Swimming toward murky water
Sun | Local
Starting last month and concluding today, The Sun is exploring the challenges, hopes and successes of the summer chum recovery program in Hood Canal.
This week: The future
A lot of people are working hard to make sure Hood Canal's summer chum salmon don't go extinct, but the future of this threatened species remains uncertain, experts say.
"I think we've done what we can on the harvest side," said Gary Graves of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.
"We're doing what we can with hatcheries and supplementation, and we're seeing good results," said Graves, an editor of the Summer Chum Conservation Initiative.
"What will make or break summer chum," he added, "is the effort to stabilize their environments."
Because chum leave their streams soon after hatching, healthy estuaries are critical to their long-term survival, he said.
Forest practices have improved, Graves said, and people are beginning to restore degraded salmon habitat.
"But, in general, I perceive that things are continuing to get worse because of population growth," he said.
Humans should be able to live in harmony with salmon, Graves said, but it will require attention to the entire ecosystem.
"We're trying to piece it all together, and we are really just getting started," he said.
Jay Watson, executive director of the Hood Canal Coordinating Council, sees opportunities to "make some pretty big gains" with respect to habitat in coming years.
The coordinating council, made up of local governments around Hood Canal, is drafting a summer chum recovery plan to comply with the Endangered Species Act.
"We're on track to do an honest assessment of where things stand," he said. "After that, we will see how optimistic we should be. The jury is still out."
At a recent conference, Gov. Gary Locke reiterated his support for salmon.
"Salmon recovery goes hand-in-hand with quality of life in our state," Locke said. "Our obligation to salmon has to be long-term. ... As I have said before, extinction is not an option."
New developments to watch:
1. Tahuya River planting
Summer chum from the nearby Union River are being introduced this fall into the Tahuya River, where the species has gone extinct.
The project, headed by the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group, will complement similar reintroductions from the Big Quilcene River into Big Beef Creek and from Salmon Creek into Chimacum Creek.
Guidelines under the Summer Chum Conservation Initiative say each healthy summer chum stock should be used in only one stream where they are extinct.
A prime stream that has lost its summer chum run is the Dewatto River, which might be restored by taking brood stock from a recovering run in Lilliwaup Creek across Hood Canal or possibly from the nearby Tahuya after that run recovers sufficiently.
2. Hatchery reform in Hood Canal
A group of nine experts has been studying old-fashioned and new-fangled salmon hatcheries in Hood Canal this year to measure their impacts on wild salmon.
Studies for most regions of Western Washington were completed the past two years.
Recommendations for changing Hood Canal's hatcheries should be made public early next year.
The goal of hatchery reform is to recover natural salmon populations and to support sustainable fisheries.
The Hatchery Scientific Review Group has agreed to consider all of Hood Canal together; to measure success of hatcheries in terms of fish quality and adult survival, not just the number of fish released; to focus production on local stocks and natural run-timing; and to consider the holding capacity of the ecosystem.
3. Summer Chum Recovery Plan
Hood Canal Coordinating Council has taken the lead in developing a habitat recovery plan to comply with the Endangered Species Act. A draft of the report is due to be released early next year.
Hood Canal and the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca have been divided into six conservation areas based on geology and specific summer chum populations. Some recommendations in the plan will be on the regional level and some will be specific restoration projects.
Since the plan deals with potential changes in land use, county commissioners in Kitsap, Jefferson, Mason and Clallam counties will approve the plan before it is submitted to the federal government.
4. Genetic studies
A characterization of the DNA makeup of Hood Canal summer chum is due out early next year.
DNA markers will help determine how closely related one summer chum run is to another. For example, summer chum in the nearby Dosewallips, Duckabush and Hamma Hamma rivers are believed to be more closely related than other runs.
Using genetics, scientists can see how much salmon from one stream normally stray into another stream.
Genetics also will determine if chum salmon caught during a coho fishery are the threatened summer chum or the abundant fall chum.
Criminal investigators can use DNA to prove that poachers are fishing illegally when summer chum are present.
DNA analysis, which can be performed on live fish, can largely replace protein analysis, which requires internal organs from salmon.
5. Highway 101 Bridges
What ought to be the most thriving and productive estuaries in Hood Canal are severely constrained and disrupted by Highway 101, which was built upon an earthen causeway at the edge of Hood Canal.
The causeway crosses the deltas of the Dosewallips, Duckabush and Hamma Hamma rivers and Lilliwaup Creek.
For the most part, bridges constrict the rivers to a narrow channel as they are about to enter Hood Canal.
A new study has proposed replacing the old bridges with longer ones, opening new channels and allowing the rivers to flow more naturally through their broad deltas.
Two approaches are suggested in a study by Engineering Services Associates.
A $20 million plan would remove most of the earthen causeway on the deltas; a $43 million plan would remove all of it.
Funding is proposed through the state's bridge-replacement program and the federal Puget Sound Nearshore Project.
No funding commitments have been made.
6. Oxygen problems
Hood Canal's ecosystem is being affected by low levels of dissolved oxygen, which has killed bottom fish and injured a variety of marine creatures.
Low oxygen does not generally affect salmon, which tend to swim near the surface where the problem is less severe, experts say. But much more needs to be known about secondary impacts, such as loss of food sources for salmon.
Low oxygen levels are related to the growth and death of plankton.
More studies are needed as to the cause, including the role of man-made nutrients -- such as septic systems and lawn fertilizers.
7. Global warming
Summer chum are more abundant in British Columbia and Alaska, where spring-fed streams allow the fish to spawn before the end of summer.
In Hood Canal, summer chum are near the bottom of their natural range.
Some experts worry that continued global warming could affect the ecosystem in unknown ways, possibly pushing Hood Canal's summer chum to extinction.
Reach Christopher Dunagan at (360) 792-9207 or at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Salmon resources on the Web
For information about Hood Canal summer chum and related recovery efforts:
The Sun's Hood Canal summer chum series: www.thesunlink.com/salmon
NOAA Fisheries, Hood Canal summer chum: www.nwr.noaa.gov/1sustfsh/limit6/HC_Chum/index.htm
Summer Chum Conservation Initiative: www.wa.gov/wdfw/fish/chum/chum.htm
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, chum Web site: www.wa.gov/wdfw/fish/chum/
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission: www.nwifc.wa.gov
Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group: www.hcseg.com
North Olympic Salmon Coalition: www.nosc.org
Wild Olympic Salmon: www.olympus.net/edu/wos
Hood Canal Coordinating Council: www.hccc.cog.wa.us/salmon.htm
Salmon Recovery Funding Board: www.iac.wa.gov/srfb
Governor's Salmon Recovery Office: www.governor.wa.gov/gsro
Shared Strategy for Puget Sound: www.sharedsalmonstrategy.org
Washington Forest Protection Association: www.forestsandfish.com
Washington Forest Law Center: www.wflc.org
Northwest Forest Plan: www.reo.gov/
Hatchery reform: www.hatcheryreform.org
Puget Sound Nearshore Project: www.pugetsoundnearshore.org
Shorelines, Washington Department of Ecology: www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea
Seals and Hood Canal salmon: www.wa.gov/wdfw/wlm/research/papers/harbor_seals/ sealpredation.htm