The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe is starting to see the effects of this year’s predicted low water flow in the Dungeness River Valley much sooner than anticipated. Tribal natural resources staff discovered this week that the mouth of Siebert Creek had been cut off by a sandbar – a typical problem with the creek during a […]
Steelhead out-migrating from North Sound rivers appear to have better marine survival than steelhead smolts from South Sound, and researchers are studying salmon poisoning disease as a potential cause. Salmon poisoning disease, or Nanophyetus salmincola, is best known as the parasite that can make dogs sick when they eat raw salmon. It also has been […]
Sonar is helping the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe get an accurate estimate of some species of salmon returning to the Elwha River. The Tribe has been counting the number of returning adult chinook salmon and steelhead using a sonar camera since 2008 with positive results. The camera is placed just below the water’s surface, sending […]
The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe wants to know which age class of steelhead is surviving best within the Dungeness River watershed. While checking smolt traps and conducting spawning ground surveys this spring, the tribe took tail and scale samples from 500 juvenile steelhead in five creeks between Sequim and Port Angeles: Seibert, McDonald, Matriotti, Bell and […]
The steelhead population in the Skokomish River has doubled since the Skokomish Tribe started a supplementation project in 2006, part of a 16 year-long project to boost the steelhead population in Hood Canal. “The increase in the number of egg nests has given us an early indication that the project is working, but the long-term […]
The Upper Skagit Tribe and the University of Washington (UW) are doing a two-year study examining seasonal habitat preferences for yearling chinook and steelhead in the Skagit River. Not all juvenile chinook salmon migrate out to sea right away. They spend a few months to two years in freshwater and estuarine habitat. This study will […]
While the Elwha River’s two fish-blocking dams are coming down, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s native steelhead broodstock program is winding down too. Since 2005, the tribe has been collecting steelhead fry from the lower river to safeguard the native run as the Elwha and Glines Canyons dams came down. The Elwha dam was removed […]
Olympic National Park reported this week that its biologists have seen adult chinook salmon swimming two miles upstream from the park’s boundary in the Elwha River, above the old Elwha Dam site. This comes two months after steelhead were seen swimming just above the old dam site by Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and National Oceanic and […]
The Upper Skagit Tribe is analyzing scale samples to determine the age of steelhead returning to the Skagit River. Unlike most species of salmon, steelhead can spawn repeatedly before they die. They mature at 2 or 3 years, and can stay at sea up to three years before returning to fresh water to spawn. Upper […]
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe has started transferring fish from its old hatchery to its new facility this summer. Through dam removal funding, the tribe was able to construct a new state-of-the-art hatchery. It is located closer to the Elwha River, has access to three times more water than at the old location, and allows for […]
