One hundred and seventeen years later, the number of wild steelhead has been reduced to a shadow of what it once was. The once steelhead-rich Puget Sound now supports fluctuating returns of just 14,000 wild fish. Even rivers deemed “healthy” today like the Queets on the Olympic Peninsula have seen its steelhead population reduced from 81,633 steelhead in 1923 to less than 5,000 fish. This ubiquitous and precipitous decline has resulted in five of Washington’s seven distinct steelhead populations being listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, with the other two heading towards collapse.
That’s a pretty depressing set of statistics, but it is not all doom and gloom in Washington. One needs to look no further than the nascent recovery of the Skagit to be filled with hope for a better future. After decades of steady decline, in 2007 the Skagit’s steelhead were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, along with steelhead populations in all other Puget Sound systems. But in the last decade, the Skagit’s population has rebounded significantly and in recent years has boasted returns of nearly 9,000 fish per year. If this trend continues, the mighty Skagit is poised to reclaim its place as the state’s preeminent steelhead river.