Here’s a story form NOAA Fisheries discussing increased whale entanglements in nets on the West Coast due to a warming Pacific.  The meat of the story is that “warm temperatures attracted subtropical species rarely seen in the region. The krill that humpback whales typically feed on grew scarce. The whales switched to feed instead on high concentrations of anchovy that the warm, less productive waters had squeezed into a narrow band near the coast”.  This has lead to a record number of entanglements.

The Bulletin ran a story last week on the local snow pack which reminded me that I had not posted on this topic since last spring.  The winter is a little less than half over and so far the snow pack looks pretty good, but all is not well.  Weather is not climate, Oregon remains drier than normal, groundwater levels are going down, and we continue to allocate water based on 100 year old water laws which were written in a very different environment.  Keeping reading for more.Read More »

Global warming is one of the topics I occasionally cover for the simple fact that it is impacting anglers in Central Oregon.  Our rivers and ocean are heating, fish are being impacted, and fishing closures due to heating are becoming more frequent.  The impacts on anadromous fish (salmon, steelhead) are the most dramatic, but they are only the canaries in the coal mine.  While our government continues to ignore this critical issue there is a growing awareness in many parts of the business community that action must be taken, and soon.Read More »