Forecasts Predict Low Salmon Returns In Washington This Year
Listen
Every year, wildlife officials keep track of how many salmon return to their spawning grounds. This year, they expect low returns of salmon in Washington state—and that could change the fishing outlook.
Forecasts for four species of salmon—chinook, coho, sockeye and chum—are likely to limit fishing opportunities this year.
Kyle Adicks is the intergovernmental salmon manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“We have a growing population that isn’t necessarily good for salmon habitat,” he said. “We have a lot of people that value salmon—like to go out and catch them, like to see them spawning in our streams, like to see killer whales eating them in Puget Sound, but it’s kind of a resource that has been shrinking over time.”
That shrinking could be connected to declining ocean conditions, among other factors.
With the forecasted numbers in hand, fisheries managers will kick off a month-and-a-half long process next week to craft the guidelines for the 2018 fishing seasons in Puget Sound, along the coastline and up and down the Columbia River.
Related Stories:
‘It just tastes like time’: Salmon are a sacred relative to the Nisqually tribe and Native Americans across the Northwest
Freshly caught chum salmon display their greens and pink colors like the aurora, in December on the Nisqually River. (Courtesy: Willie Frank III) Listen (Runtime 3:54) Read On a tall
Billy’s magic: Tribal leader’s fierce fight for fishing rights to be honored with a statue in Washington, D.C.
Nisqually tribal fisher Willie Frank III holds a freshly caught chinook, or king, salmon at the Nisqually River where his family has fished for generations. The chinook being caught are
To help salmon on the Yakima River, causeway to be removed at Bateman Island
A fisherman stands on Bateman Island in the Tri-Cities. (Credit: Melindaa91 / Wikimedia Commons) Listen (Runtime 0:56) Read Removing a small causeway in the Tri-Cities could have big impacts for
