Washington Closes All Fishing in Hoh and Quillayute Watersheds as Salmon Returns Fall Short
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has closed all fishing in the Hoh River and Quillayute watersheds beginning October 19, until further notice, for all species in the listed waterways. Fishery managers will continue monitoring river conditions and may consider reopening fisheries if conditions improve.
WDFW said the decision follows coho salmon harvest rates substantially lower than anticipated and below-average summer precipitation, which reduced river flows and delayed salmon migration. Low water levels caused Chinook and coho salmon to remain in lower river reaches rather than moving upstream to spawning areas; while recent rainfall has allowed some salmon to resume migration, conditions remain below normal. "In-season fishery monitoring in both basins shows that coho harvest is substantially lower than anticipated, suggesting that the 2026 return is lower than preseason projections," WDFW said.
Affected waterways include Bear Creek, Beaver Creek, the Bogachiel River, the Calawah River, the Dickey River, the Quillayute River, the Sitkum River, the Sol Duc River, and Thunder Creek in Clallam County, and the Hoh River and its South Fork in Jefferson County, in areas near the Olympic National Park boundary. (GSM, based on the WDFW announcement and Peninsula Daily News)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 3.0，作者 Dirtsc（Hoh River，Olympic National Park）
