[2] Lake Washington Sockeye Run Passes 200,000-Fish Mark
Seattle's urban sockeye run started a little late, but has picked up considerable steam in the last two weeks, as amazed tourists gawk at gobs of sockeye passing the Ballard Locks on their way to Lake Washington's Cedar River. By last weekend, nearly 224,000 fish were estimated to have passed the locks, about 13,000 above the pre-season forecast.
Numbers are running 500 percent better than last year at this time--when only a tad over 46,000 fish had been counted by the middle of July. But state and tribal fish managers won't open fishing unless they expect more than 350,000 fish, their escapement goal for the Cedar, which flows into a lake near the Boeing plant in Renton. "The estimate," say the managers, "is based primarily upon fry production from the spawners in 2002. Since lake and marine survival rates are highly variable from year to year, the actual return to Lake Washington could be higher or lower than 211,000."
Last year's run was only about 60 percent complete by the middle of July and ended up about 75,000 or so.
In 2004, nearly 400,000 fish went past the locks on their way to they river.
But something happened on the way to their spawning grounds. About half of those fish never made it, likely succumbing to extremely warm water temperatures in the Ship Canal and Lake Union, where it reached nearly 72 degrees F. in the middle of July. The surface temperature is around 70 degrees F. at present.
The 2006 sockeye run--Seattle's newest spectator sport.
WDFW biologist Steve Foley told NW Fishletter that even with the numbers better than expected, it's not likely to reach the point where a recreational fishery will take place. He said the 350,000-fish escapement number was developed years ago, but it may be a good buffer for potential losses from high temperatures in Lake Union and the ship canal. The sockeye run was planted in the Cedar in the 1930s with broodstock taken from Baker Lake in the North Cascades. It languished for many decades, and was pretty much written off until it suddenly blossomed in the early 1970s.
A team from the Muckleshoot Tribe is acoustically tagging some fish to track their progress to get a better idea of possible bottlenecks to their spawning grounds. No real evidence of the 2004 debacle was ever obtained, though by August, some fish were observed dying near the locks from high water temperatures. Foley said by late summer, some places on the sockeye's urban path will be warm from top to bottom, unlike today where temperatures 25 feet below the surface are still in the 65-degree range.
British Columbia's Fraser River, where 17 million sockeye are expected to return, is already experiencing hot water that could adversely affect returning salmon. River discharge was 30 percent below normal and the water was 3 degrees C. above the average two weeks ago, according to a press release from the Pacific Salmon Commission, but has since cooled to 17.7 degrees C. However, the water is expected to heat up to 19 degrees C. (66 degrees F.) over the next week.
Down on the Columbia, the small sockeye run headed for the upper Columbia and Lake Wenatchee is nearly complete. So far, about 36,000 fish have been counted this year, about 16 percent above the original estimate to the mouth of the river. Columbia River managers have since boosted their prediction to 40,000, which is a little better than half of last year's run size.
Last but not least, Idaho's Redfish Lake sockeye run is still hanging on by a thread, after millions of dollars have been spent on a captive broodstock program. Twelve sockeye have been counted at Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River, about 430 miles from the sea and still only halfway home. -B. R.
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