How Many Fish Used To Be In The Columbia River?

Imagine floating a boat along a one-mile section of the Columbia River for an afternoon of fishing and casting a line into waters where over 12,000 salmon are happily swimming.

It's a mathematical equation that might seem like an angler's dream, but it's not at all mythology...or at least it didn't used to be.

Prior to the construction of dams like Chief Joseph, Rocky Reach, and the mighty Grand Coulee on the Columbia River during the 1930s and 1950s, historical biologists estimate there were anywhere between 10 million to 16 million salmon moving through the basin's 13,000 miles of water annually.

That natural bounty of fish was more than enough to sustain the populations of numerous Indigenous tribes in the region who lived along the river and relied upon it for their livelihoods and survival.

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Today, both the dams and a variety of other environmental impacts have reduced returning seasonal salmon populations to a fraction of yesteryear's abundance, with a 10-year rolling average of 2.3 million fish from 2014-2023.

Prior to the arrival of the dams, annual salmon runs on the Columbia River were comprised of 30% summer chinkook; 23% sockeye; 16% fall chinook; 12% spring chinook; 11% coho; 8% steelhead, and less than 1% chum. Today's returns aren't quite as consistent and change more frequently from year to year.

While salmon numbers on the Columbia dwindled substantially over a 50-year period beginning in the 1940s, efforts to assist returning fish have markedly increased their numbers since the turn of the 21st Century, although the splendor of their once incredible plentitude has yet to be re-achieved.

Salmon runs on the Lower Snake River have also suffered the same declines since the construction of several dams along its course through Southeastern Washington, which has prompted a significant call for their removal over the past several decades.

While it remains uncertain if the dams of the Lower Snake will be withdrawn at any point in the near future, the chances of those on the Columbia River being taken out are even less, as this would pose an infrastructural nightmare for many reasons.

Certainly, we've all reaped the benefits that the dams of the Columbia have brought to the region since their construction as far back as a century ago, but without in any way vilifying their presence, it's hard not to wonder how amazing a thriving river filled with 16 million fish would be for all of us and our children to see once again. Perhaps there's a burgeoning technology which will one day help in allowing the steel and concrete footprints of the area's dams to salubriously co-exist with the scaly wonders that have been around for millions of years which we all tend to take for granted.

In the meantime, I think it's incumbent upon each of us to remember the words of George Burns during his portrayal of God in the 1977 movie Oh, God! when he said to John Denver's character Jerry Landers, "You want a miracle? You make a fish from scratch. You can't."