Salmon Archives - Seattle Aquarium

Four policies to help salmon in Washington

Posted on January 26, 2022February 9, 2024 by Emma Leiser

Each year, thousands of Washington salmon migrate, swimming against the current to return to the rivers and streams where they were born. If you visit the Cedar River in the fall, you may spot bright-red sockeye flashing underwater, Chinook building a redd or coho migrating farther upstream to spawn. Adult salmon die within a few weeks after spawning, and the salmon life cycle begins again with the eggs left behind. Right now, young salmon may be emerging from the gravel, foraging for food and making their home in the Cedar River, where they will live and grow before heading out to sea.

Salmon are keystone species and critical for Washington ecosystems, economies and communities, as well as for the survival of the endangered southern resident orcas. Yet our salmon populations face many threats, and some species are dangerously close to extinction.

Salmon rely on a healthy habitat during all phases of their life cycle, including freshwater, estuarine and marine ecosystems. How can we recover salmon populations and protect their habitat? The Seattle Aquarium is working to advance several actions during the 2022 state legislative session that would support critical ecosystems and healthy salmon and orca populations for years to come. Learn more about these priorities and how you can take action below!

Marine Shoreline Habitat (SB 5885)

The time after juvenile salmon leave streams and rivers behind and enter the Salish Sea is a critical survival period. But along Puget Sound shorelines, structures like old docks and bulkheads that are either unpermitted or have fallen into disrepair disrupt and pollute that nearshore habitat. This bill would require shoreline surveys to map these types of structures, then enable steps to restore nearshore habitat.

Duckabush River Estuary Restoration Project

Estuaries—tidal wetland environments where rivers meet salt water—are important environments for all sorts of species, from migratory birds to juvenile salmon. A $50.2 million state investment in the Duckabush River Estuary Restoration Project would restore critical habitat that fish rely on, including threatened summer chum and Chinook salmon. With estuary restoration, there will be pools and slow water areas for fish to hide, rest and grow until they are ready for the marine environment.

Kelp Forests and Eelgrass Meadows (HB 1661/SB 5619)

Washington state is a global hotspot for kelp diversity and is home to eelgrass meadows that provide nursery habitat for juvenile salmon and feeder fish. Unfortunately, these habitats have declined dramatically. This bill would enable creation of a plan to restore or conserve 10,000 acres of kelp forests and eelgrass meadows by 2040—supporting vital habitat for all kinds of species in our coastal waters.

Lorraine Loomis Act for Salmon Recovery (HB 1838/SB 5727)

Named in honor of late Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission chair and Swinomish Tribe member Lorraine Loomis, this bill would protect and restore riparian habitat along Washington state rivers and streams. Shading these waterways keeps the water cool and clean, making salmon populations and the broader ecosystem more climate resilient as air and water temperatures rise. Stay tuned for updates on this bill as the legislative session advances.

Join us in taking action for salmon!

There are steps you can take right now to help salmon have a better chance of recovery:

If you live in Washington state, speak up this week for salmon. Email your elected officials or call the toll-free legislative hotline at (800) 562-6000 (TTY for hearing impaired (800) 833-6388) between 8am and 7pm, Monday through Friday, to leave a message for all three of your legislators at once. Ask them to support HB 1838/SB 5727, SB 5885, HB 1661/SB 5619 and a $50.2 million investment in the Duckabush estuary project.
Discover other ways to help salmon and protect ocean health.

Read about our other 2022 legislative priorities and sign up for our email action alerts.

Protect Bristol Bay

Posted on July 31, 2020December 19, 2023 by Emma Leiser

Last Friday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cleared the way for permitting a huge mine at the headwaters of two major rivers that feed into Bristol Bay, Alaska—home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery and one of the most prolific Chinook salmon runs.

The Canadian-owned Pebble Limited Partnership (“Pebble”) would extract gold, copper and molybdenum—materials of extremely high value, found in everyday items such as seatbelts, cell phones and electrical wires—through a new open pit mine.

The Seattle Aquarium strongly opposes the Bristol Bay Pebble Mine. Healthy oceans, fishing and Indigenous communities and local economies depend on wild and clean rivers and waterways. These will all be harmed if the Pebble Mine is developed. The science clearly shows the dangers posed by developing the mine are too great to allow the project to proceed. And yet, the Trump Administration is determined to do so, as it continues its relentless efforts to roll back environmental projections—from the National Environmental Policy Act to the Endangered Species Act—and ignores the call for environmental justice.

In the final environmental impact statement released last week, the Corps concluded that the mine “would not be expected to have a measurable effect on fish numbers” or “result in long-term changes to the health of the commercial fisheries.”

The science does not back up that finding. Mining in these rivers would cause both environmental and economic damage. The EPA’s earlier scientific assessment found that the mining activities would destroy more than 80 miles of streams and 3,500 acres of wetlands and generate billions of gallons of mine pollution. The surrounding marine ecosystem, $1.5 billion-dollar fishing industry, and over 14,000 jobs—including jobs held by fishermen from Washington state—that depend on these fish would be put in jeopardy.

We stand with Alaska Natives, fishing communities and others who have been opposing this mine for years. The salmon runs in Bristol Bay are essential to the health of the surrounding ecosystems and sustainable economies. We call on the EPA to follow the best available science and the principles of environmental justice and invoke a veto under Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act.

If you’d like to take action, consider contacting your elected official and asking them to speak out against the Pebble Mine. Here in Washington, Senator Cantwell and Representative Kilmer have already done so—so please thank them if you are their constituent! You can also post your concerns on social media and tag @EPA and @USACEHQ.

Recovering Northwest salmon

Posted on April 7, 2020February 9, 2024 by Emma Leiser

We simply can’t have a week of online engagement about Puget Sound fish without devoting some very special attention to one of the most culturally significant and iconic local species, critical to the overall health of our Pacific Northwest marine and terrestrial ecosystems: the salmon.

Many people know that the broad term “salmon” encompasses several different species. Seven of those are found here in the Pacific Northwest: Chinook (also known as king), coho, chum, pink, sockeye, steelhead and cutthroat. And, within our Pacific salmon and Pacific trout species in Washington state are a whopping 486 distinct populations—each one a scientifically designated, biologically distinct group of individuals (e.g., Snake River spring/summer Chinook; Skagit River coho) adapted to specific streams, estuaries and other conditions.

When people join us for the Cedar River Salmon Journey each October to see salmon spawn, they’re witnessing the journey of a specific group of salmon, through specific conditions that only the Cedar River provides. Because of varying conditions from river to river and from the river mouth to the headwaters, each salmon population has slightly different timing for their reproduction: when they’re in the open ocean and signaled to return, when they start to move upriver, and when their eggs hatch.

Salmon start their lives as juveniles in local streams, rivers and estuaries before heading out to the open ocean. Depending on their species and population, salmon may spend anywhere from six months to five years in the ocean. Some travel thousands of miles during this time. Environmental factors like the availability of food, water temperature, river flows (which influence dissolved oxygen), ocean acidification and pollution all play a role in long-term health of all salmon species.

An additional challenge facing salmon is the destruction of their traditional spawning grounds through man-made structures, deforestation, climate change and habitat encroachment.

Policy action on behalf of salmon

One of the important conversations taking place around local salmon recovery is the improved operation or even removal of man-made structures, like dams, on salmon-bearing rivers. The Aquarium continues to advocate for science-based policies that can help conserve our marine environment, and recently took a position supporting the removal of the four lower Snake River dams to help recover and restore critically endangered salmon populations.

Salmon recovery and the lower Snake River dams

The Columbia River basin once saw 10 to 16 million salmon return to spawn, with the Snake River—the Columbia’s largest tributary—welcoming over 4 million returning salmon¹. But the cumulative impacts of habitat loss, climate change impacts on ocean temperatures, and the construction of 14 federal dams throughout the basin have nearly decimated these fish populations.

According to the 2017 ESA Recovery Plan, by the early 1990s, “abundance of naturally produced Snake River spring/summer-run Chinook salmon had dropped to a small fraction of historical levels.” Many salmon populations in the Columbia/Snake basin have already gone extinct, and nearly all remaining ones are listed as either endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Unlike other dams in the basin, the four lower Snake River dams are not necessary for flood protection. In part for that reason, they have been the focus of discussions about potential dam breaching (removing the earthen embankments and putting other infrastructure out of commission) for more than two decades, with an eye to supporting salmon recovery. The science is clear: breaching the dams would significantly increase spring/summer Chinook returns. It would improve the chance of recovery for endangered Columbia and Snake River Chinook, sockeye and steelhead. It would also require both authorization and significant funding from Congress.

The connection to the orcas

Removing the four lower Snake River dams, as part of a broad suite of measures, could also improve salmon availability in the long term for the endangered southern resident orcas. These orcas spend part of the year off the coast, looking for food, and the science indicates that they rely on Chinook returning to the Columbia River in the spring.

For the orcas to recover, additional measures must also take place in the immediate to near term, including restoring and protecting salmon habitat in other places around the region, reducing vessel noise and disturbance, and reducing toxic runoff.

The draft environmental impact statement

In February, the agencies that operate the 14 dams released a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS). They found that breaching the four lower Snake River dams would result in the greatest benefits to endangered salmon. They did not select that as the preferred path forward for system operations, however, citing the loss of power generation at the dams, among other factors.

Seattle Aquarium position

We are deeply concerned about the declines in wild, endangered Chinook, sockeye and steelhead populations. The science points to breaching of the Lower Snake River dams as a way to improve the chance of recovery for salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia River basin.

Broader local and regional conversations are needed to arrive at solutions in the basin that will work for both salmon and communities. We look to our governor and legislators to help continue these important conversations, and we thank the governor for the stakeholder engagement work that is already underway.

Opportunity to comment

The Seattle Aquarium will be submitting a comment letter on the DEIS. If you’d like to weigh in on the DEIS as well, you can submit a comment in the agencies’ online form by the April 13 deadline.

¹NMFS 2008 Recovery Plan for Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) at II-82