Columbia River Chum Salmon

Life History - Chum Salmon are an anadromous fish species that spend the majority of their adult lives in the ocean before migrating back to freshwater streams to spawn and die. Adults typically return to the Columbia River to spawn from late October through early December cued by fall rains, with fry outmigrating from streams soon after emergence in spring. After a brief estuary residence, fry enter the ocean in late spring and spend 3 to 5 years in the ocean before repeating the life cycle. Learn more.
The Decline: Beginning in the 1930s through the 1940s, Chum Salmon declined in abundance and distribution in the Columbia River (CR). Causes included loss of spawning habitat, loss of access to spawning habitat, altered hydrology from diking, channelization, and construction and operation of large dams, changes to estuarine ecology, predation, and over harvest. From historic returns of over a million adults today only 100s to 1000s of Chum return each year -- a 90% loss of historic populations..
Current Status: Remaining populations primarily occur on the Washington side of the CR, with Oregon returns so low that they a re considered functionally extirpated (ODFW 2006; McElhanyet al. 2007). Moreover, the historic distribution up to Celi lo Falls has been reduced to isolated populations below Bonneville Dam. In response to these declines, CR Chum Salmon vvere listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1999 (NMFS 1999). Click to learn more.
Ecological Void: Loss of Chum Salmon (Chum) has had important ecological consequences in the CR. Chum typically spawn in the lowest reaches of tributaries to the CR or in the mainstem CR in shallow water, and their spawning activity can help in important stream functions such as gravel cleaning and fine sediment transport. Also, Chum carcasses provide an important marine-derived nutrient addition to streams and riparian areas which primarily benefit other salmonid species.
Recovery: Given the importance of Chum Salmon, it is a major priority of ODFW to rebuild historic populations on the Oregon side of the CR. To this end, ODFW developed a Chum Salmon recovery strategy {ODFW 2010) with the objectives of {1) identifying and addressing limiting factors, (2) re-establishing self-sustaining, naturally reproducing Chum Salmon populations, and (3) monitoring the effectiveness of our strategy.