A small world just got even smaller in the most fun way possible.
Fishing makes that possible. Especially when it's all about my friends.
I first discovered Beaverton's Yas Bass several years ago on a boating and fishing trip with my son Buzz Ramsey and Tony Amato.
I met Kelsey Smith of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife last month while talking about research in the lower Columbia River sponsored by the Clackamas River Basin Council (of which I am a member and past chair). Or I heard a story.
Smith holds a doctorate in renewable natural resources and is the department's chum salmon reintroduction coordinator, working on needed restoration efforts in the lower Columbia River basin.
Our lives all came together last week when Smith learned that chum salmon DNA, which is rare in the area, had been officially detected for the first time in the Clackamas River near the mouth of Eagle Creek.
It was likely the same chum salmon that Suzuki caught and released while fishing with nearby resident Dan Marston a few turns upstream in the Carver River on Nov. 3 last year.
The eDNA sample (the “e” in environmental) was taken last November by another friend, Dave Bagni of Eagle Creek, who is now chairman of the watershed council. Smith sent samples to his DNA lab to specifically test chum salmon. Smith said the fish in the photo appeared to be a female.
How much smaller can it be?
Mr. Suzuki caught this rare strander on the spinning rod I sold him last year.
He really wanted the orange stick. His email address contains “bleedorange”.
Yeah, I'm also an Oregon State fan and had some orange rods left over that I didn't use. It's his now.
That smallness.
But even more fascinating is Smith's demanding job. She and her team are tasked with maintaining the lower chum salmon population, which once numbered 1 million a year. They are listed as an endangered species by the federal government.
In 1920, chums were the primary species for canned Columbia salmon, and historically they invaded most tributaries up to Celilo Falls, including the Clackamas River, Sandy River, and Hood River, including the small tributaries below Willamette Falls. I was there. Each year, a few migrate upstream over both the falls and Bonneville Dam.
Remaining spawning populations are found along the Washington State coastline downstream of the Columbia River. Oregon has been working hard for more than 20 years to build a hatchery adjacent to the department's Big Creek Hatchery east of Astoria.
Smith said his friends prefer clean water, the lower reaches of rivers and streams, and gentle slopes without rapids.
Oregon has invested more than 20 years in chum salmon restoration in the lower Columbia River basin, building on the Big Creek native chum salmon.
The effort was a success, and Smith is now raising enough fry to stock the friend-friendly tributaries of the Big Creek and Clatskanee river systems.
Chum fry appear to be more loyal to their natal waters than other salmon, which tend to wander. This small fish never stagnates, and fry ready to take to the sea were released in 2022 and 2023.
Because chums remain in the ocean for about the same amount of time as chinook, it is too early to assess the success of juvenile-to-adult programs.
But Smith's team continues to sample many drainage canals, large and small, for the presence of Chuum eDNA.
Basically, a water sample is taken from a river or stream, filtered to capture particles that have fallen off from fish, animals, plants, etc., and sent to a lab to be tested for specific DNA.
Testing is being conducted extensively throughout the lower Columbia River basin, including both the Clackamas and Sandy River systems.
There may eventually be plans to expand hatchery stocking to the Clackamas and Sandy rivers, but that is likely in the distant future. Mr Smith said that depends on both the success of the current adult release program and continued habitat improvement.
Darkly striped chum salmon may not look as flashy as their cousins, but they are important to river systems, Smith said.
The egg-laying adults help clean the gravel and provide nutrition for dozens of species after death. Or for that matter, the unlucky young fish that can't jump out to sea fast enough.
It is also culturally important to Native Americans.
Perhaps, as Smith admits, we won't go back to the cannery numbers of old, but as Smith points out, “It's OK not to taste good. …It's a lot of fun to catch.” is!”
Mr. Suzuki, owner of Perfect Orange Rod, agrees.
“I couldn't believe what I was seeing,” he recalls of his historic catch (surpassing Rudyard Kipling, who wrote about catching Clackamas River salmon within sight of a deep pool of perch). hand).
“Actually, it came onto the boat like a snag or a branch that got caught. I don't think I realized I was stuck, but then it all came undone and exploded all over the place.”
— Bill Monroe, The Oregonian/OregonLive
