Cereghino 2023 DRAFT hood canal summer chum escapement history

From Salish Sea Wiki





This chart is an ad hoc product based on SCORE data from WDFW showing the period of record for salmon escapement (returns) for four rivers in Hood Canal: Quilcene Rivers, Duckabush River and Dosewallips River. "H" indicates hatchery supplementation while "N" and all blue-green portions of the graph reflect natural spawners. The graph is a stacked area graph, to show the cumulative population across the four rivers, and the proportion of escapement associated with each river. Listing of Hood Canal summer chum salmon under the Endangered Species Act in 1999 resulted in recovery planning, discontinuing of hatchery production, control on harvest, followed by a rebound of the population in 2012-2017. In 2018 the population crashed, which has been attributed to ocean conditions (The Blob) which degraded the population. So while management appears to have helped the population, Hood Canal summer run chum salmon appear vulnerable to ocean conditions. Since then 2022 numbers improved, and 2023 has been projected to be even better, but the instability of the population remains troubling.