Sockeye come back in record numbers
Returning Columbia River system fish are more plentiful than at any time since 1955
Thursday, July 24, 2008
SCOTT LEARN
The Oregonian Staff
One of the great fish surprises in years has landed in the Northwest: Sockeye salmon, an ocean-going species that starts and ends its life hundreds of river miles inland, have swum their way up the Columbia River this summer in numbers unseen in five decades.
No one knows exactly why. Some say it's because federal courts ordered the release of extra water over dams in 2006 and 2007 to make passage easier when the fish were young and migrating to sea. Others cite improved ocean conditions.
The undisputed fact: Sockeye salmon runs have hit historic, post-dam-construction highs this summer in the Columbia and Snake rivers, an unexpected positive sign for a species close to being written off in parts of the Northwest's largest river system.
The fish counts, which have surprised the experts, include nearly 215,000 red salmon counted at Bonneville dam through Tuesday, the biggest number of adults returning from the ocean since 1955.
Most of those fish followed the Columbia River up to Washington's Wenatchee and Osoyoos lakes, while a far smaller number -- representing the system's most endangered run -- swam on to Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River. With the journey past the dams nearly over, the count of returning adult sockeye there topped 800 through Tuesday.
That's a tiny number in relative terms, and the Snake River fish still have to make it to their home lakes in central Idaho. But it's the highest sockeye return recorded at Lower Granite since it was built in 1975, and nearly 25 times the average return of the last 10 years. Ten years ago two sockeye came back.
The returning Snake River sockeye, remnants of the first population to be listed as endangered on the Columbia system 17 years ago, were all likely produced by a "duplicate broodstock" hatchery program in central Idaho that is trying to keep the genetic lineage of wild Snake River sockeye alive.
The fish topping Lower Granite traveled from the ocean over eight dams and 450 river miles to get by the fourth of four hydroelectric dams on the lower Snake.
That marathon run and the higher numbers demonstrates that the fish, despite their small numbers, "haven't lost the long-standing traits that this population has deployed to survive for the last 10,000 years," said Paul Kline, assistant fisheries bureau chief for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
The good sockeye news follows on relatively good returns of spring chinook to the Columbia and good early indications on steelhead. But this being salmon in the Northwest, the focus has turned from applauding the sockeye numbers to fiercely debating why they're so high.
Returning Columbia River system fish are more plentiful than at any time since 1955
Ocean conditions have improved, including more nutrient-rich upwelling. Sockeye hatcheries on both the Snake and the Columbia have significantly increased their smolt production, with releases nearly quadrupling in the last three years on the Snake.
And -- most politically sensitive -- a federal judge ordered federal agencies to boost springtime spills over key hydropower dams when the fish that are returning today were migrating to the ocean as juveniles.
A new report from the Columbia Basin Fish Passage Center credits the sockeye spike to the court-ordered spills along with better river flow and the higher hatchery releases.
Michele DeHart, the Portland-based center's manager, said her analysis indicates survival of juvenile sockeye headed to the ocean in 2006 and 2007 improved significantly after U.S. District Court Judge James Redden ordered more spill for fish in late 2005. The better flows speed the fish's trip to the ocean, she said.
"The fish are telling us something as to what set of conditions works for them," DeHart said. "Sockeye like a lot of flow and they like spill."
Many salmon advocates would ultimately like to see the four lower Snake River dams breached to give sockeye, steelhead and other salmon better access to relatively pristine habitat above the dams.
Lobby for more spills
In the meantime, groups such as the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association and Save Our Wild Salmon want Redden to force the agencies to continue elevated springtime spills, which cost the Bonneville Power Administration millions in lost hydroelectric power because the water isn't running through the dams to generate electricity.
"Some of us have been saying if we don't breach the dams we're effectively making the decision to let (Snake River) sockeye go," said Jim Martin, former head of Oregon's fisheries division and now an unpaid adviser to the sportfishing association. "Maybe this means there are at least interim things we can do to keep them alive."
Federal agencies proposed a new plan earlier this year for running the dams in a fish-friendly way after Redden rejected two prior efforts. That plan calls for adjusting spills, including curtailing them on the Snake River dams for two weeks in May to make it easier to round up juveniles and truck or barge them around dams.
Sockeye come back in record numbers
Returning Columbia River system fish are more plentiful than at any time since 1955
Fish advocates say that will threaten the gains made with sockeye. But federal fisheries managers and Northwest River Partners, which represents farms, industries and utilities that buy electricity from Bonneville Power, criticized the Fish Passage Center's focus on spills, calling it too simplistic.
Ocean conditions
"I think most fishery scientists are of the mind that the primary influence is the ocean," said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service. "It's going to require some thoughtful analysis, rather than a knee-jerk reaction."
DeHart, of the fish passage center, said ocean conditions have been good in the past but the fish still did poorly because of poor river conditions.
"Fish need to survive the river to get to the ocean," she said.
A federal scientific advisory panel is set to review the center's analysis as part of evaluating the latest dam operations plan.
Eyes on Idaho
Meantime, Kline, the Idaho fish and game manager, says the next milestone is how many of the sockeye returning to Lower Granite make it another 462 miles up the Salmon River to the lakes in central Idaho's Sawtooth Valley where they originated.
The fish are due to start arriving within days, he said. But the mortality rate from the Lower Granite dam to the lakes has been as high as 75 percent in past years, partly because of high stream temperatures and a widespread parasite.
Wild sockeye are a distinctive salmon, smaller than chinook and coho, feeding on plankton in lakes and the ocean and turning bright red before spawning. They thrive by the millions in Alaska and British Columbia, but they've struggled in the Northwest.
In the 1880s, the Snake River sockeye faced intense commercial fishing. By 1910, a dam was closing off much of their range. In the 1950s and 1960s, Idaho Fish and Game eliminated the fish from three key lakes, replacing them with trout, more popular with anglers. Then came the lower Snake River dams, completed from 1961 to 1975.
By the time the Snake River sockeye were listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1991, there was no longer a self-sustaining, naturally spawning population.
Kline is hoping increased federal and state efforts will change that. The government plans to increase hatchery smolt releases from roughly 150,000 today to up to 1 million a year. The fisheries service says that should help prevent extinction in the near term.
Scott Learn: 503-294-7657; scottlearn@news.oregonian.com.
Returning Columbia River system fish are more plentiful than at any time since 1955
Thursday, July 24, 2008
SCOTT LEARN
The Oregonian Staff
One of the great fish surprises in years has landed in the Northwest: Sockeye salmon, an ocean-going species that starts and ends its life hundreds of river miles inland, have swum their way up the Columbia River this summer in numbers unseen in five decades.
No one knows exactly why. Some say it's because federal courts ordered the release of extra water over dams in 2006 and 2007 to make passage easier when the fish were young and migrating to sea. Others cite improved ocean conditions.
The undisputed fact: Sockeye salmon runs have hit historic, post-dam-construction highs this summer in the Columbia and Snake rivers, an unexpected positive sign for a species close to being written off in parts of the Northwest's largest river system.
The fish counts, which have surprised the experts, include nearly 215,000 red salmon counted at Bonneville dam through Tuesday, the biggest number of adults returning from the ocean since 1955.
Most of those fish followed the Columbia River up to Washington's Wenatchee and Osoyoos lakes, while a far smaller number -- representing the system's most endangered run -- swam on to Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River. With the journey past the dams nearly over, the count of returning adult sockeye there topped 800 through Tuesday.
That's a tiny number in relative terms, and the Snake River fish still have to make it to their home lakes in central Idaho. But it's the highest sockeye return recorded at Lower Granite since it was built in 1975, and nearly 25 times the average return of the last 10 years. Ten years ago two sockeye came back.
The returning Snake River sockeye, remnants of the first population to be listed as endangered on the Columbia system 17 years ago, were all likely produced by a "duplicate broodstock" hatchery program in central Idaho that is trying to keep the genetic lineage of wild Snake River sockeye alive.
The fish topping Lower Granite traveled from the ocean over eight dams and 450 river miles to get by the fourth of four hydroelectric dams on the lower Snake.
That marathon run and the higher numbers demonstrates that the fish, despite their small numbers, "haven't lost the long-standing traits that this population has deployed to survive for the last 10,000 years," said Paul Kline, assistant fisheries bureau chief for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
The good sockeye news follows on relatively good returns of spring chinook to the Columbia and good early indications on steelhead. But this being salmon in the Northwest, the focus has turned from applauding the sockeye numbers to fiercely debating why they're so high.
Returning Columbia River system fish are more plentiful than at any time since 1955
Ocean conditions have improved, including more nutrient-rich upwelling. Sockeye hatcheries on both the Snake and the Columbia have significantly increased their smolt production, with releases nearly quadrupling in the last three years on the Snake.
And -- most politically sensitive -- a federal judge ordered federal agencies to boost springtime spills over key hydropower dams when the fish that are returning today were migrating to the ocean as juveniles.
A new report from the Columbia Basin Fish Passage Center credits the sockeye spike to the court-ordered spills along with better river flow and the higher hatchery releases.
Michele DeHart, the Portland-based center's manager, said her analysis indicates survival of juvenile sockeye headed to the ocean in 2006 and 2007 improved significantly after U.S. District Court Judge James Redden ordered more spill for fish in late 2005. The better flows speed the fish's trip to the ocean, she said.
"The fish are telling us something as to what set of conditions works for them," DeHart said. "Sockeye like a lot of flow and they like spill."
Many salmon advocates would ultimately like to see the four lower Snake River dams breached to give sockeye, steelhead and other salmon better access to relatively pristine habitat above the dams.
Lobby for more spills
In the meantime, groups such as the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association and Save Our Wild Salmon want Redden to force the agencies to continue elevated springtime spills, which cost the Bonneville Power Administration millions in lost hydroelectric power because the water isn't running through the dams to generate electricity.
"Some of us have been saying if we don't breach the dams we're effectively making the decision to let (Snake River) sockeye go," said Jim Martin, former head of Oregon's fisheries division and now an unpaid adviser to the sportfishing association. "Maybe this means there are at least interim things we can do to keep them alive."
Federal agencies proposed a new plan earlier this year for running the dams in a fish-friendly way after Redden rejected two prior efforts. That plan calls for adjusting spills, including curtailing them on the Snake River dams for two weeks in May to make it easier to round up juveniles and truck or barge them around dams.
Sockeye come back in record numbers
Returning Columbia River system fish are more plentiful than at any time since 1955
Fish advocates say that will threaten the gains made with sockeye. But federal fisheries managers and Northwest River Partners, which represents farms, industries and utilities that buy electricity from Bonneville Power, criticized the Fish Passage Center's focus on spills, calling it too simplistic.
Ocean conditions
"I think most fishery scientists are of the mind that the primary influence is the ocean," said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service. "It's going to require some thoughtful analysis, rather than a knee-jerk reaction."
DeHart, of the fish passage center, said ocean conditions have been good in the past but the fish still did poorly because of poor river conditions.
"Fish need to survive the river to get to the ocean," she said.
A federal scientific advisory panel is set to review the center's analysis as part of evaluating the latest dam operations plan.
Eyes on Idaho
Meantime, Kline, the Idaho fish and game manager, says the next milestone is how many of the sockeye returning to Lower Granite make it another 462 miles up the Salmon River to the lakes in central Idaho's Sawtooth Valley where they originated.
The fish are due to start arriving within days, he said. But the mortality rate from the Lower Granite dam to the lakes has been as high as 75 percent in past years, partly because of high stream temperatures and a widespread parasite.
Wild sockeye are a distinctive salmon, smaller than chinook and coho, feeding on plankton in lakes and the ocean and turning bright red before spawning. They thrive by the millions in Alaska and British Columbia, but they've struggled in the Northwest.
In the 1880s, the Snake River sockeye faced intense commercial fishing. By 1910, a dam was closing off much of their range. In the 1950s and 1960s, Idaho Fish and Game eliminated the fish from three key lakes, replacing them with trout, more popular with anglers. Then came the lower Snake River dams, completed from 1961 to 1975.
By the time the Snake River sockeye were listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1991, there was no longer a self-sustaining, naturally spawning population.
Kline is hoping increased federal and state efforts will change that. The government plans to increase hatchery smolt releases from roughly 150,000 today to up to 1 million a year. The fisheries service says that should help prevent extinction in the near term.
Scott Learn: 503-294-7657; scottlearn@news.oregonian.com.
