All steelhead fishing on the Clearwater River in Idaho will close Sunday because the number of returning adult hatchery fish is less than the number needed for broodstock
The number of summer steelhead forecasted to pass Bonneville Dam and travel into the Snake and Clearwater rivers was downgraded for the third time this month.
Oregon and Washington fisheries managers approved an additional two and a half days of tribal gillnetting in Zone 6 (Bonneville Dam pool upstream through the John Day Dam pool) as they worried about a declining steelhead run and whether upstream hatcheries could meet their escapement goals for both fall chinook and steelhead broodstock.
After reviewing harvest information, Oregon and Washington abruptly closed the Columbia River to fall chinook angling from Warrior Rock to Bonneville Dam as of 12:01 am, Sept. 6, when it became clear that nearly 10 percent more of the fish had been caught throughout the Columbia River than was allocated.
In a hearing this week (Thursday, Sept. 5), the two-state Columbia River Compact set two Saturdays later this month for recreational angling of white sturgeon from Wauna upstream to Bonneville Dam.
The federal approval for a Snake River basin fall chinook salmon plan has given the go-ahead for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to open recreational angling in the Snake, Clearwater and Salmon rivers this week.
With a reduction in the upriver steelhead forecast by 27.2 percent, the two-state Columbia River Compact at its hearing yesterday, Aug. 28, extended the states’ ban on steelhead retention in the mainstem Columbia River that began in August to Sept. 30. The ban on retention is from Buoy 10 in the lower river estuary upstream to The Dalles Dam. The area upstream of The Dalles Dam to the John Day Dam is already closed to steelhead retention.
The elevation of the pool level at Dworshak Dam will be more than 3 feet higher beginning the month of September than had been expected, giving river managers additional water to keep the Clearwater River and tailwater at Lower Granite on the Snake River cooler throughout the month.
American shad, a silvery bullet of a fish whose home waters are on the East Coast of the U.S., migrated into the Columbia River basin this year in record numbers. Nearly 7.5 million of the 18-inch, 3 to 8 pound fish crossed Bonneville Dam, more than four times the number of salmon and steelhead that have crossed the dam this year.
As of Aug. 24, Oregon will open the river from the Oregon and Washington border up to the Idaho Power dam for a fall chinook run that is anticipated to be 349,700 fish at the Columbia River mouth, which is 47 percent of the 10-year average (2009-2018) of 737,720 adult fall chinook. Still, the forecast is higher than the 2018 actual return of 293,424.
The first endangered sockeye salmon returned to the Redfish Lake Creek trap Aug. 2, later by nearly a week than the first that led the way last year and in 2017, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
Forecasts for upriver steelhead, those that pass Bonneville Dam with many heading to the Snake River, are lower this year and less than 50 percent of the 10-year average.
Although a “lot” of sockeye salmon are passing Ice Harbor Dam, the first dam the fish encounter when migrating up the Snake River, few are passing upstream dams, according to Claire McGrath of NOAA Fisheries.
Following up on a Phase 1 investigation of fish passage and reintroduction of salmon and steelhead upstream of Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams that was completed last month by the Upper Columbia United Tribes, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council this week approved a letter asking the Independent Scientific Advisory Board to review the report.
California salmon reintroduced to their historic habitat as juveniles are, for the first time, returning to their home rivers to spawn. NOAA Fisheries says their journey home demonstrates that fish reintroductions can successfully return salmon to the state’s restored rivers and streams in an important step toward their recovery.
River temperatures in the tailrace of Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River rose above 67 degrees this week and the air temperature is predicted to rise above 90 degrees this weekend. That prompted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to increase releases of water from Dworshak Dam to keep Lower Granite tailwater temperature under 68 degrees, partially as an aid to the few adult sockeye salmon expected to return to the Snake River and Sawtooth Basin this year.
Tribes will again fish in waters upstream of Bonneville Dam with next week — the second two-day commercial gillnet period for Treaty Tribes during this year’s summer chinook period. The two-state Columbia River Compact signed off Thursday, June 27, on the additional days as they also heard that the U.S. v Oregon Technical Advisory Committee, which met Monday, had downsized the anticipated run of sockeye salmon to 58,000 fish.
The number of the larger steller sea lions searching for dinner in the Bonneville Dam tailrace was about the same for May this year as the numbers observed last year in May. However, the number of California sea lions has dropped this year.
Although the run of spring chinook into the Deschutes River is one of the lowest in years, as it has been throughout the Columbia River basin, the proportion of the Deschutes run that originated as reintroduced fish upstream of the Pelton Round Butte Hydroelectric Project near Madras, Oregon is one of the best in years, according to Portland General Electric.
Treaty platform fishing and commercial treaty gillnetting will begin this month for summer chinook and sockeye salmon. Tribes had not had a commercial gillnet fishery during the spring chinook run.
The number of adult spring chinook passing Little Goose Dam on the lower Snake River has picked up, largely due to a continuous 8-hour reduced spill regime requested last week by salmon managers of the interagency Technical Management Team.
As of last weekend, June 1, the requirement to use barbless hooks to fish for salmon, steelhead and trout in the Columbia River is no longer mandatory.
The number of upriver spring chinook forecasted to return to the Columbia River in what was already set to be a poor year dropped by 25 percent this week.
New fish scanning technology developed by Whooshh Innovations is now being used at the Bonneville Dam adult fish handling facility.
As a new contractor comes on board that will count adult fish at Columbia and Snake river dams over the next five years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says there will be a longer than normal transition period that will include delays in posting fish counts at six of the eight dams for as long as up to June.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
