Ives Island Chum Salmon Spawning Area

The chum salmon may historically have been the most abundant salmon species in the Columbia. Annual runs in the early 1900s were over a million fish. By the 1950s the number of chum spawning each fall was between 300 and 5,700. The National Marine Fisheries Service listed the chum salmon as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1999. Ives Island near the Pierce National Wildlife Refuge is the most significant Columbia River mainstem spawning area for chum salmon and, along with nearby Hardy and Hamilton Creeks, comprises one of the two remaining population centers for the species.