Recovery Plan Progress

The Vision

The overall goal is to ensure healthy and harvestable levels of Hood Canal summer chum into perpetuity. Focused and continued efforts will ensure chum are resilient in the future. Today, summer chum salmon are at or near recovery and potential removal from the Endangered Species Act list.

Hood Canal summer chum salmon populations are showing substantial improvement in abundance, productivity, and geographic distribution. The two populations (Hood Canal and Eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca) are considered robust.

Moving Forward with Summer Chum Recovery

The Hood Canal Coordinating Council is preparing a status of threats for summer chum. This analysis will look at what has been done since the fish were listed in 1999 as threatened with extinction and what still needs to be addressed. The report will help the council take the next steps toward delisting summer chum and ensuring chum persist in the future.

The council also is preparing to convene meetings to address climate change impacts, spatial structure and biological diversity, and reintroductions.

The council will continue to work with the Tribal and State co-managers on viability analysis, status reviews, harvest management, and potential delisting.

Background: Salmon recovery in Washington is driven by regional salmon recovery plans. The recovery plans provide the actions and rationale for where to invest and when. Each region reports on the actions implemented related to what is recommended in the regional recovery plan. The information about recovery plan implementation is grounded in the regional organizations’ extensive knowledge of recovery issues and recovery progress.