Chinook Salmon a Fight for Survival

I just got done checking the Chinook numbers coming over Bonneville Dam and while they run seems to be about three weeks late they are looking pretty good for right now. Yesterday over 9,000 salmon crossed Bonneville dam on their migration home we have not seen numbers like these in over a decade for the last several years 3,000 per day was a good number lets hope this continues as we wait for their arrival.

While only 1,600 have crossed Lower Granite Dam so far this year as I mentioned they seem to be running about three weeks late so I’m hoping to see these number increase as well over the coming weeks. Come on Salmon!!

It is truly hard to get vary excited though as every time you turn around you are hearing more bad news about the West Coast Salmon populations and this year for the first time ever they have completely shut down salmon fishing on the west coast. It makes you wonder that with over 9 Billion dollars spent on there recovery and numbers being at an all-time low (for summer run salmon) if we will be able to continue to enjoy seeing these magnificent fish return in any respectable numbers in the future.

I was doing some research over the past week when the seals again became an issue with the migrating salmon and I defiantly became disillusioned with what is going on.

**"The most recent census of California sea lions placed their population at about 238,000 animals. California sea lions are present in the lower Columbia during much of the year except in summer months (June-August) when most animals return to breeding rookeries in southern California. With the exception of a few females, all California sea lions in the Pacific Northwest are sub-adult or adult males.

There are two stocks of Steller sea lions in the North Pacific. The stock found off California, Oregon and Washington, British Columbia and Southeast Alaska – referred to as the Eastern stock – numbers about 31,000 animals. Steller sea lions are present year-round at the mouth of the Columbia River.

Based on scat samples collected from several Pacific Northwest estuary and ocean sites (including the Columbia River estuary), salmon species generally make up 10-30 percent of these animals’ diet."

If the seal numbers are 238,000 as they say and lets say that they eat just one salmon every other day do you know how many salmon that works out to be in a years time? Well the number is astounding 43,435,000 salmon a year. While the United State Humane Society was fighting to stop the trapping and removal of just a few hundred of these seals from the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam; which by the way is not a natural location for these seals, we continue to lose thousands of salmon to them.

Now when you add Orca whales, the commercial fisheries, the fact that over 80% of the juveniles will never make it to the ocean(due to dams predators low water flows and such), and the climate change affecting oceans conditions you really begin to gain some respect for these fish.

Think of it if we reduced the number of seals that are eating the salmon by 38,000 we could have an additional 6,900,000 salmon. This seems to make since to me however there are many who disagree with me on this. Well it was just a thought not a good thought but a thought!

The good news at least for this year for those along the Columbia River systems is that the numbers are up this spring. So I suggest that if you ever wanted to try your luck in catching a Chinook salmon that you get your gear ready and give it a try this year as we can not predict how long we will continue to have an opportunity to fish for the magnificent Chinook Salmon.

**This information was taken from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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