It’s salmon carcass central down at Carkeek Park as the salmon are completing their spawning mission. The once active streams have become much quieter as salmon carcasses pile up along the banks. While several hundred live fish remain in the creeks visitors will likely see more carcasses than live fish.
Surveyors bring two Chum carcasses to a viewpoint to demonstrate the survey process to park visitors (photo by Joyce Ma). These salmon were later returned to where they were originally found.
| Survey Date | Live Chum | Dead Chum | Live Coho | Dead Coho | Live Cutthroat | Dead Cutthroat | Live Unknown | Dead Unknown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-10-19 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024-10-22 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2024-10-29 | 30 | 27 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| 2024-11-02 | 251 | 14 | 4 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| 2024-11-05 | 510 | 51 | 3 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2024-11-09 | 661 | 101 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2024-11-12 | 1545 | 236 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| 2024-11-16 | 1045 | 294 | 7 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024-11-19 | 1055 | 364 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2024-11-23 | 545 | 263 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2024-11-26 | 205 | 505 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Yearly Chum Total | Chum Calc Date | Yearly Coho Total | Coho Calc Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2143 | 2024-11-19 | 87 | 2024-11-23 |
We’ve been slowly catching up on surveying the unheard of amount of salmon carcasses. As we continue to process carcasses we expect the totals to go up unless too many carcasses were washed out by rain and current.
These plots demonstrate we’re well past the peak of the run and are approaching the end of salmon season. While the creeks are quieting down we’re hopeful in the next couple months that salmon alevin will be emerging from the thousands of eggs laid in Carkeek.
These scatter plots are interactive. Locations are approximate and based on where the data recorder is standing. Not all entries will have location set
Salmon carcasses are piling up in logjams and shallow water. Some small areas have had over 100 carcasses.
Thanks again to our volunteers for gathering this data!