Summer Chum Return to Chimacum Creek!

Summer Chum returned to Chimacum creek in 1999 for the first time in 10 years!  Once upon a time there were lots of fish.  Old timer Bill Matheson remembers: "Oh there were lots of salmon, just lots of salmon, I guess of different species. All I remember is lots of salmon. Everybody had a smoke house. . . . they could just go down there [to the creek] with a gunny sack, get some smokers and bring them home and put them in the smoke house."

In the early eighties the runs of summer chum salmon came to an abrupt halt. From 1500 returning in 1982 to 0 in 1990.   This precipitious decline was the result of many factors. Most importantly sediment from two slides combined with the already high sediment load of the creek to clog the spawning gravels. Fish found it difficult to dig in the packed sediment and if they laid eggs in the creek they were soon buried in silt.

The creek has had 17 years to recover. A few recent slides have erased some of the progress but the spawning gravel appears in much better shape than 17 years ago.   Also, an intensive effort to improve creek habitat and reintroduce summer chum salmon was initiated by WOS.  In April 1997, twenty-eight thousand fry were released into the creek. 

During 1999 the first fish of a new run returned to spawn.  An estimate 38 chum returned to their new home, in a year when summer chum returns in other creeks were also low.  Since the returns have continued getting larger. 

Information on Spawning Behavior

Photos

Some Low Res Video of Fish in the Creek
Chum Video
Return of the Chum Video
Return of the Chum Part 2

Click on the images for higher resolution.  The fish have been very difficult to photo so far.  We will continue posting photos as they are taken.

1999 Counts from Chimacum Creek

Wild Olympic Salmon
205 West Patison Suite A * Port Hadlock WA * 98339
Email: wos@olympus.net * Telephone: 360-385-9329

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