Hood Canal supports all eight of the salmon and trout species that use marine and freshwater systems in the Pacific Northwest. These iconic fish are a critical component of the food chain and have helped sustain Hood Canal’s human and animal populations for millennia.
Hood Canal Summer Chum salmon, Chinook salmon, steelhead, and bull trout are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.
All Hood Canal salmon and trout species face many challenges to recovery, including habitat degradation, varying ocean productivity, and changing climate conditions. Past harvest and hatchery operations in Hood Canal have suppressed healthy salmon populations; today they are being managed to help maintain and recover at-risk salmonids. Our goal is to remove these species from the Endangered Species List and sustain healthy and harvestable populations. This is central to our shared economy and the sustained health of all Hood Canal residents and visitors. And it is essential to honoring our treaty obligations to Hood Canal tribal nations.
Salmon are a vital species in Hood Canal, contributing to the ecological and human wellbeing of the region today. Hood Canal salmon provide:
TARGET: Reach and maintain healthy and harvestable summer chum populations
Current populations have improved from a precipitous decline in the 1980’s-90’s. Large peaks are to be expected every decade or so due to naturally oscillating environmental conditions. On average, summer chum populations are sustaining and approaching recovery targets.
Hood Canal is home to a unique species of salmon called summer-run chum salmon. They are the first spawners to return each year, starting in August. Summer chum have been documented in most of the major rivers that drain to Hood Canal.
Unlike most salmon species, summer chum spawn in the lower one or two miles of their home rivers, making river estuaries important nurseries for young fish.
The abundance of spawning fish dropped significantly in the 1970s and 1980s, to the point where several subpopulations went extinct. Their numbers rebounded in the 1990s, and are approaching the recovery goals in both the Hood Canal and Strait of Juan de Fuca populations.
Many people and organizations have come together to bring Hood Canal Summer Chum back from the brink of extinction. Major accomplishments include:
This trend is very encouraging, although the question remains: how much is attributed to favorable ocean conditions and how much is the result of habitat and harvest management improvements? Sustained healthy summer chum populations during less favorable Pacific Decadal Oscillation cycles will determine true species recovery.
For more detailed data on Summer Chum abundance please visit WDFW’s population status site, or the Governor’s Salmon Recovery Office data site.
The challenges facing recovery of Hood Canal salmon are similar across all species. The survival rate and population decline in the 1970s was caused by: general habitat degradation, excessive fish harvest; and natural cycles in ocean production.
The Hood Canal Coordinating Council has drafted a list of pressures that impact salmon, these include:
Climate change is anticipated to be a significant threat in the future. Oceanic climate changes influence local seasonal weather patterns, potentially resulting in unfavorable stream flows during the winter egg incubation season. And research has found that our activities in the Puget Sound region add a measurable impact on local climate changes.
Net fisheries in Hood Canal, when combined with harvests in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, contribute to a lower number of summer-run chum salmon returning to the ocean.
Information has recently emerged that suggests the Hood Canal bridge is a barrier to out-migrating young salmon and steelhead, as well as an impediment to the circulation of oxygenated water throughout the canal. The HCCC has formed a steering committee to facilitate efforts to assess the scope and severity of the bridge’s impact and propose potential solutions.
Recent hatchery reforms have identified ways to limit impacts to wild salmonids and their genes, while contributing to sustainable fisheries.
All salmon species have unique life histories and we are developing suitable strategies to address their needs. There are a number of large-scale efforts designed to increase the number and diversity of Hood Canal salmonids, and address the key challenges facing our recovery goals, including:
View salmon restoration projects on the map below. Learn more about HCCC’s Salmon Recovery Program.
Learn more about the successful restoration of Discovery Bay, the estuary of Salmon Creek and Snow Creek.
Find out what each of us can do to help recover our Hood Canal salmon.
TARGET: 10 sustainable and robust spawning aggregations
There are currently eight extant, robust, and increasing unique spawning aggregations across the Hood Canal and the Strait of Juan de Fuca summer chum salmon populations.
The health, proximity and location of unique summer chum spawning aggregations within Hood Canal factor into the assessment of summer chum spatial diversity. Multiple, persistent summer chum spawning aggregations are needed across Hood Canal and the Eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca to maintain healthy populations into the future. Generally scientists believe that a summer chum population is likely to have a negligible risk of extinction over a 100-year period if spawning aggregations are distributed across the historical range of the population and located in close proximity to one another, with major aggregations not more than 25 miles apart.
Currently, the criteria for spatial diversity are nearly met for Strait of Juan de Fuca and Hood Canal summer chum. The one exception is found along the eastern side of Hood Canal where spawning aggregations are far apart and some could be at risk of extinction. To meet spatial diversity goals these spawning aggregations would need to show stability over time and additional healthy spawning aggregations would need to be established in close proximity.
