(PORTLAND, OR) -- Northwest biologists are closely
monitoring chum salmon this winter as they record what might be the largest run
of Columbia River chum in 13 years. The 2015 run could be as high as 20,000,
making it the largest since 2002.
The annual run of Columbia River chum salmon historically
numbered more than 1 million. However, habitat loss and other factors caused
their numbers to plummet during the last century to a low of just a few
thousand per year. The federal government listed Columbia River chum as
threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1999.
Called “dog” salmon because of their canine-like teeth, chum
are the last salmon of the year to return to the Columbia to spawn, and their
young are the first to leave for the ocean in the spring. Chum salmon generally
spawn in the lower part of the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam, preferring
tributaries where warm ground water pushes up through spawning gravel. The warm
water quickly incubates their eggs.
The Bonneville Power Administration has funded two hatchery
programs and construction of new spawning habitat for chum in several areas of
the lower Columbia River. In 2011, BPA increased the capacity of two chum
salmon spawning channels located on tributaries just below Bonneville Dam.
BPA, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other
federal partners, manages river flows from Bonneville Dam to keep chum salmon
redds (or nests of eggs) under water during critical times of the year. The
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is also building a new spawning
channel for chum salmon on the Lewis River. It should be completed by summer
2016.
Check out NOAA’s Lower
Columbia River Recovery Plan for Salmon and Steelhead.
Video of chum spawning in a Lower Columbia River channel is
also available.
