Forecast Grim For Spring Chinook Salmon Returns

Here’s yet another bitter pill to swallow for Southwest Washington’s fishing faithful: Spring chinook salmon runs to the Lewis, Kalama and Cowlitz rivers in 1996 are expected to be 27 percent worse than last year’s record low.

Just 1,900 adult spring chinook are anticipated back to the Lewis and a similar number to the Cowlitz, according to forecasts by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. The Kalama is projected to have a spawning run of 600.

“We thought the effects of El Nino (poor ocean survival conditions) were tapering off,”said Rich Pettit, a WDFW biologist. “Then we looked at the jacks returning to the Cowlitz, Kalama and Lewis, and 4-year-olds to the Lewis, and knew it wasn’t going to happen.”

A subpar run of 41,000 spring chinook is forecast for Oregon’s Willamette River and 3,300 in the Sandy. Waters upstream of Bonneville Dam are projected to have 37,200 spring chinook, more than triple 1995’s record low but still the third worst on record.

Spring chinook are the most-prized of all Columbia salmon.

For sportsmen, they strike a lure or bait much more readily than their fall cousins. Commercial fishermen get top dollar for spring chinook.

As recently as 1990, thousands of small boats dotted the Columbia during the popular March sport season, catching almost 10,000 chinook.

How things have changed in less than a decade. The forecast of 4,400 spring chinook for the Cowlitz, Kalama and Lewis rivers compares with a return of 36,700 in 1987.

“The only bright spot is the improvement in the upper Columbia run,” Pettit said. “Hopefully that’s a harbinger of better things for the Cowlitz, Kalama and Lewis.”

Upper Columbia spring chinook spend their time in the ocean farther off shore than Cowlitz, Kalama and Lewis chinook, he said. They are not caught as heavily in fishing off Washington and southern Vancouver Island.

Fishing options, if any, are being discussed by state fisheries officials.