Four nonprofits filed a joint lawsuit Tuesday against the state Department of Fish & Wildlife for issuing a permit for steelhead farms in the marine waters of Skagit and Kitsap counties.

BARNEY LAKE — The surroundings were quiet when a group of 20 people gathered in northeast Mount Vernon before dawn Saturday, wearing coats and knit caps and thanking the sky for keeping the rain at bay.

Amid discussions about restoring grizzly bears to the North Cascades and the recent reintroduction of cat-like creatures called fishers to the region, conservation groups are seeking protection for another elusive carnivore that was historically more common in area mountains.

In an effort to identify more pieces of the puzzle affecting endangered Southern Resident orca whales, a nonprofit research group is looking to examine the stomach contents of chinook salmon caught in areas of the Salish Sea.

ANACORTES — With headlamps glowing and rubber boots crunching across the beach, a group of four volunteers led by the state Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Mariko Langness ventured in the darkness Monday night toward the Guemes Channel shoreline at N Avenue Park.

Cooke Aquaculture has been granted approval from the state Department of Fish & Wildlife to replace Atlantic salmon at its floating fish farms in Puget Sound with native steelhead.