“The restoration of sockeye salmon to the Yakima River Basin is a significant step to the people of the Yakama Nation” said Ralph Sampson, Jr., chairman of the Yakama Nation. “For centuries the Sockeye took care of our people until it was carelessly extirpated from this river. From this day forward this precious resource will once again call the Yakima River and these beautiful mountain lakes and streams home.”

Historically, the Yakima Basin supported annual return of 200,000 sockeye. But they were rendered extinct in 1906 as development transitioned upper Yakama Basin lakes into reservoirs with dams lacking fish passage. Lake Cle Elum – one such affected lake approximately 80 miles East of Seattle, Washington - is now once again an essential part of sockeye salmon’s survival serving as a nursery for developing young sockeye.

“The extirpation of these fish was a travesty and their reintroduction should have occurred decades ago,” said Mark Johnston, research scientist with the Yakama Nation’s Fisheries Program. “Today the Yakama Nation is righting a wrong that has continued for over a century.”

“What we have started here today is the first step to providing for the reintroduction of extirpated species and juvenile and adult fish passage at all the blockages created over the past century,” explained Chair Sampson. “The progeny of these fish will someday feed the bodies and spirits of our Yakama people and re-create an inter-relationship between the sockeye salmon and Yakama people that existed since time immemorial.”

The adult sockeye, called “Blue Backs” by tribal members because of their bright “blue” backs during their migration, are part of the mainstem Columbia’s run of 183,800 returning adults. The sockeye released today were trapped earlier in the day at Grant County PUD’s Priest Rapids Dam on the Columbia and transported to Lake Cle Elum via a fish transport truck. Today’s reintroduction is the first step in a multi-year effort to permanently restore sockeye to the basin.