Kennedy Creek Trail is a Chum Salmon Spectacle
Thousands of Big Fish Spawn near Olympia, Washington
Nov 3, 2008
About 60,000 wild chum salmon rumble into tiny Kennedy Creek in South Puget Sound each November for their ancient dance of life and death, and visitors to a special trail can see it all happen just a few feet away.
Kids - and adults - get an up-close look at salmon that range up to 20 pounds while taking a short walk along the free Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail, which is located in an old-growth forest just a few miles from Olympia, Washington.
Close to Seattle and Portland
Many Puget Sound salmon runs -- such as coho and chinook -- are struggling, but chum salmon are thriving. More than 400,000 chum salmon are returning to the inlets of South Puget Sound during November 2008. In a good year, more than 1 million chum return to South Puget Sound.
A big chunk of these salmon head for Kennedy Creek, which is a 10-minute drive from Olympia - Washington's state capitol.
Watching big salmon crowd into pristine Kennedy Creek is more popular every year. Thousands of visitors come to the trail each November. The trail is an hour's drive from Seattle and about two hours from Portland.
Volunteers from the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group wander the trail with visitors and answer questions about the salmon and the creek. Classes from Puget Sound schools -- elementary through university -- visit the trail during the week. Weekends are for the general public.
Visitors often say that watching the salmon spawn is fascinating -- and hammers home the need to save -- and restore --salmon runs throughout the Northwest.
Kennedy Creek is about 12 miles from Olympia, and directions to the salmon trail are easy to follow.
Why Chum are Thriving
Chum salmon -- like all species of Pacific salmon -- hatch out of eggs in fresh water streams, spend several years - usually two or three - in the ocean and then return to the river of their birth to spawn and die. The eggs in the gravel hatch a few weeks after the adults die, and the cycle of life and death begins again.
Chum are one of five salmon species that return to Northwest rivers each year. Chinook, coho, sockeye, pink and chum salmon all have similar life cycles, but a small quirk of life gives chum and pink salmon a way to survive the perils of living near humans
Young chum -- and pink -- salmon leave their natal streams for saltwater soon after they hatch out of the eggs and wiggle free of the gravel bottom, said Kyle Adicks, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist.
Other salmon species, such as coho and chinook, spend one year or more growing in the stream, which leaves them vulnerable to stream pollution, dewatering and other man-made perils.
Chums and pinks can successfully spawn in creeks that dry up during the summer, as the adults spawn in late fall and early winter -- and the young fish are long gone into salt water by summer.
This accident means that chum salmon are the most plentiful salmon in Puget Sound, and some experts believe the runs are at historic highs. That is in marked contrast to runs of Puget Sound coho and chinook, which are near extinction in some rivers.
Only in November
Chum salmon have returned to South Puget Sound for thousands of years, but the fish spawn and die within a month of returning to Kennedy Creek. November weekends are the time to see this stunning spectacle of life and death.
Chum salmon sprout big, canine teeth while spawning, which is how they got the nickname of "Dog Salmon." Visitors to the trail can easily see the fish fight for spawning partners. The females shiver as though an electric current is running through their bodies when they're laying eggs. The males also shake as they fertilize the eggs with milt. Hours -- or days -- later, the fish die.
But the eggs grow in the stream gravel, and millions of tiny chum salmon fry will head to salt water in the spring -- only to return in two, three or perhaps four years.
The trail is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through November. The trail also is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Veteran's Day and the Friday after Thanksgiving.
 |
