Salmon Harvest Up Slightly from Last Year

The Chinook salmon fishing season in Idaho is over for 2007, with results similar to last year. Anglers caught and kept 2,412 adult and jack Chinook this year; they caught 2,167 fish last year. Spring and summer Chinook salmon counted at Lower Granite Dam in southeastern Washington through July 15 totaled: - 28,619 adults and 11,630 jacks in 2007. - 27,958 adults and 1,456 jacks in 2006. - 33,141 adults and 2,108 jacks in 2005. The 10-year average by July 15 is 60,578 adults and 4,999 jacks at Lower Granite. Jacks are fish that return from the ocean after only one year. Though not always an accurate forecast, the jack count is a good indictor of a large return of adults in 2008. The high jack counts this year bode well for next year's salmon season. Jack numbers compare to 2000 when 13,711 jacks returned and to 2003 when 11,933 returned. Those years were followed by large runs of adult Chinook-almost 184,000 in 2001 and 79,000 in 2004-as of July 15. In 2004, anglers caught more than 15,000 Chinook salmon in Idaho. Only about 78 percent of the expected number of wild salmon, listed under the Endangered Species Act, crossed Lower Granite Dam this, while about 3,700 more hatchery salmon than expected returned this year. Fall Chinook begin crossing Bonneville Dam about August 1, and they enter Idaho in late summer and early fall. (Data is from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the University of Washington's Columbia River DART Website)