Salmon Drumming – October 25, 2026
Ardent fishers on the beach at Lincoln Park are catching robust coho, so with high hopes, we are preparing for spawning season on Fauntleroy Creek.
Salmon
COHO SPAWNERS IN THE COVE
Fishers have been catching robust coho off the beach at Lincoln Park since mid September – evidence that spawners are gathering to come into Fauntleroy Creek.
PRESCHOOL SCIENTISTS
Four-year-olds from the Urban Nature Preschool got a taste of environmental research in April when they counted and measured stonefly exoskeletons in lower Fauntleroy Creek. Students have been doing the annual survey since 2000 to track how much food is available to juvenile coho and how clean the water is. With support from teachers and …
DOCUMENTING OUR SMOLTS
Soft net traps are now installed in the upper and lower creek so that volunteers can count how many coho smolts head to saltwater. Monitors will be checking each trap twice daily through May. Begun in 2003, this annual study documents how well juveniles survive during their year in the creek. The 4”-5” long “teenagers” …
NEXT GENERATION ON THE WAY
In November, watchers documented one spawning pair among the nine adults that came into the lower creek. Soon volunteers will tart monitoring the area for the next generation of coho salmon. Just as eyed eggs have done in Salmon in the Classroom tanks across West Seattle, that pair’s offspring will have hatched into alevin. When …
FINALLY SPAWNERS SPAWNING
FINALLY SPAWNERS SPAWNING Salmon Watch 2025 got under way on Oct. 26 but our coho spawners toyed for days before making landfall, much to the advantage of hungry seals in the cove. As of Nov. 6, 30 volunteer watchers had recorded eight fish and witnessed spawning behavior, prompting our scheduling of an open creek on …
PREVIEW OF SPAWNING SEASON
Salmon Watch 2025 to document coho spawners in Fauntleroy Creek will get under way on Sunday, Oct. 26, with the annual drumming to call in spawners. The circle will form at 4 pm in the parking area just off the intersection of SW Director and upper Fauntleroy Way SW. Bring a drum of any kind for this half-hour, …
SMOLT MONITORING UNDER WAY
SMOLT MONITORING UNDER WAY Volunteers are monitoring traps twice daily in the upper and lower creek to document how many coho smolts leave for nearshore habitat, where they will gain size before venturing farther out for their two years in saltwater. How many survive their year in the creek is an indication of water …
FIRST SIGHTING OF ‘HOME HATCH’
On Feb. 26, volunteer monitors sighted 15 active “home hatch” fry darting around in lower Fauntleroy Creek – evidence that at least some eggs left last fall by coho spawners survived the winter. Spawners had left them under a blanket of loose gravel for protection. The eggs hatched into alevin equipped with a yolk sac …
SPAWNING SEASON OVER (AGAIN)
Shortly after calling Salmon Watch 2024 a done deal on Nov. 10 with 19 coho spawners, more began streaming into lower Fauntleroy Creek.