<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Chum salmon released to OR’s lower Columbia River

The Columbian
Published: April 11, 2011, 12:00am

TILLAMOOK, Ore. (AP) — The fish and wildlife departments of Oregon and Washington are cooperating in an effort to re-establish chum salmon on the Oregon side of the lower Columbia River, where the species began to decline more than 50 years ago.

The Oregon department recently released more than 100,000 juvenile chum salmon into lower Big Creek. The adults that produced the youngsters at an Oregon hatchery were donated by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The adult chum came from Grays River, a tributary of the lower Columbia on the Washington side.

Oregon Fish and Wildlife biologist Chris Knutsen says those adults are likely the most genetically similar to the fish that once occupied Big Creek and other Oregon lower Columbia tributaries. Habitat degradation is believed to have been a key factor in the chum’s decline. Now biologists say habitat improvements in the region are well under way.

Loading...