Chinook run worse than expected

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Earlier this year, West Coast fishermen were shocked to learn that the Somass chinook salmon run was estimated to number only 10,000 fish. Now those same fishermen are horrified to discover that only 4,600 adult chinook have returned to the Stamp/Somass system.

Data from the central counter at Stamp Falls also registered more than 2,000 jacks (immature males), which is the only bright spot to this year's return.

According to Jeff Till of Nanaimo's Pacific Biological Station, when all the chinook have been counted, they are expecting between 5,500 and 6,000 fish to have returned.

Robertson Creek Hatchery manager glen Rasmussen said that this year's poor chinook return has more to do with changing ocean survival rates than with fishing efforts, and is also disturbed by the low returns.

"Our target was for 10-million eggs, but this year we'll be licky if we get five million," said Rasmussen. "The return is one-tenth what it should have been, and with six bad years in a row now, it will take years to build the runs back up."

The staff at Robertson Creek Hatchery have had their fill of coho though, when 84,583 adult coho returned to Robertson Creek, with another 7,000 jack-coho with them.