The Chinook Indians arranged their lives by the annual run of the salmon. In spring and summer they gathered along the Columbia River to spear them as the fish swam upstream in tremendous shoals. The Chinook then dried them and stored them for winter food. Today the Pacific salmon is the most valuable of all the commercial fishes of North America. The Pacific salmon has no real counterpart in the Atlantic Ocean. It is confined almost entirely to the temperate and Arctic waters of the North Pacific, spawning in streams along both the North American and the Asian coasts. The Atlantic salmon is a different species, related to the trout.
Soon after it has been hatched in fresh water, the Pacific salmon “runs away to sea.” Several years later, with the unerring instinct of a homing pigeon, it returns to its native stream to spawn. The king salmon of the Yukon River travels 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) upstream to its home waters. It leaps over waterfalls as much as 10 feet (3 meters) high, cuts through churning rapids, and wriggles across shallows. All Pacific salmon die soon after they spawn.
When the salmon leaves the ocean it is in splendid condition. After it enters fresh water the fish eats nothing; and as it fiercely fights its way upstream it becomes thin and battered. The jaws of the males develop into powerful hooks which they use in savage contests for a mate.
The eggs are spawned in gravel beds in tributary streams or lakes. In about three months the fry hatch. For about six weeks they live upon large yolk sacs under their bodies. Then they must find food for themselves. Some species of the young fry hurry away to sea as soon as they are able to swim. Others remain in the fresh water from one to three years.
Five different species of salmon breed in the rivers of western North America. Their upstream migrations start in February with the Chinook, or king, salmon, called the tyee in British Columbia. Their weight averages 22 pounds (10 kilograms), but specimens weighing 70 to 100 pounds (32 to 45 kilograms) are occasionally taken. Some of the Chinook have white flesh, but the usual color is deep red. The Chinook are followed by the sockeye, or blueback, salmon, known commercially as “red” salmon, which average 5 pounds (2 kilograms) in weight. Both these fish fight their way hundreds of miles up from the sea; and they prepare for their run by storing away a large quantity of oil. They bring a high price because of their rich flavor. Overfishing, loss of spawning grounds, water pollution, and competition for water by humans have seriously diminished their numbers.
The other salmon enter the rivers in summer and fall. They do not require so much fat, since they spawn nearer the sea. In this group are the small humpbacked, or pink, salmon; the chum, keta, or dog salmon; the silver, or coho, salmon. These salmon now exceed the Chinook and sockeye in the annual pack.
Salmon are caught near the mouths of rivers with purse seines, gill nets, beach seines, and traps. They are caught off the coast by trolling with hooks. The fish are marketed in various ways including fresh, frozen, smoked, and canned. The centers of the salmon industry are the Columbia and Fraser rivers in British Columbia, Puget Sound, and Alaska.
The salmon that used to spawn in the headwaters of the Columbia now find that their route to the spawning grounds is obstructed by a series of dams. Fish ladders permit the salmon to pass upstream around the dams through a series of steplike pools. No provision, however, was made to pass the fish beyond Grand Coulee Dam, located several hundred miles upstream from the mouth of the Columbia. It was believed that the young salmon would not be able to survive the passage downstream over the dam.
For a number of years all the salmon bound for the tributaries of the Columbia above Grand Coulee were caught at Rock Island Dam. They were then transported to the hatchery at Leavenworth, Washington, or to the tributaries of the Columbia that enter the river below Grand Coulee. The fish were forced to remain and spawn in these streams. Because salmon return to the stream where they were hatched, it was possible to end this operation in a few years once there were no longer any fish raised in the tributaries above Grand Coulee. All the salmon now return to streams that empty into the river below the dam.