We're presently beginning an acoustic tracking study of char in the Snohomish Basin for the Corps of Engineers. The Corps wants to know the migratory behavior of these fish so they can conduct maintenance dredging in navigation channels without disturbing their habitats or migratory timing.

We've put out hydrophones in several locations in the Snohomish River (little black boxes with a microphone extending in the river; if you see one, please don't disturb it) to detect fish as they're migrating up and downstream. We catch the fish in overwintering areas, plant the tags on them and release them. We're currently in the early stages of the project; we've just begun tagging fish.

Hopefully we'll be able to get a clearer idea of how, where, and when the fish move. Outmigration from freshwater areas to salt is likely occurring now and will continue through the spring. The most interesting thing about these anadromous char is the highly plastic or variable nature of their migratory behavior. They don't appear to migrate in large gluts like salmon, or even steady trickles, like steelhead. They appear to migrate either slowly as a group or move widely spaced over time, following feeding opportunities.

They spawn every year (or every other year) so the fish are divided into two components - mature adults and immature subadults. The adults spawn in headwater streams during the fall, and move back down to marine areas by spring. The movement back downstream appears to be slow, probably feeding on loose salmon eggs of fall spawning salmon. Only a few months, if that, are spent in saltwater before moving back to freshwater in the summer, moving again to headwater streams.

The immature subadults, instead of migrating to headwaters, move instead to lower river environments. In the Snohomish R., they seem to like areas around the head of tide. They spend the winter in these areas, before again migrating back downstream to salt water in the spring. The subadults make this short trip from head of tide to nearshore marine areas a couple of times before migrating to the upper watersheds to spawn. The subadults may also move upstream following spawning salmon, but probably come back to head of tide areas to overwinter.

Rod and reel, give me a steelhead; but for study, the char are much more interesting!