trap successfully captured 7,138 salmonids with a 99.87% immediate

Monitoring the river day and night with our experimental pound net trap, we are at the front lines of the Columbia seven days a week,

Fishing continues, and we have already doubled our total catch from last year with only half of the 2016 run size. We wake up hours

Writing this journal entry with swollen and aching hands, I want to express great thanks to the individuals that are making this incredible journey possible.

Constructing and testing Washington’s first salmon trap in over 80 years, there is a lot to learn and many new challenges to confront on a

With a deep red, smoke-obscured sun as our backdrop, the crew wraps up week two of test fishing. In less than 14 days, we are

The Chinook are in, and the fishing is better than ever. After 13 days of test fishing, we saw our first tagged Chinook cross McNary

It is truly amazing what we have accomplished to date; our crew has successfully built Washington State’s first commercial salmon trap in over 80 years.

It is no easy task tagging and clipping hundreds of fish 14 hours a day, day on end. But on tides when the fish are

With each haul of salmon and steelhead, Wild Fish Conservancy’s experienced field staff gathers genetic samples and implants Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags. These important elements

Waking up before the sunrise, the crew paddled out to the trap for the first day of test fishing! With the spiller deployed and the

Today the crew lifted a winch — the trap’s final component —  to the top of the pilings, marking the trap’s completion. This 400-pound piece

Climbing to the very top of the pilings, the crew hung the final compartment of the trap, known as the “spiller.” This key piece of

With construction nearly complete, we made a necessary trek into town to resupply on hardware, food, and fuel. By chance, we crossed paths with Blair

The crew rolled out of bed this morning straight into their wet suits, waking up early to catch an exceptionally low tide. Construction has progressed