The Adipose

Forecasters expect the 2026–27 El Niño to be the strongest ever measured, well past the 1997–98 and 2015–16 records, and for wild steelhead it is more than a weather story. It is the ocean they are about to swim into. In this episode of The Adipose, Wild Steelhead Coalition Science Advisor and former NOAA Fisheries scientist Guy Fleischer walks through what a "super" El Niño does to the fish on both sides of their life cycle. At sea, it means suppressed upwelling, a thinner food web, and predators moving into new waters just as smolts arrive in the ocean. In the rivers, it means a thin snowpack and warm, low summer flows in the Pacific Northwest, while scouring floods hit the southern end of the range. We talk about why this event's real cost won't show up until returns in the early 2030s, whether steelhead's bet-hedging life history can absorb a blow this big, and how a record El Niño on top of a steadily warming ocean changes the stakes. We also cover what managers, advocates, and anglers can do now to give these fish enough cold water and enough margin to get through it.

We've spent billions tearing out dams and rebuilding habitat. So why don't the fish come home?

This episode of The Adipose follows a thread that upends how we think about salmon recovery: the problem isn't just the rivers; it's the ocean. Out in the open water, a Skagit Chinook and a Sacramento Chinook swim side by side, and industrial-scale harvest can't tell them apart. At-risk runs get killed indiscriminately hundreds of miles from the rivers they're tied to, undermining every recovery dollar we spend upstream.

Emma Helverson makes the case that most ocean salmon fisheries can't be managed sustainably, not because the rules are bad, but because you can't selectively harvest commingled stocks in the open ocean. The fix the campaign proposes is radical in its simplicity: move harvest out of the mixed-stock "ocean nursery" and back to the rivers, where it can be selective, locally governed, and rooted in the Indigenous stewardship that sustained these runs for millennia.

We get into the numbers that should be bigger news than they are, including returning Skeena steelhead killed in Alaskan ocean fisheries, and the steelhead that vanish through the cracks of a counting system built only for salmon. We talk orcas and the starving Southern Residents, Tribal and First Nations food security, and the just-transition question for the small-boat troll fleets caught in the middle. And we don't dodge the rebuttal from Alaska and the commercial sector, because the argument's stronger if we answer for it.

The clock matters: the Pacific Salmon Treaty is up for renegotiation before 2028. That's the window. This is the conversation to have now.

February on the Skagit means a four a.m. alarm, a spey rod, and a long drive north into the rain to swing flies for a fish you probably won't touch. This episode follows a week on one of the last rivers in the lower 48, where wild winter steelhead still return, the jade-green water, the eagles in the cottonwoods, three seconds of something alive on a foggy Wednesday.

The Adipose is the voice of the Wild Steelhead Coalition. Learn more at wildsteelheadcoalition.org.

What does it mean to love something wild? What does it cost for the things we pursue in the name of reverence and sport?

These aren't comfortable questions. But they're the questions that matter most when we talk about wild steelhead, a fish that has become so rare that simply encountering one has become the stuff of legend. The fish of a thousand casts. A living artifact. An angler's holy grail.

But what if the very act of seeking them, of loving them the way we've been taught to love them, is part of what's pushing them toward the edge?

Today on Adipose, we're going to do something different. We're going to let a wild steelhead speak for itself. This letter came to us from somewhere between the ghost streams and the warming currents, from the dwindling runs and the last best places we haven't yet destroyed. It's addressed to all of us, anglers, managers, advocates, anyone who's ever stood in a river hoping for that silver flash.

It's not an easy listen. But it's an honest one.

This episode of The Adipose explores our complicated, emotional, and increasingly urgent relationship with the Pacific Northwest’s most iconic fish. Through a reflective letter written after a rare encounter with a wild steelhead, the story traces the species’ extraordinary life cycle, their legendary strength, and the sobering decline that has pushed many runs to the brink.

This is a meditation on why these fish matter, what they reveal about the health of our watersheds, and what we stand to lose, or save, in the years ahead.

What if the key to saving wild steelhead isn’t just about spawning adults, but tiny fry that barely move an inch their first summer? In this episode of The Adipose, we explore research by Nick Chambers, funded in part by the Wild Steelhead Coalition, that reveals how density and dispersal during the fry stage may determine whether a population thrives or collapses. Focused on the Upper Skagit River, this work shows how clustered redds can lead to overcrowding and death rather than dispersal, limiting recruitment and potentially causing managers to underestimate habitat capacity and escapement needs. It’s a story with massive implications not just for the Skagit, but for steelhead rivers everywhere.

In this episode, we explore the deep connections between anglers and the fish that shape their lives. Today's story comes from Jenny O’Brien, whose journey to chase steelhead became something more profound, a meditation on friendship, love, loss, and what it means to belong somewhere.

Our story begins on a familiar drive, one that thousands of steelhead anglers know by heart...

In this episode of The Adipose, we continue exploring transformative fishing moments. Building on our premiere episode, we again invited anglers to share their first and last steelhead encounters—bookends to their ongoing journey on the water. 

Chasing and encountering a wild steelhead is the spark that started most of us on our journey as anglers and advocates, and keeps us motivated to do the work. In this new episode, we've gathered fresh perspectives from our community, sharing those pivotal moments when steel met line and changed lives forever. These stories capture the essence of why we fish and why we fight to protect these magnificent creatures and their waters.

In this storytelling episode, we share the connections between friendship, fly fishing, and the wild steelhead of British Columbia. This story blends humor and heartbreak and captures the emotions of chasing these legendary fish while coming to grips with the changes that time can bring. 

This podcast covers recreational marijuana use, and listeners should stay informed about and adhere to all local, state, and federal laws concerning cannabis consumption.

Lynda Mapes is an award-winning writer who, during her 27-year tenure as a reporter at The Seattle Times, has written numerous stories about natural history, the environment, and Native American tribes. In addition to her newspaper career, she is the author of numerous books, including the 2022 Washington State Book Award Winner Orca: Shared Waters Shared Home.

Lynda has written an investigative article for the Seattle Times exploring the complexity surrounding Washington’s state fish, the wild steelhead, and we’re fortunate to have her as a guest on this episode of The Adipose.