This year’s salmon run in the Goldstream River peaked and is starting to taper off.
Each week, staff from the Goldstream Hatchery walk the river counting the spawning fish. About three weeks ago the number peaked at 25,000 chum counted in one day.
Last Wednesday the staff counted about 14,000.
With thousands of chum still swimming up stream the hatchery staff will continue the weekly walks for a while.
“The coho are still coming,” said hatchery manager Peter McCully explaining they are counted a bit differently. They are counted at a fence and the carcasses are also counted.
“It’s a good year for the coho, it’s better than it’s been in a decade,” he said.
While the chum and coho numbers have been up, McCully is disappointed by the nearly nonexistent chinook.
“The chinook came in early and (the numbers) are disappointing,” McCully said. In previous years less than 20 chinooks were counted. McCully has said he fears the chinook are soon to be extinct in the Goldstream River.
The official fish count numbers will be released in January.