Anadromous Fish of Interest

Many of the fish in the Columbia River have an anadromous life cycle. This means that they spend a portion of their life in the ocean, where food is more abundant, but return to their home streams to spawn. It is this need to return to their ancestral spawning grounds that creates controversy around the damming of the River. There is a great deal of research done and money spent to attempt to keep these populations healthy.

Our work this summer has been intended primarily to protect the Columbia River salmon populations. The species of greatest interest are Chinook, Chum, Coho, Pink, Sockeye, and Steelhead (steelhead were grouped with trout until the '90s, when they were reclassified in the salmon genus). These fish are where the money is, both in terms of funding and in terms of cultural and commercial value. These are the fish that everyone wants, particularly the Chinook or King Salmon. I've been told that they are the tastiest. I've only had the chance to try sockeye and steelhead, both of them caught and smoked by Melissa and her boyfriend, Steve. Both were delicious, of course.

In addition to salmon, there are a few other species of anadromous fish that are of interest to the Corps of Engineers. The three I am going to talk about today are: Lamprey, Sturgeon, and American Shad.


Lamprey, while ugly fish, are of interest as a traditional food source for the local tribes, and as a source of fish meal to feed hatchery salmon. The lamprey pass through in great abundance over a couple of days, and the seagulls enjoy eating them at least at much as they do the salmon, perhaps even more. On the days of lamprey outmigration, the seagulls would gather in the hundreds. Either they are more delicious than salmon, or they are simply easier prey.

The lamprey face all of the same problems as the salmon, but receive less attention. In my brief research it seems as if the lamprey populations are not what they used to be, but because they are not as delicious as salmon, they are perhaps not in as great danger.


Sturgeon as incredible fish. They are prehistoric in appearance and grow to incredible size. They are bottom-feeders, but they are fond of swimming to the surface and leaping out of the water. No one is really sure why they do this, but it is incredible to see. There are a number of giant sturgeon near the dam, and it seems that on warm days they are more active. I have seen many sturgeon at least ten feet in length leap out of the water while I was watching the gulls.

Sturgeon are also affected by the dams. The biggest problems sturgeons have with the dams is that the fish passage systems are not built for creatures of their size. The smaller sturgeon are able to pass upstream past the dams, but the large ones, once they move downstream, are unable to travel back up. This has been noted, and occasionally large sturgeon are carried upstream past the dams. You would think that the small sturgeon would travel upstream and fill that niche, but perhaps they are also less likely to use the fish passage systems because they are bottom-feeders, and rarely come to the surface except to leap occasionally.


Of greatest interest to me here are the American Shad. Growing up, shad were one of the first fish I was introduced to. We had a creek behind our house, and each spring the shad would run up it. There was a small dam that they had to swim up, and we would stand out there and pick them out of the water with dip nets or our bare hands, depending on how bold we were feeling.

Later, I learned that American Shad are a protected species in the area, and that only local tribes are allowed to take them. And, of course, that shad roe is considered a delicacy.

During my first week in Oregon, American Shad were brought up, and I asked my boss, Nathan, how strict the regulations are on them out here. As it turns out, American Shad are hugely invasive out here. There are no strict regulations about fishing them, and he had never heard of anyone eating them. He also mentioned that they may have been renamed from Eastern Shad to make them sound less like an invasive species.

I think the American Shad situation is very interesting. Back east, they are strictly protected. Here, where salmon is king, they are unregulated and ignored. The salmon populations are barely hanging on, and money is poured into keeping them commercially viable. Meanwhile, the shad seem to have no trouble coping with the fish passage systems here. Sounds to me like we need to turn the local fishing community on to the practice of eating shad roe.