Chinook salmon makes historic return to Spencer Creek in Upper Klamath River tributary
More than a century after the last Chinook salmon swam the upper reaches of the Klamath River, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has video footage of one of the first Chinook to return to the Upper Klamath Basin since 1912.
ODFW’s Klamath Fisheries Reintroduction Project Leader, Mark Hereford, said on Oct 15, agency staff saw a dorsal fin of what they suspected was a Chinook salmon swimming in Spencer Creek, a tributary of the Klamath River. Seeking confirmation of the sighting, staff enthusiastically returned with video-captured footage of the salmon swimming in the creek the following day. By the end of October, an estimated 130 Chinook were observed spawning in Spencer Creek and at the mouth by staff of the Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife and the Klamath Tribes.
Biologists have released Chinook salmon fry into the Upper Klamath Lake and its tributaries for several years. Asked how they can differentiate between the hatchlings and ocean-going salmon, Hereford stated that they all had a fin removed and were tagged before release. The salmon seen weighed approximately 10 pounds and was 28 inches with fins intact and no sign of tags, indicating that the fish came from the ocean and knew exactly what to do when it got here.
According to ODFW fish biologists, the salmon had to swim some 230 miles up from the Pacific Ocean to appear in the creek, despite it being only four months since the Klamath River was officially declared free-flowing once again after the four dams were removed.
Fish biologists have been surveying the Klamath River and its tributaries since the removal of the dams this year as part of the agency’s responsibility to monitor the repopulation of ocean-going fish species to the basin in collaboration with The Klamath Tribes. They say the number of counted salmons thus far is up to five. “Yeah, we sat there for 15 minutes watching two males kind of battle it out, which is pretty incredible to watch,” Hereford said in a phone interview with the Klamath Tribes News.
As to what the newly arrived salmon are doing, Hereford stated that they are doing exactly what we think they are doing: getting ready to spawn. “We did see one, small redd,” he said. A red is a Scottish word meaning to tidy up and refers to what a female salmon digs. “It’s like a fish nest. And we did see one. It was small. We didn’t see a female on the redd. They usually, you know, they’ll be on the redd, digging and depositing eggs with a male. But we didn’t see any fish on the redd. Sometimes, they’ll just kind of test the substrate to see if it’s suitable to make a redd. But, you know, I think sometimes the males will come in first and kind of duke it out for territory, and then, you know, the females will come in.”
ODFW, The Klamath Tribes, and other partners have been working together to restore the river by monitoring the waters for any Chinook, coho, steelhead, and Pacific lamprey now that they can repopulate habitat above the dams.
Hereford said this is just the start of the fall run of salmon but that they expect another run in the spring. He said the fall run of Chinook will end later this month, with coho arriving in November. This winter, we should see the steelhead trout arrive before the spring runs of salmon begin again.
Hereford said they’ll keep a constant vigil to see if the salmon are doing what they should be doing. “Sometime in early spring or late winter, those eggs will hatch,” he said. “We’ll use what’s called a fight net or juvenile trap. We’ll put it in Spencer Creek. It doesn’t capture all of the juveniles coming down, just a portion of the stream. The nets, they kind of get funneled into it, and then they’ll dump into dump into like a trap, and then that’s how we kind of estimate how many juveniles were produced.”
Klamath Tribes Chairman William Ray Jr. was also happy about the news of the salmon return. “This is an awesome blessing to have our sacred salmon returning to our aboriginal territory!” he said.
Ambodat Anadromous Fish Specialist Jordan Ortega agreed. “Klamath Tribal members and Ambodat employees have been advocating and working towards dam removal for decades; needless to say, we are thrilled salmon have made it home,” he said. “The return of Chinook salmon to habitats they haven’t spawned in over 100 years is a testament to the resilience of these fish and the steadfast resolve of the Klamath Tribes conservation efforts.”
As to the historic nature of the salmon’s return, Hereford said these fish are kin to the same fish that swam these waters more than a century ago. “Salmon do return home to their natal stream, where they were born; that’s just kind of built into them,” he explained. “You know, they can smell the water. They know where they came from. But guess what? They make mistakes, and that’s why they persist into other drainages.”
He stated that it’s a miracle that these fish make it back each year. “Salmon, where they exist, is the Pacific Rim,” he said. “It’s one of the most hostile environments. You know, the last 60 million years. There are volcanoes; there are glaciers that are being built. There are glaciers that are melting. There is new habitat being formed all the time over the last 60 million years. And so, you know, while they are good at finding their natal stream, they’re also good at exploring new habitats.”
Now that the salmon have returned, Hereford said the landscape itself could begin to look different, “Salmon, we like to call them the vitamins of the watershed,” he said. “They bring in all those marine-derived nutrients from the ocean, and then they bring them up the rivers, and when they die, all those nutrients get in the system. Animals are moving them, and there have been studies in other places that show you can find those marine-derived nutrients from salmon in trees, and it’s pretty incredible.”
Hereford has spent years working on the reintroduction program of reintroducing salmon to the river and feels fulfilled to see the fruits of their labor in this historic moment. “I’ve been working on this project for eight years, which is not very long compared to a lot of people,” he said. “A lot of people have been working on this project for decades. You know, my job is just to monitor the fish. That’s what ODFW’s responsibility is. And I’m just very grateful to be a part of it.”
“I mean, we’ve anticipated this moment for so long,” he continued, “and we’ve been prepared for it, but nothing can prepare you for seeing that first fish. I think we all saw that fish. It was a lot of emotions and a lot of ‘I can’t believe what we’re seeing right now.’ Even though we anticipate it, it’s like, you anticipate something, but when it actually happens, you can’t believe it.”
