Strong Fish Counts in Elwha River

Photo: NOAA’s National Ocean Service/Flickr

A few years ago, MidCurrent covered the exciting restoration of the Elwha River, an important river that provides spawning habitat for salmon and steelhead on the Olympic Peninsula. Dams were removed on the Elwha, returning it to a free-flowing state. Almost immediately, fish took advantage of all the new habitat open to them, with steelhead returning in strong numbers.

But according to the Peninsula Daily News, salmon are making an enormous comeback in the Elwha, as well. Per Peter Segall’s reporting, more than 4,000 chinook salmon returned to the Elwha in 2022.

There’s still a fishing moratorium in place on the Elwha, which has certainly played a key role in the river’s rebound. With steelhead and salmon numbers crashing all throughout Puget Sound and the Columbia River Basin, seeing some positive news from the area is heartening.