Okanagan River salmon eyed for endangered-species protection

A fisheries agency is asking for public input on whether to list a salmon from the Columbia River Basin as an endangered species.

The agency isn’t from Washington state or even the United States: It’s Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and the fish are Okanagan Chinooks.

They are the only remaining Chinook salmon in Canada's portion of the Columbia River Basin.

To reach their Canadian spawning grounds, these fish have to swim past 10 dams on the Columbia and Okanogan rivers in Washington state. (The international river is spelled “Okanagan” north of the border and “Okanogan” to the south.)

Another dam about 17 miles north of the international border blocks off habitats farther upriver altogether.

Canadian officials say dams and fishing in Washington are key factors in the salmon’s steep decline, as well as damage to their Canadian spawning habitat.

Only 10 wild Okanagan Chinooks spawned in 2018, down from an average of 50 from 2013 to 2017 and up from an average of nine individual fish from 2008 to 2012, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Department officials did not respond to a request for more recent numbers.

The Canadian government rejected an independent expert committee’s recommendation to declare Okanagan Chinook endangered in 2010.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is taking public comment on the proposed listing under Canada’s Species at Risk Act until Dec. 5.

About 85% of the Columbia River Basin lies within seven western states. The remaining 15% is in the province of British Columbia.