Columbia River sockeye run way exceeding expectations

State, federal and tribal biologists have upgraded their forecast of the Columbia River sockeye run to 400,000, a four-fold increase from the initial prediction.

An update on the summer chinook run is expected Tuesday, however counts at Bonneville Dam are consistent with the initial forecast of 93,300.

State biologists reported on Thursday that approximately 52 percent of the summer chinook are fin-clipped. Since nearly 90 percent of the upper Columbia summer chinook hatchery fish are fin-clipped, the 52 percent mark rate is a sign the run contains a significant number of wild fish.

Sockeye return to the Wenatchee and Okanogan rivers of north-central Washington, plus a small number to the Snake River watershed in central Idaho.

The Columbia River Compact on Thursday adopted two additional commercial fishing periods for treaty Indians in the Bonneville, The Dalles and John Day pools.

The tribes will fish from 6 a.m. Tuesday to 6 p.m. July 8 and 6 a.m. July 11 to 6 p.m. July 14.

Tribal netters are projected to catch 5,600 summer chinook and 6,900 sockeye during the two weeks. That would bring their total catch to 13,680 summer chinook and 20,440 sockeye.

That would leave the tribes with an allocation of 15,495 summer chinook and 7,560 sockeye remaining.

The tribes will request a hearing during the week of July 11 to consider additional commercial fishing periods.