Record summer chum return

Hood Canal summer chum have returned to the Union River in record-breaking numbers, with 12,021 as of Monday morning.

There are still three weeks left in the count.

"It is amazing," Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group Executive Director Mendy Harlow told the Journal.

The previous record of 11,916 in 2003 was due to hatchery supplementation, which ended that year, according to HCSEG.

Harlow credited this year's healthy run to improving ocean conditions and HCSEG's 2013 habitat restoration project on the Union River.

Juvenile chum rely heavily on estuary habitat, Harlow explained.

They leave rivers and streams and move into the estuary to go through physical changes before entering saltwater habitat, she said.

"If they don't have enough habitat, they end up in the saltwater before they're ready and a lot of them end up dying," Harlow said.

In 1999, summer chum salmon in Hood Canal were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

In 2000 and every year since, HCSEG has set up a fish trap on the Union River just outside of Belfair.

A reader board displaying daily chum counts is next to the trap on state Route 300, just behind QFC.

Volunteers check the trap 24 hours a day from mid-August through mid-October.

At least two volunteers are always on every shift, including an overnight shift from 10 p.m. until 8 a.m.,

HCSEG Project Manager Jill Grbavac told the Journal.

"We're completely dependent on volunteers. They're the backbone of this program," Grbavac said.

Grbavac was at the trap Monday, along with volunteers Dave and Karen Skoog and interns Danielle Andrews, Alexis Dygert and Dale Gorichanaz.

A sheltered table is set up with information about salmon and a view of the trap. A camper for overnight volunteers is at the site and also provides refuge on cold, rainy days.

People can stop by any time to view the trap and check out displays.

Volunteers check the trap every hour and note the species and sex of the fish before releasing them upstream using a long pole-handled net.

"We don't want them to get hurt," Karen Skoog said.

The salmon can knock against the pen's bars trying to escape, so a quick release is important, she said.

Most volunteers know the species and how to determine the sex, but laminated charts are set up by the pen for reference.

Karen Skoog said they record all of the fish, but only the summer chum are marked on the board.

Coho and Chinook are "way down," she said.

Dave Skoog and Andrews pointed out green ribbons marking a portion of the river to avoid.

"That's where a salmon spawned," Dave Skoog said.

He said a volunteer watched the salmon making a nest, or redd.

Volunteers can also tell where the nests are by looking at the color of the riverbed, Andrews said. The location is marked so people don't step there while wading in the river.

The great run doesn't mean Hood Canal summer chum will be taken off the threatened list any time soon, Harlow said.

"In Hood Canal, even if you have the Union River population that's doing really well, you have other populations throughout the canal. They're not all genetically the same. In order to delist a fish like Hood Canal summer chum, we need to make sure we have diversity," she said.

Rivers that flow out of the Olympics into the Canal are different from rivers on the Kitsap Peninsula that empty into the east side of the Canal.

"Fish that would be successful in the Union River aren't necessarily going to be successful in the Dosewallips or the Duckabush or any of those big rivers flowing out of the Olympics," Harlow said.

The great run is still encouraging, Grbavac said, and pointed to a chart showing steady increase of salmon since the estuary restoration.

Final summer chum numbers will be in on Oct. 16 when the trap is removed, according to Harlow.