For almost three decades, NOSC volunteers have donned waders and hiked up Chimacum Creek to monitor Hood Canal Summer Chum – an Endangered Species Act-listed run. This annual community science effort is one of the Salmon Coalition's core volunteer programs and gathers invaluable data that helps us get a better understanding of how we can support our salmon runs. But if it weren't for a group of folks who care deeply about these awe-inspiring fish, there wouldn't be any Chum to look for in Chimacum Creek.
The story of Summer Chum in this small creek is one of community and resilience - two characteristics fully embodied by salmon themselves.
In the early 1990s, a large storm swept the area during a critical time for salmon. In the midst of Summer Chum spawning season, when egg-laying is in full swing, the Irondale Road culvert was washed out. The chum population in the creek was already in serious decline, and when the road fill and sediment buried their spawning grounds the run was wiped out. But this community wasn’t going to let the Chimacum Creek Summer Chum disappear…
Volunteers from an organization called Wild Olympic Salmon collected Summer Chum eggs from nearby Salmon Creek (Background: Wild Olympic Salmon, the predecessor of NOSC, played a powerful role in the restoration of Chimacum Creek. The organization also produced “Tracking the Dragon,” a community quest game designed to educate local people of all ages). These eggs were reared at a small hatchery high in the Chimacum watershed to acquaint them to the water. As they grew into fry, they learned to recognize the unique scent of Chimacum Creek - created by its rock and soil, plant life, and other aquatic organisms. One day, this special smell would help lead them back home, all the way from the ocean, to spawn.
The homemade hatchery that brought back a salmon run.
Since chum don't typically swim too far up a stream before spawning, the fry were loaded up into five-gallon buckets and driven down to a location near the mouth of Chimacum Creek. There, the fry were released to begin their long migration from the creek to Port Townsend Bay, then the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and eventually on to the Pacific Ocean. In their three to four years out at sea, Summer Chum grow much bigger, turn silver (a color better suited to open ocean), and load up on the marine derived nutrients that our waterways and riparian areas crave.
Volunteers carefully transport and release the fry that they raised into Chimacum Creek.
Utilizing their unique ability to navigate using Earth's magnetic field in combination with an impeccable sense of smell, 38 Summer Chum returned to Chimacum Creek in 1999. After spawning to create a new generation of Chum, their bodies provided vital nutrients to the stream and forest. Since then, the run has seen as many as 3,000 fish return - sparking conversations about their potential de-listing from the Endangered Species Act.
A Summer Chum spawning event in Chimacum Creek near Illahee Preserve.
Every year, volunteers count every single fish they see in the creek, dead or alive. Scale samples are taken from carcasses, along with biological data like sex and length. All of this data contributes to Washington Department of Dish & Wildlife's (WDFW) escapement models to help monitor populations over time and make management decisions. Volunteers look forward to getting out on the creek every year!
How can you support Hood Canal Summer Chum?
You can help us protect the fish and this process with your generosity! Membership helps ensure that the Salmon Coalition can continue coordinating this community science effort to monitor Summer Chum on Chimacum Creek and collect this critical data that tells us about the state of our salmon run.