Salmon in Piper's Creek

Last Thursday Blake & I met Opa Alan for an outing to see the salmon running in Piper's Creek. The creek runs through Carkeek Park & empties into Puget Sound, all within the urban surroundings of north Seattle neighborhoods. Carkeek is a childhood stomping ground -- many visits with Small Faces Daycare & walking the railroad tracks with Alan. I have known this small creek for decades & it was so exciting to walk along the banks & see salmon resting in the pools, some as big as 15 inches!

 Below is a little excerpt from the Ballard blog about the salmon. They continue to run into December so I hope you get out to see them!

The salmon in Pipers Creek are chum salmon, which were a gift to Seattle from the Suquamish Tribe for the Piper’s Creek salmon stock supplementation program, according to Seattle Parks and Recreation. After two to five years at sea, they are now returning as 10-22 pound adult fish, ready to spawn. Seattle Parks says the returning salmon include fish released through the stock supplementation program and possibly descendants of fish that spawned naturally in the creek. Up to 600 salmon return to Piper’s Creek between October and December.