Salmon’s Return Rate Tripling Last Year’s Run Number Low By Historical Standards, But Fisheries Service Cautiously Optimistic And Credits Barging

Thousands of endangered salmon are making their way to spawning grounds in the Columbia and Snake river tributaries.

“We’re very excited,” said Rob Jones, spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service. “We expect this year’s run to be way up.”

And the fisheries service believes that barging the young fish around the dams on the initial migration to the ocean in recent years, though highly criticized by sportsmen and conservation groups, is paying off.

Scientists estimate that more than 12,000 native spring and summer chinook salmon, listed as endangered, will make it up into the Snake River to spawn.

They are coming back at a rate three times greater than last year. While low compared to historical numbers, it is enough to make biologists hope the fish will not become extinct.

Some officials contend this year’s counts of tagged fish show that barging young fish out to sea, instead of having them maneuver through 11 dams on the two rivers, is giving wild fish a greater chance of returning to spawn.

Wild fish that were barged a few years ago are returning to the river at a rate of 2.5 fish for every one nonbarged fish, according to one study.

Jones and others at the fisheries service are cautious about interpreting this initial study, especially because earlier panels found better survival rates for fish that moved down river naturally.

“It’s good news” that runs are up, said Jim Myron of Oregon Trout. “But we need to do as much as possible to return to a natural river system if we want to do anything much for fish.”

Myron and others said there are other factors that affect fish survival, including ocean conditions and predation rates.

Keith Wolf of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said salmon have a better chance to imprint, or remember the river, when they are not barged. That should lead to more salmon returning home to spawn.

This year, the fisheries service is barging around 60 percent of the young fish migrating to the ocean despite calls by regional Indian tribes and some state officials to rely more heavily on natural flows that are running extremely high because of the heavy runoff from record and near-record snowpacks.

“The jury is still out on barging,” Jones admitted. By 1999, the agency hopes to have a decision on whether barging, dam removal or other methods are best for the fish.

Fish advocates say some dams should be removed to allow rivers to be operated naturally.

But farmers, ship operators and industrial water users would face severe economic hardships if they could not rely on water stored in the reservoirs behind those dams.