Scientists attribute this year's record salmon runs in Columbia River Basin to favorable ocean conditions and other fish-friendly improvements to habitat, hatcheries and hydropower.
The NWFSC’s Point Adams Research Station, located at the mouth of the Columbia River at Hammond, OR, is home to 30 scientists and staff who spend most of their time shadowing salmonids, or their predators, for a living.
NWFSC scientists Eric Ward and Elizabeth Holmes, along with Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research, have found a correlation between the abundance of Chinook salmon and the fecundity (reproductive success) of killer whales.
