[5] Nearly Half Million Fall Chinook Expected In The Columbia River

Regional harvest managers produced their latest expectations for the coming fall run in the Columbia and it's pretty much in line with recent years. They are predicting about 474,000 fall chinook to return over the next couple of months, down from the 561,000-fish return last year. About 250,000 chinook are expected to return to the Hanford Reach area, close to the 10-year average.

Over 300,000 steelhead are expected as well, almost identical to last year's return, with over 62,000 wild A-run steelhead and more than 10,000 B-run steelhead.

Coho returns are likely to be down about 90,000 fish from last year's return of 347, 000, with a poor return of 67,000 expected of the late-run coho.

Managers also expect a strong return of chinook to the net-pen fisheries in the lower Columbia. The net-pen program was created for commercial gillnetters to reduce impacts on ESA-listed stocks like the Snake River fall chinook, where overall harvest rates (ocean and inriver) are estimated in the 50-percent range. Sports and commercial inriver fishermen are allowed a 4.125-percent impact each, while Lower Columbia tribal fishermen are allotted about 23 percent.

The technical advisory committee also downsized the summer chinook run in the Columbia to about 78,600 (to river mouth) from a late June estimate of 93,000. Managers originally forecasted a return of 49,000 fish. The summer run count officially ended July 31.

Meanwhile, more than 400,000 sockeye have been counted in Seattle, passing the Ballard locks on their way to spawning grounds in the Cedar River. WDFW opened fishing for them again in Lake Washington for another six days, beginning today. The run has returned at better than twice the preseason prediction.

Further north, the Pacific Salmon Commission announced that test fishing has shown a strong run of Fraser-bound sockeye in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with DNA sampling indicating that the early-summer and summer run are showing less than expected numbers. But the fish have been returning later than normal, similar to many other runs from Alaska to the Columbia River.

Sockeye managers expect about one million fish for the early run, seven million in the summer run, and nine million socks in the late run. Water temperatures cooled to 19 degrees C. in the Fraser, but were expected to climb later this week, which managers say can stress fish and slow their migration. River flows at Hope were 32 percent below normal for this time of year. -B. R.

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