"Jack" salmon, small chinook males that spend only a year in the ocean before returning to freshwater to try and spawn, are showing up in record numbers in the Columbia River. Scientists are puzzled about why this is happening and what it means.
BONNEVILLE DAM — In the world of salmon, size matters. That's because big male fish have the best chance of fending off rivals to stake out a prime spot on the spawning grounds next to fertile females.
So what's up in the Columbia River? Here, a record number of runt-sized males are surging upstream, a biological mystery that has stunned scientists and frustrated fishermen like tribal hoop-netter Frank Sutterlict.
As the spring run neared its May peak, Sutterlict pulled up his net in hopes of finding a big Columbia chinook, an oil-rich salmon weighing 20 or even 30 pounds. But in a frustrating replay of so much of this spring harvest, Sutterlict found only a small male that weighed about six pounds.
"It's just a little itty-bitty fish," said Sutterlict, a member of the Yakama Tribe. "It takes three of them to make a good meal for everybody."
These jacks are chinook males that spend only a year, rather than two to four years, at sea before returning to freshwater to try to spawn. Their final spring tally is expected to top 70,000, nearly triple the previously recorded high. The jacks likely will represent about a third of this year's chinook run.
During seven days around the May peak of the run, more jacks than
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009279676_salmon30m.html?syndication=rss
BONNEVILLE DAM — In the world of salmon, size matters. That's because big male fish have the best chance of fending off rivals to stake out a prime spot on the spawning grounds next to fertile females.
So what's up in the Columbia River? Here, a record number of runt-sized males are surging upstream, a biological mystery that has stunned scientists and frustrated fishermen like tribal hoop-netter Frank Sutterlict.
As the spring run neared its May peak, Sutterlict pulled up his net in hopes of finding a big Columbia chinook, an oil-rich salmon weighing 20 or even 30 pounds. But in a frustrating replay of so much of this spring harvest, Sutterlict found only a small male that weighed about six pounds.
"It's just a little itty-bitty fish," said Sutterlict, a member of the Yakama Tribe. "It takes three of them to make a good meal for everybody."
These jacks are chinook males that spend only a year, rather than two to four years, at sea before returning to freshwater to try to spawn. Their final spring tally is expected to top 70,000, nearly triple the previously recorded high. The jacks likely will represent about a third of this year's chinook run.
During seven days around the May peak of the run, more jacks than
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009279676_salmon30m.html?syndication=rss
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Capt. Jerry Brown
Columbia River Fishing
http://www.columbia-river-fishing-guide.com
206-920-2428
