(This photo and next by Dave Gershgorn. Above, spawning pair that chose a spot just above the fish ladder)

By Judy Pickens
Special to West Seattle Blog

With great enthusiasm, 130 people kicked off Salmon Watch 2025 on Fauntleroy Creek with the Fauntleroy Watershed Council’s annual drumming to call in coho spawners. Dozens of vigorous fish had been sighted schooling in Fauntleroy Cove, and nearly three dozen volunteers made sure their route along the beach stayed open.

Watchers checked the spawning reach daily, school groups came on field trips, and 100 members of the general public came to the council’s “open creek” in the spawning reach on November 9. Everyone’s reward was slim, however. From October 26 through November 21, watchers documented only nine fish and one spawning pair.

(Full of eggs, the last spawner pushed ahead through the fish ladder November 10 without a mate)

While disappointing, such a low count is not unusual for small Seattle creeks. Since Fauntleroy Creek’s first documented pair, in 1994, the count has fluctuated between zero and last year’s record 347.

“These fish need high tides and ample rainfall to flush impurities out of the creek and give them easy entry at the mouth,” said veteran watcher Dennis Hinton. “This year, those conditions did not align, and predation in the cove were especially heavy.”

(Photo by Tom Trulin: Volunteers hosted students of all ages, including this group from the Urban Nature Preschool)

Volunteers will check the lower creek in February for home-hatch fry, then turn their attention to school releases in the spring. Next year, releases will happen in Longfellow Creek because of the culvert-replacement project. In order to replace the creek culvert under 45th Ave. SW, the contractor will need to dewater the site by pumping creek flow into a bypass pipe, which fish heading to saltwater from the upper creek would not survive.