Little Red Fish of Lake Sammamish
A Positive Story about Salmon
In mid-November I had the good fortune of watching an unusual group of salmon head up a small tributary of Lake Sammamish. I was on private land on the east side of the lake and dozens upon dozens of kokanee were swimming up the creek: females searching for a spot to deposit their eggs and males battling to be part of the reproductive cycle. It was amazing, hopeful, and exciting to see these lovely fish return to waters that they have been visiting for thousands of years.
A variety of sockeye salmon that does not migrate, kokanee spend their entire lives in freshwater. Indigenous people and early settlers considered little red fish, as they are sometimes called, the region’s best tasting salmon. They were further valued because they returned to their birth streams later in the year than other salmon species.
As happened in many locations with salmon, and many other species, the local kokanee runs plummeted during the twentieth century. Habitat loss, pollutants, urbanization, and the construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal and Locks all played a role. Nor did little red fish benefit from the introduction to Lake Washington of sockeye, Chinook, and steelhead beginning in the 1920s. At present, kokanee have been returning to four streams: Ebright, Laughing Jacobs, George Davis, and Zackuse Creeks. All of these creeks and the surrounding land are part of the traditional land of the Snoqualmie people.
Part of what made the kokanee runs so stunning, and hopeful, is that their return is due in part to a group of people focused on the fish and their health. They have worked to restore habitat—including one homeowner personally paying to remove a pipe that blocked fish passage—replace culverts, develop micro-hatcheries (called Remote Stream Incubators), monitor the streams and fish, and educate others.
Recently, Jeff Jensen, a fisheries biologist at UW Bothell, who has been involved with the Lake Sammamish fish, made another important and exciting discovery: kokanee in Lake Washington. Based on DNA studies, Jensen has shown that the fish are true native Lake Washington kokanee, which had long been thought to be extirpated. Because there’s a wee chance they aren’t Jensen hopes to run a DNA test on kokanee collected at a Lake Washington tributary in 1888/1889. (I just have to write that doing a DNA test on fish dead for more than a century is darned, wicked cool.)
Biologists such as Jeff don’t know if the high quality return was an aberration or a trend. Either way it is positive and an illustration that each of us can make a difference in helping to create a better place for all who live here.
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Readers Respond: I like this note: “I cannot claim to be a naturalist, but as I moved into retirement from Family Medicine and am expanding my repertoire, I have settled on calling myself an “observationalist.” I’m taking my years of observing people and medical findings and combining it with observing the natural world.” I was also sent a link to this article about paper vs digital maps (deep vs surface knowledge).
And, finally, happy upcoming Winter Solstice to all.
Very interesting! I spotted some Kokanee in Little Bear Creek in Woodinville in early October. This creek feeds into the Sammamish River and on into Lake Washington. They are gorgeous.