Fall chinook spawning in Hanford Reach set modern record

Columbia River fall chinook salmon are spawning in the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River in record-setting numbers, according to the Bonneville Power Administration.

An estimated 200,000 are spawning in that section of the river, the highest number since dams were constructed in the 1930s.

Overall this year’s fall chinook run on the Columbia and Snake rivers is the second best since counting began in 1938, with 1.2 million fish returning to the rivers and their tributaries.

About 50,000 of the fall chinook are spawning in the Vernita Bar, a one-mile stretch of the Hanford Reach. Regional utilities began managing river flows in the 1980s to keep more salmon redds, or nests of eggs, underwater there, dramatically increasing the number of salmon spawning in the Vernita Bar.

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 7:34 PM with the headline "Fall chinook spawning in Hanford Reach set modern record."