September 18, 2024 — Earlier this summer, the record return of sockeye salmon on the Columbia River looked to be doomed by water too warm to pass. But the run got a well-timed break from the heat.
The Fish Passage Center recorded an astonishing 755,909 sockeye over Bonneville Dam this year, smashing the 10-year average return of 329,570. About three-quarters of those fish were headed to their Canadian spawning grounds via the Okanogan River.
The huge success of this year’s run was helped by better management by dam operators of water conditions in the Columbia on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. It helped a boomlet of baby sockeye make it to the sea, where improved ocean conditions also contributed. Implementation of a fish water management tool since 2014 has been key in turning this run of salmon around from near extinction in 1994 to one of the strongest in the Columbia Basin — despite crossing nine dams.