Kokanee on view from riverbank

By Kelly Kearsley
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES Chunyang Lu, center, holding daughter Esther Liu, and with son Arthur Liu, left, watch kokanee salmon in the Sammamish River. The family was given paper glasses with polarizing lenses that make it easier to see the salmon by cutting down on the water's glare.

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On the banks of the Sammamish River in Redmond yesterday, Hans Berge was drawn to a kokanee salmon as it brushed away gravel on the river's bed.

"She's getting ready to lay her eggs," announced Berge, a King County aquatic biologist.

The kokanee are spawning here, near where the river spills into Lake Sammamish, a yearly natural ritual of reproduction and death. And this year Eastsiders can get a front-row seat under the Northeast 85th Street bridge in Redmond. Dozens of kokanee are visible from the bank. Though the county doesn't carefully monitor the kokanee in the Sammamish, Berge said this year's run seems pretty good.

What that means is that conditions in Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish — where the kokanee spend most of their lives — must be good, too.

"They have enough food to survive, nobody's trying to eat them and there's favorable conditions in terms of water quality," Berge said.

The kokanee in the Sammamish River are part a late run which spawns from November through January.

Two other runs of kokanee spawn earlier in the year. But the earliest run, from August to September, is virtually extinct, according to a 2003 King County report. So for salmon watchers, this late run offers the most consistent populations.

	Visitors can get a front-row seat to view kokanee salmon under the Northeast 85th Street bridge in Redmond.

Years ago, tens of thousands of spawning kokanee would return to the tributaries of Lake Sammamish, Berge said. In good years now, the spawning population is less than 5,000.

"They're not in imminent danger, but I don't know what would happen if we relaxed our protection efforts," Berge said.

As people stopped by to see the salmon, many asked Peter Holte, Redmond's habitat-stewardship coordinator, about the salmon's relatively small size, he said.

Though kokanee are similar to sockeye salmon, kokanee live their lives in freshwater lakes while sockeye swim to sea. Kokanee are generally smaller, ranging from 6 to 17 inches in length.

Berge also noted other physical attributes that salmon watchers can spot.

For example, spawning male kokanee grow large humps on their backs and bigger jaws in order to fight other males as they compete to fertilize eggs.

While both sexes are gray and red, the red on males is much brighter.

Watching the spawning fish is a regular event for Ana Pierry, 59, a Redmond resident who lives near the Sammamish River.

On a break from a bike ride yesterday, she stopped under the Northeast 85th Street bridge to take a gander.

"I'm just curious," she said. "And it helps know that the river is OK and it makes it possible for the fish [to come back]."

Kelly Kearsley: 206-464-2112 or kkearsley@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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