Salmon and steelhead on Washington State’s White Salmon River are going to have over 33 miles of new spawning habitat thanks to the breaching of Condit Dam on Oct. 26. The dam has been blocking anadramous fish runs for over 6 decades and now the White Salmon is again running free! The video is bad-ass. Check it out!
In the March 2011 issue of Salmon Trout Steelheader Magazine, I did a photo essay of the spring-run Chinook tagging project I was involved with last year (and again coming up this year as well). The basic gist of the whole deal was: Capture kings, quickly outfit them with acoustic tags and then let ‘em go. At that point, biologists could track the fish as they moved upstream, providing them with lots of good data about the migration habits of the fish. We also captured and tagged fall-run fish last year as well. Here’s a little look into the project…
Matt Hansman and Mike Baxter prepare a wild steelhead for transfer to the hatchery.
Every now and then, I like to bring in somebody to do a guest editorial here…you know, to get a fresh perspective on something; a little “fresh meat.” This time around, we’re going to hear from Allen Bushnell (listen to him Friday mornings at 6:45 on KSCO radio 1080 AM), our main man on the ground in the Monterey Bay area, to give us the 411 on the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project:
The MBSTP was established in 1976 with the vision of restoring and enhancing salmon and steelhead habitat and populations within the greater Monterey Bay area. The project maintains a hatchery and rearing facility, producing thousands of juvenile steelhead, silver and king salmon that are returned to the wild each year. With the recent rainfall, the decision was made to initiate this year’s fish trapping program, to collect wild steelhead trout, both males and females that are transported to the hatchery for propagation. [click to continue…]
It's not every day you get to custom build salmon spawning habitat!
You guys seemed so stoked by the Stanislaus River Gravel Restoration piece I did a while back in the Greatest Job in the World post, so I dug deep into the archives for a bunch of other photos (I have something like 1,200 of them!) from that project. So, without further adieu, here’s round two… [click to continue…]
I'm still playing with Tonka trucks...they're just a little bigger these days!
A few years back, I was blessed with having the world’s greatest job…I was hired as a consultant to a spawning bed restoration project on the Stanislaus River in California.
My responsibilities: Direct two front loaders on where to dump gravel and boulders. Not only was the pay outstanding, but taking a thrashed river and making it pristine for Chinook and trout was awfully good for the soul! And, let’s be honest here, driving those big tractors around was pretty fun too! Here are some before and after pix… [click to continue…]
Filmmakers at the Epicocity Project are currently working to finalize a short documentary chronicling the epic migration of Snake River salmon – from the rugged coastline of Alaska to Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountain Range. Here’s the trailer…
Blocking steelies & salmon for decades...but not for much longer!
One hundred pound king salmon (and massive runs of coho, pinks, chums, sockeye, steelhead, bull trout and cutthroat trout) used to swim up the Elwah River on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula…that is, before Elwha and Glines Canyon dams were built just 5 miles up from saltwater in the the early 1900s. Once one of Washington’s most prolific salmon producers, the Elwah took a huge nosedive after the dams were erected.
As most of you probably know, I’ve been involved with a multi-agency salmon project in which I’ve been hired to capture (with rod & reel…I know, cry me a river!) Chinook salmon and then outfit them with acoustic tags so their progress upstream can be monitored and tracked.
Well, we tagged 60ish spring-run kings in May and June and now we’re onto fall-run. While fishing for falls the other day, I encountered an old friend, Chinook 14. I hooked and landed him back on May 25 on sulfite-cured eggs and then on Aug. 31 he decided to sample a sardine-wrapped FlatFish. Proof positive that catch & release works.
Take a closer look of these two pics of him with my crew member Kyle holding — it’s not often that you get to see the same salmon at various life stages. Notice how many more spots he’s developed since he was a freshie. Overall, he looks pretty good considering he’s been hanging around for three months. Now, Fourteen…get upriver and make some babies!
