Northwest Newspaper Hydropower Articles

Sultan River's fish run is in the pink

By Christopher Swarzen
Seattle Times

SULTAN — It might have been the stench of decay that led Keith Binkley to the river one day last week.

As Binkley, a Snohomish County Public Utility District (PUD) environmental coordinator, walked out of the trees lining the Sultan River, a dying pink salmon came into sight.

Surrounding it were hundreds of others, already dead, or slowly floating downstream, fins still flapping, mouths gaping open and exposing small rows of teeth.

Though many people might have turned away, Binkley just smiled. The more dead salmon he finds, the more successful this year's run has been.

It's expected that pink salmon spawning in the Sultan River and other parts of the Snohomish River basin could equal or top records set in 2001. Pink salmon spawn every two years: odd years in the Puget Sound area, even years in Alaska and parts of Canada.

In 2001, almost 152,000 pink salmon were estimated to have spawned in the Sultan River. More than 1.1 million fish made the trip back to the Snohomish River basin.

"On September 30, we counted 32,000 fish alone on the Sultan River," Binkley said. "And we're nowhere near peaking yet."

Because the PUD controls water flows on the Sultan through its Jackson Hydroelectric Project, it conducts salmon counts to assist state and tribal officials who set fishing limits.

The life cycle of a pink salmon averages two years and is fairly simple. Come spring, eggs laid in redds, or nests, by this year's dying run will hatch into fry. The young salmon immediately head out to open sea, where they'll grow during the next 18 to 20 months.

At that point, they begin their return to fresh water, turning from gray to the color giving them their name by then, and the males have grown long snouts and protruding backs that give them their nickname of "humpies."

Returning to the same spot where they and generations before them were born, the salmon will repeat the cycle of life and death for another run two years later.

Though hydropower projects are often assailed for their impact on other salmon runs, pinks benefit from the controlled-water system that dams provide, Binkley said.

Pinks are perhaps the smallest salmon species — averaging 12 inches long and four pounds — and redds are usually in shallower waters with smaller river rocks and pebbles.

"Flooding is a problem for the pinks because it can wash out the redds," Binkley said. "The hydro project prevents those floods from happening."

State officials say it's true that one salmon's obstacle is another's key to success. One concern, however, is the replenishment of gravel from upstream that the pink need for spawning.

Many hydropower fish projects manually replace gravel. The PUD regulates water flows to prevent gravel from washing away, utility officials said.

Though bringing less money at market than larger, meatier species such as the endangered chinooks, pink salmon have in the past kept commercial fisheries well-stocked.

"There's such larger numbers to catch, it's also meant a larger recreational-fish season, which can be a benefit to many towns around here," said Curt Kraemer, a fish-program manager for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

"We opened a section of the Skagit River on August 15, and about 8,000 angler trips have targeted pinks along a 15-mile section." Besides economic impacts, large pink-salmon runs are beneficial to the ecology of Snohomish County's rivers. Dead fish are swept downstream, providing nutrients for more than 100 species of fish, birds and mammals, Kraemer and Binkley said. Fry often feed on nutrients that have been produced from the decaying bodies of adult salmon.

Binkley started counting pink salmon in the Sultan River at the beginning of September. He'll continue through the end of this month, when the run likely will end. The PUD counts at four spots along the Sultan River, from its convergence with the Skykomish River to three miles upstream.

An estimate of fish is produced by taking averages from counts every 10 days.

At this point, Binkley estimated close to 50,000 fish per mile, which means one heck of a stench by the end of the month. The same will happen along other rivers and streams throughout the county where pinks are spawning.

Eventually the dead fish and the odors will drift away. "You just have to remember that this is good for the ecology and economy," Kraemer said of people who call to complain. "But I do understand that smell."

Christopher Schwarzen: 425-783-0577 or cschwarzen@seattletimes.com

Seattle Times
Snohomish County, WA
October 08, 2003

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