The Salmon Came Late: Freshets Held the Columbia Run at the River's Mouth Until It Was Nearly Too Late
Ilwaco packer B. A. Seaborg says the fish only began running two weeks ago — and the August 10 close season will shut the nets on thousands of them.
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B. A. Seaborg, the well-known salmon packer of Ilwaco, Wash., was in the city yesterday, and in an interview with a POST-INTELLIGENCER reporter said:
"Salmon in the Columbia river are very late this year on account of the recent great freshets and the large volume of water that flowed into the ocean. Nothing like it has ever been seen before. So much fresh water rushed into the ocean that the fish would not come up the river, but played at the mouth until about two weeks ago, when they began to run in large numbers. The catch has been very good for the past two weeks, and no doubt will continue good up to the time the close season for the Columbia river goes into effect, on August 10. The catch will not by any means meet the demand, and unless something is done to extend the time the fishermen will suffer greatly. Thousands of fish will be in the river and no one will be allowed to catch them."
“Thousands of fish will be in the river and no one will be allowed to catch them.”
Columbia salmon runs have been managed by calendar and regulation ever since, and the fight Seaborg describes — a late run colliding with a fixed closing date — is the perennial argument between fishermen and fisheries managers. The 1894 complaint that the pack would not meet demand sits strangely beside the later collapse of the runs; the abundance everyone was chasing turned out not to be endless.
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