Decline of Wild Columbia and Snake River Salmon Continues

2007 Spring and Summer Chinook Returns Fall Short Again

The 2007 spring and summer salmon season on the Columbia and Snake Rivers is officially over, and the bottom line was even worse than fisheries managers predicted, with returns falling to meet recovery levels for the eighth year in a row. For fishermen and northwest communities, this meant another year of reduced seasons and economic insecurity, and put an exclamation point on the continuing failure of federal salmon recovery efforts.

Fewer than 67,000 adult spring Chinook crossed Bonneville Dam this year, the first of eight dams salmon must navigate during their upstream migration to Idaho through the Columbia-Snake river system. That’s 30% below last year’s number (itself a dismal year), significantly below the 10-year average, and only a fraction of the 400,000-plus fish needed for sustained recovery. Summer chinook returns at Bonneville registered less than half of the 2006 count, and only about two-thirds of the 10-year average.

Returns of combined wild and hatchery Snake River spring/summer chinook were virtually identical to last year’s poor numbers, with wild Snake River spring/summer chinook in no better shape than they were when they were first listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1992. As of mid-August, a combined 30,184 of these fish had passed Lower Granite Dam.

In a typical year, only about 20% of these fish are of wild origin, meaning that fewer than 10,000 wild spring/summer chinook returned to the Snake River basin this year. Biologists note that we need at least four times that many fish spread throughout Snake River tributaries to achieve recovery. In other words, we're not even close. READ MORE      DOWNLOAD DATA SHEET

Bonneville Returns (Click for larger view)

Lower Granite Returns (Click for larger view)

BY THE NUMBERS:

Total Adult Spring-Summer Chinook Returns Past Bonneville Dam:

• As of August 20: 89,127
• This time last year: 118,986
• 10-year Average: 207,912

Total Adult Spring-Summer Chinook Returns Past Lower Granite Dam:

• As of August 20: 55,585
• This time last year: 104,577
• 10-year Average: 79,005

Daily updates available from the Fish Passage Center

RECENT COVERAGE

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