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Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020
At left, Ryan Gomez, ,
a summer intern ,
studying at Green
River Community '
College displays .
a chum
caught Friday .
morning at the
Hood Canal Salmon
Enhancement ,
Group’s fish trap , ,
on the .Union River '
on state 300. g '
picturesd .' '
with Clayton David,
a salmon and i
steelhead biologist.
Herald by
Gordon Weeks '
Countingsummerchum on Union River;
By Gordon Weeks!
gordon@masoncounty. com
For the 20th straight year, volun-
teers and research interns are catching
and counting summer chum entering
the Union River in Belfair to spawn.
The count is being conducted around
the clock from Aug. 15 to Oct. 15.
More than 1,000 people each year
visit the Hood Canal Salmon Enhance-
ment Group’s steel trap on the river on
state Route 300.
The summer chum are “the first
blast of fertilizer,'nutrients,” said Clay-
ton David, a salmon and steelhead bi-
ologist for the Hood Canal Salmon En-
hancement Group.
“They make the trees grow bigger,
the bears grow bigger, us grow bigger.”
David said he is often asked why the
ill 1" {k L.
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Page A-26 - Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020
H
Serving the communities of Belfair, Allyn, Grapeview, Tahuya, Mason Lake,
South Shore and Victor
group focuses on the chum when other
salmon taste better.
“If you want coho or Chinook, you
want chum, because they feed the coho
and the Chinook and the bugs and the
birds and the bears,” he said.
Last year, 1,887 summer chum were
counted on the Union River, compared
with 3,268 in 2018 and 5,810 in 2017.
As of Tuesday morning, 720 summer
chum have been counted, similar to last
year’s pace, David said.
“They are the beginning of the food
chain,” said longtime volunteer Lynn
Fisher of Port Orchard. “They come up,
they take nothing from the river, they
spawn, they decompose The insects
and bears and other animals feed on
the carcasses, so everything is well-fed
because of the chum.”
In 1999, summer chum salmon in
brain.
60-426-441 2
Feed your
Classifieds
227 W. Cota St. 0 Shelton, 98584
Visit Union!
BELFAIR
ERALD
Hood Canal and the Strait of Juan de
Fuca were listed as threatened under
the US. Endangered Species Act. The
next year, the Hood Canal Salmon
Enhancement Group began working
with the state Department of Fish and
Wildlife to supplement the Union River
summer chum run as part of the Sum-
mer Chum Salmon Conservation Ini—
tiative, prepared by Fish and Wildlife
and the Point No Point Treaty Tribes.
By 2003, the Union River no longer
needed to be supplemented with sum-
mer chum. From 2004 to 2015, chum
from the river were placed in the Ta-
huya River, where summer chum have
' been classified as “recently extinct.”
Most of the chum salmon weigh less
than 10 pounds, but some can get as
large as 15 pounds, David said. The
peak is the first week of September, he
Community
. The Union Visitor Information Center is open!
Stop by Hunter Farms and say hello to Kerry in the little red
house. Grab a scoop of ice cream and check out the animals, and
don ’t forget to grab some delicious corn on the cob before you go.
1 Friday, Saturday Sunday 12 pm - pm
1921 State Route 106, Union
Visit North Mason Chamber, Belfair Licensin, and Visitor Center in Belfalr
& Union
360.275.4267
Frank Merrill
Lic #JESFIl'ZZBDO
a
said. '
“After the peak, you’ll see the car~
casses coming down,” he said.
' Steelhead will enter the Union River
in January and February.
Fisher has volunteered to count fish
at the site since 2003.
‘ “It’s a great time for my daughter
and I to sit and kibbitz,” she said. “We
just enjoy the water. The water is re-
laxing.”
Volunteers and interns wear face
masks and distance themselves due
to the pandemic, but they bond sitting
outside a trailer at the site.
“It’s brought people together,” Da-
vid said; ”We get our minds off the vi-
rus. We get our minds on helping the
environment.”
To volunteer, call 360-275-3575 or
go‘to www.pnwsa1moncenter.org. ,
JESFIELD ll
Construction, Inc.
Serving the North Mason
area since
Specializing in seawall
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Bellair WA