Protected: Selective Fishing Innovations: A Breakthrough Season for the Skeena River Floating Fish Trap Project
Adrian Tuohy
August 31, 2026
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Earlier this year, Wild Fish Conservancy proudly announced the implementation of Washington’s State’s second commercial fish trap since 1934. The new trap located near Hunting Islands is part of the state’s historic Emerging Commercial Fishery—the first of its kind in nearly a century.
History continues to be made on the lower Columbia River this month with the first commercial fish traps since 1934 now operating at three sites in Washington and Oregon.
Nearly a century ago, fish traps were banned in Washington State due to poor management that led to overharvest and the decline of wild salmon populations. Now, in a historic moment, fish traps will return to the Columbia River for the first time since 1934—this time as a tool to advance the protection and recovery of the basin’s threatened wild salmon and steelhead.
Making history this summer season, local fishers will operate fish traps (otherwise known as pound nets) on both shores of the lower Columbia River in
WFC published a third peer-reviewed paper in the international Journal of Fisheries Research confirming 100% survival for salmon release from passively operated fish traps.