Dear HCN,
I happen to work in the
watershed where the salmon picture was taken for Heard around the
West (HCN, 4/29/02: Heard around the West). As a matter of
clarification, the “car-dodging salmon” are not a “spring
phenomenon” and they were not trying to “get back to the river.”
This is a picture of a hatchery chum salmon (Oncorhynchus
keta) lost in the disturbed, dysfunctional, and developed
floodplain of the Skokomish River. It actually was homing back to
the hatchery where it is treated like a commodity. Instead, during
fall high flow events, many of the local creeks and ditches flood,
allowing the fish access to agricultural fields and road crossings.
Chum salmon are fall spawners and are not present in the river as
adults in the spring. The only adult salmonids in the river in the
spring are resident bull char or anadromous steelhead. These “lost”
chum actually spawn in the agriculture fields near the road, as
their spawn timing instinct tells them and their acceptance of fine
substrate allows them.
All of these fish actually
die on the floodplain (disturbed cow pasture) after successfully or
unsuccessfully depositing their eggs in the field. All of these
redds (egg nests) are unsuccessful, as these fields dry up once the
flood recedes. Basically, these lost fish and their eggs end up
fertilizing the agricultural field with their nutrients and provide
a feast for gulls and bald eagles. This valley has become an ironic
tale of the plight of salmon, as native-wild chum salmon once
provided these same ecosystem services. Unfortu-nately, these fish
are now close to gone in this valley. Maybe the river is just
trying to recover its fish and its
soul?
Jeff
Shellberg
Shelton, Washington
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Why did the salmon cross the road: The real story.
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