A news release dated Aug 11, 2015 says setting a season for coho salmon is difficult, because they don't have early maturing Jacks, but jack coho salmon are being counted at the dams on the Columbia. Which is incorrect? Thank you.
Answer:
Yes, you found our mistake in that news release. Coho do produce jacks, males that mature and return after only one year in the ocean, just like Chinook salmon. What was meant is that coho returns to the Snake River are difficult to predict because we don't have a lot of years of returns to use in our forecast models, most importantly the jack returns one year and the adult returns in the next year. The return of coho salmon to the Snake River is still quite new. After we acquire a few more years of data, we should be able to start making some forecasts of the coho return.
Answered on:
Friday, August 14, 2015 - 1:00 PM MDT