Happy about the upcoming spring chinook salmon run in the Columbia, predicted at the fifth highest on record? Buoyed by last year’s record million-plus fall chinook?
Better sit down for take two.
The prediction for 2014 (scroll to the bottom; first topic under "fish runs"),released Friday, calls for 1.6 million fall chinook past the Columbia River mouth. That’s million with an “M,” and compares with a 2013 prediction of 687,000 – which turned into 1,266,400.
Will this year’s return also double in actual? Not likely, but the prediction itself is already a third higher than last year’s actual, so who knows?
Most of the predicted returning fish, nearly 1 million, are high-octane upriver bright chinook.
Still sitting down?
The predicted coho run is also close to 1 million (964,000).
Offshore, biologists are still calculating wild coho returns to the Oregon Coast, but believe they’ll top 200,000.
It’s all a little mind-boggling – great news for wild and hatchery fish alike.
Pacific states and federal fish managers will sit down in Sacramento, Calif., in early March to trot out proposed sport and commercial seasons then make decisions in April.
source: http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/bill_monroe/index.ssf/2014/02/snow_days_rewarded_goose_hunte.html#incart_river
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