Sockeye Storming Columbia River

Earlier this year, fisheries managers saw a dismal year for salmon returns on the west coast.  In fact, they closed fishing from the Sacramento River which empties into San Francisco Bay north to the Columbia River.  Even catches in Alaska's famed Copper River were down and the tasty Copper River Chinook was selling for $50 a pound in some places.

Then fisheries biologists discovered a pleasant surprise when they opened the summer steelhead season on June 16.  Record numbers of sockeye were returning to the Columbia on their upward migration to the upper reaches of the Okanogan, Wenatchee and Snake rivers.

In a copyrighted story in The Columbian, reporter Allen Thomas wrote that after a mostly two decades of dismal runs, this year's return nearly doubled expectations.  The sockeye count at Bonneville Dam as of June 26 totaled 122,510 compared to the entire run of 26,700 last year.  The initial prediction for this year was 75,600.

This year's fish count is expected to exceed 2004 which was 130,045 and the 2001 return of 120,361 which is good news for fishermen, Tribes and the specie's future especially with the Columbia running high, cold and clear this year.

Sockeye are the sea-going version of kokanee, a landlocked freshwater salmon.  After sockeye lay their eggs in streams and they spend much of their juvenile lives in what biologists call freshwater "nursery lakes" before migrating to sea.  With strong runs nearing or exceeding 100,000 in four of the last nine years, the tasty salmon appear to be making a comeback. 

From where I sit, that is a strong indicator that we are learning to adapt to managing fish habitat and survivability with the activities of humans. The added kicker is we will have wild sockeye at affordable prices at our grocery stores and fish markets.

Don C. Brunell, President (DonB@awb.orgy)