YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — Fisheries biologist in the Pacific Northwest are cheering a record return of coho salmon to the upper and middle Columbia River basin this year.
Biologists have been working for years to reintroduce coho to the region by increasing numbers in hatcheries, improving dam passage and restoring habitat on tributaries where the fish spawn.
Those efforts, combined with improved ocean conditions, are credited with the high returns this year. Ten years ago, 12 adult coho returned past Rock Island Dam near Wenatchee. This year, the Bonneville Power Administration says 19,805 passed the dam.
Most of the returning fish are hatchery fish.
Coho in the lower Columbia River are a threatened species, but upriver coho never received protection under the Endangered Species Act because there were no fish left to protect.
