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In an era of many decimated Northwest Pacific salmon and steelhead populations, one fish has been running counter to a dismal trendline.

New research has connected warming ocean temperatures to higher Pacific salmon abundance in the Canadian Arctic, an indicator that climate change is creating new corridors for the fish to expand their range.

The money will support projects working to free up miles of habitat for multiple species of steelhead and Pacific salmon, including those listed under the Endangered Species Act.

The unanimous vote by the Pacific Fishery Management Council, the authority responsible for setting Pacific salmon seasons, is a blow to the state fishing industry that supports tens of thousands of jobs and is still reeling from last year’s shutdown.

It is the last river system in the Lower 48 to bolster all five Pacific salmon species, and steelhead, that still return here to spawn.