The number of chum spawning in 2003 in the Ives Island area below Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River is a fifth of the 2002 record total.
The number of the species that spawn in the lower Columbia River has been growing over the past several years, culminating in 2002 with 6,194 Lower Columbia River chum counted by biologists in the Ives Island area. However, the most recent cumulative count on Dec. 12, 2003 found just 1,381 live chum, 22 percent of the 2002 count.