Thousands of Juvenile Coho in the Squaxin Net Pens
Above is just a snap shot of the 1.5 million coho that will be released in June 2009. On average only 3 % of these released coho will return as adults in Fall of 2010. That is approximately 45,000 adult coho available for harvest by Sport and Commercial fisheries in South Puget Sound.
The Kisutch transferring coho to the Net Pens.
This week the Squaxin Island Tribe Natural Resources (SINR) and Washington State Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) started hauling the first batch of juvenile coho to the South Sound Net Pens (SSNP) located in Peale Passage. SSNP is a co-managed facility by the SINR and WDFW that has released an average of 1.5 million coho smolt yearly to benefit Sport and commercial fisheries through out the Puget Sound.
Offloading coho into a Net Pen
SINR staff will be monitoring and feeding these juvenile for the next four months;releasing them in June. These coho are at around 31 fish per pound when they arrive and will be released at about 15 fish to the pound. After release these coho will make the journey to the ocean feed for a year and return to the deep South Puget Sound as adult coho in the Fall of 2010.
Coho in the Net Pens. Photo courtesy of Rana Brown-Shellfish
The fish arriving this week are reared at Skookumchuck Hatchery. Early next week we will be transferring fish from Wallace. Stay tuned for more photos!
Fishing chums in Kennedy Creek by oysters4me.
This Thursday morning, CLAMP will discuss how the restoration of the Deschutes Estuary would impact recreation around where Capitol Lake is now.
A draft chapter of our Alternatives Analysis outlines the options. It pretty basically says that certain docks would be high and dry during low tide and that different sorts of fish would be available because a freshwater lake is different than a estuary. For example, the non-native bass that prey on salmon smolts wouldn’t survive in an estuary.
One thing the chapter doesn’t spell out is the benefit to fishermen, most obviously hook-and-line sport fishermen. Anyone can take a look at the crowds along the estuary of nearby Kennedy or McLane creeks in the fall and see the interest that those fishing opportunities generate. Access to these tidelands, which would increase if the Deschutes Estuary were restored, would benefit sport fisherman access to returning salmon. Over 10,000 chinook returned to the hatchery on the Deschutes River this last year (here’s a pdf of the state’s hatchery report).
You can read the entire draft chapter here or download it here.
Between now and June, a local committee charged with coming up with a recommendation of what to do with Capitol Lake and the Deschutes River Estuary (CLAMP) will come to a decision. If you’re interested in restoring the Deschutes Estuary, now is the time to start getting engaged.
The City of Olympia is already talking about how to engage their citizens in the process. You can read more about that here, here and here.
CLAMP’s agenda’s are regularly posted on the website of the Thurston Regional Planning Council. Here is this month’s agenda.
There have been regular reports presented to CLAMP covering various broad topics, such as how the various options presented to CLAMP would impact wildlife, flooding, public restoration, among other topics. I’m going to try to over the next few months go back to these papers and blog a bit about how restoring the estuary would be a benefit.
This month we’re going to talk about public recreation and how it would be impacted by the eventual fate of the estuary.
The Squaxin Island Tribe is firmly committed to the restoration of the estuary. The tribe has always depended on the natural resources of the region and the Deschutes River estuary was a big part of supporting these resources.
You can go here to find out more about the tribe’s position on restoring the estuary.
The Squaxin Net Fishery had its ups and downs in 2008. Preseason forecast projected average Chinook returns, below average coho returns and a above average chum run. Chinook returns to deep South Sound ended up being higher that projected with 10,777 adult Fall Chinook returning to Tumwater Falls Hatchery and Squaxin catch of 10,400 Deschutes origin fish. ’08 Forecast for Deschutes Fall Chinook was 13,400. Squaxin Coho fishery resulted in a respectable 35,800 catch (excluding Carr Inlet), projected Squaxin Net Pen forecast was 29K. Chum catches, although seeing lower returns and closing the fishery to reach escapement for Totten, resulted in a 56K chum catch for 2008. Escapement goals appear to be met in Eld, Totten, and Skookum Inlet watersheds.
2008 salmon market was favorable with peak prices for Chinook reaching $4 per pound, coho at $1.80 and chum $0.75. Total number of licensed Squaxin Fishermen was 112.
With the ’08 season behind us brings the 2009 Preseason Fisheries planning. Forecast begin to be shared by the end of January, with the North of Falcon process , salmon fishery negotiations between Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Tribes, in the following months. At the end of April all of the 2009 Washington State Treaty and Non-Treaty fisheries will be set.
Elson Creek Chum
Skookum Inlet Fall Chum, which return to spawn late November into January in Skookum, Little and Elson Creek appear to be returning in lower numbers. Skookum Fall Chum, not be mistaken for Upper Skookum Fall Chum that return October- December, are a mixed chum stock of Elson Hatchery and wild Chum production. Detailed description of these chum stock is available at WDFW Salmon Stock Inventory (SaSI) .
Recent surveys in Elson Creek have resulted in lower that normal returns for this time of year. We should be seeing a couple thousand chum spawning in Elson in the middle of December. Tuesday December 11th survey had approxamately 377 live and 181 dead chum in the stream. WDFW Skookum and Little Creek counts have been low also.
Lower Fall Chum returns have been a trend through out South Puget Sound this year. One factor that may be contributing to Elson Creek is the very low flows in stream. Usually we see water flowing through the culvert that passes under Lynch Rd. Currently the stream is dry a few hundred yards from the culvert.
Early this October natural resources staff tagged 600 adult coho in Budd, Case and Hammersley Inlets with spaghetti tags. This easily visible tag is inserted just below the dorsal fin. Each tag contains a unique identification number and a phone number to the natural resources department.
Tag being inserted into an adult salmon.
These fish were captured by natural resources staff in the lower ends of the inlets in areas that are generally closed to Tribal fisheries during the coho managment season. The purpose of this study is to track when these fish move out of the inlets and where they ultimately end up.
More information on mangament for coho can be found at:
Several weeks after tagging the Department began recieving calls from several grocery stores in St. Louis Missouri reporting Squaxin tags on salmon they were about to fillet. This was followed by a phone call from a fish processing plant in Missouri that had found numerous Squaxin tags in shipments of fish they were buying. According to the processing plant manager fish bought from South Puget Sound feed three quarters of the state of Missouri.
Fall chum salmon returned to the Puget Sound in lower abundance than forecast. The 2008 expected Puget Sound fall chum run size was forecast to be around 635,000 chum. In the last 5 weeks the in season run size has dropped to 350,000 chum based on WDFW commercial fisheries and the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) run Apple Cove Test fishery up in Marine Area 10.
Recent adult chum spawner survey numbers on Kennedy Creek (and Schnieder Prairie) are indicating that Totten Inlet has reached the needed 14,500 chum for escapement.
Totten Inlet Streams Adult Chum Spawn Survey Data
| Kennedy Creek |
River Mile |
Agency |
Live Count |
Dead Count |
| 10/16/2008 | 0.0-2.3 | WDFW | 159 | 6 |
| 10/23/2008 | 0.0-2.3 | WDFW | 285 | 8 |
| 10/29/2008 | 0.0-2.3 | Squaxin | 1922 | 55 |
| 11/5/2008 | 0.0-2.3 | WDFW | 6262 | 264 |
| 11/18/2008 | 0.0-2.4 | WDFW | 5,833 | 2083 |
| Schnieder Creek | RM | Agency | Live | Dead |
| 11/17/2008 | WDFW | 1,717 | 112 |
Eld Inlet chum appear to be a running a week or two early with Perry and Swift (tributary to McLane) Creek showing good numbers considering the updated lower run size.
Eld Inlet Streams Adult Chum Spawn Survey Data
| Swift | River Mile | Agency | Live Count | Dead Count |
| 11/10/2008 | 0.0-1.0 | WDFW | 2622 | 10 |
| 11/17/2008 | 0.0-1.0 | WDFW | 5262 | 128 |
| Perkins Creek (Mclane Trib) | ||||
| 11/13/2008 | 0.0-0.5 | WDFW | 287 | 14 |
| Perry | ||||
| 11/11/2008 | 0.0-1.0 | WDFW | 2622 | 10 |
| 11/17/2008 | 0.0-1.0 | WDFW | 5933 | 42 |
Eld Inlet escapement goal is 18,500 chum.
Although Fall Chum returns are lower than expected, currently Squaxin Island Tribes 101 licensed fishermen have harvested approximately 43,000 chum so far this season. A five year average using Squaxin chum catches from ’02-’06 results in an average Squaxin Island chum harvest of 32,452. 2007 catch was excluded from this average due to the unusually large returns and Squaxin catch of 150K chum.
Squaxin Island Tribe Chum Fisheries
Squaxin Fish Hotline: 360-432-3899
November is an excellent time to view adult chum salmon making their journey to spawn up South Puget Sound streams. Two locations for prime view are at the Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail and the McLane Nature Trail.
Kennedy Creek Trail is open to the public from 10 am to 4 pm on the following days in November:
Weekends (11/01/08 – 11/30/08)
Day after Thanksgiving (11/28/08)
Veteran’s Day (11/11/08)
Directions to Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail
McLane Nature Trail is open to the public daily during day light hours. The gate to the park closes a dusk.
Directions to McLane Nature Trail
Will Henderson surveying Kennedy Creek
Kennedy Creek Chum
With this increase of adult chum on the spawning grounds of Kennedy Creek, Squaxin Natural Resources will have a 24 hour Chum fishery in Totten Inlet and Pickering Passage 4:00pm Friday November 7th through 4:00pm Saturday November 8th.
Detailed Regulations are available below and at the Squaxin Island Tribe Website.
Emergency Regulation ER-08-12 Chum Totten Pickering Drift Net
Emergency Regulation ER-08-13 Chum Totten/Pickering Beach Seine
A summary of the Squaxin Island Tribal Fisheries is also available on the Squaxin Island Hotline: 360-432-3899
