The 10-year average is 62,339. The Fish and Wildlife Department predicts that more than 201,000 upriver spring chinook will pass the dam by the end of the month. Adding the number of fish caught in the lower Columbia to the Bonneville count, this year's total run will have been exceeded only 10 times since 1938. It does begin to say that we have done some good things in the Columbia River, both in habitat improvement and in improving conditions at the dams. Improving ocean conditions, which have brought colder water and more food for salmon, probably also are a factor, Johnson said.
Conservationists are less optimistic.
They note that most of the fish passing Bonneville were born in hatcheries and that returns of wild, endangered spring chinook remain below average. Biologists expect a large spring chinook run again next year because this year's jack count is high. Jacks, which are young males that return from the ocean a year early, are a good indicator of the next year's run. The count at Bonneville through Monday includes 21,600 jacks, nearly eight times the average jack count over the past 10 years.