Steelhead runs plummet to historically low levels on Santiam, Willamette

Zach Urness
Statesman Journal
Uriah Kuehl shows off a steelhead he caught near Mill City on the North Santiam River.

It’s been a historically bad year for one of Oregon’s most beloved fish on the Santiam and Willamette river systems.

Steelhead, both native and hatchery-raised, are returning in the lowest numbers since fish counts began in the 1970s, fisheries managers said.

“The steelhead run has basically crashed,” said Dave Carpenter, a fishing guide on the North Santiam River. “We’ve seen ups and downs over the years, as you do any place. But this is the first year we’ve seen such a dramatic drop. We’ve never seen anything even close to this bad.”

In an average year, about 5,600 wild winter steelhead are counted crossing Willamette Falls. This year, it was around 800.

Hatchery-raised summer steelhead usually return about 18,000 fish per year. This year, the count stands at 1,100 (although fish will continue to be counted through July). 

“We’ve known this was coming,” said Bruce McIntosh, deputy fish chief  of inland fisheries for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “And it’s been as bad or worse than we thought." 

Two main factors have led to the decline, McIntosh said. Four years of poor ocean conditions — including the so-called “blob” of warm water in the Pacific Ocean — played a big role. Multiple years of drought, including the historic drought of 2015, only made the problem worse.

In other words, steelhead that migrated to the ocean as smolts around 2013 have found precious little food.

“The fish we’ve seen coming back are often skinny and clearly struggling to make a living out there,” McIntosh said.

At the same time runs have dropped, the number of sea lions feasting on steelhead at Willamette Falls has increased. McIntosh said sea lions ate 20 to 25 percent of the steelhead run this year.

“That’s off the charts,” he said. “While passage at federal dams remain the primary constraint to recovery for winter steelhead, California sea lions have emerged as a significant new threat to their survival in the last decade.”

ODFW seeking permit to kill fish-eating sea lions at Willamette Falls

It's unclear whether steelhead numbers will rebound next year. While there're some signs of ocean conditions recovering, fish runs during the next two years will likely be smaller than normal, McIntosh said. 

New rules to save steelhead? 

The question officials and local guides are grappling with is whether regulation changes limiting fishing could help the beleaguered fish. 

Carpenter, a fishing guide on the Santiam, said he's stopped offering steelhead trips even though it's a major part of his business. 

"This year I canceled five steelhead trips just because I could see the writing on the wall,"  Carpenter said. "It's taking money out of my pocket, but it was easy to see the fish weren't coming. Protecting this resources far outweighs my personal gain."  

The number of steelhead returning to the North Santiam is at its lowest level in recorded history.

Carpenter said ODFW should take more proactive action.

He's worried spawning fish could be accidentally caught and injured by anglers targeting trout, salmon and hatchery summer steelhead. He suggested a fishing closure during winter steelhead spawning, "or at least move to artificial fly, lure and single hook during that period," he said. 

"In a typical year, people are out throwing gobs of bait for spring chinook and summer steelhead," he said. "The chance of a (wild winter fish) being accidentally caught or unknowingly harvested is pretty high.

"These fish have worked hard to get up here. They're often not in good shape and a 20-minute fight could be the end of them." 

McIntosh said ODFW doesn’t have any plans to curtail fishing at this point. He said officials have talked about it, but concluded winter steelhead aren't in enough jeopardy from anglers to justify action. 

"The winter fish are pretty much done spawning and out of the system by now," he said. "The overlap with summer steelhead and chinook fishing is pretty short. We've had a lot of discussion and could do something in the future, but at this point, we're not going to do something that unduly constrains people's ability to go fishing." 

Steelhead numbers over the past 20 years at Willamette Falls

Wild/native winter steelhead counts 

1997: 4,544

1998: 3,678

1999: 6,904

2000: 4,761

2001: 12,525

2002: 16,658

2003: 9,092

2004: 11,842

2005: 5,963

2006: 6,404

2007: 5,474

2008: 4,915

2009: 2,813

2010: 7,337

2011: 7,441

2012: 7,616

2013: 4,944

2014: 5,349

2015: 4,508

2016: 5,778

2017: 822

Hatchery-raised summer steelhead counts at Willamette Falls

1997: 14,907

1998: 12,931

1999: 10,935

2000: 12,518

2001: 26,418

2002: 34,291

2003: 15,834

2004: 33,440

2005: 14,063

2006: 19,373

2007: 14,915

2008: 14,883

2009: 15,062

2010: 25,675

2011: 21,477

2012: 24,729

2013: 13,549

2014: 22,941

2015: 3,894

2016: 21,732

2017*: 1,133**

* Numbers incomplete, as fish passage will continue through June and July

** As of June 15, 2017

Zach Urness has been an outdoors writer, photographer and videographer in Oregon for nine years. He is the author of the book “Hiking Southern Oregon” and can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.