Served up smoked, fried or dried, Columbia River smelt is an important traditional food for many Indigenous peoples in the Northwest.
Columbia River smelt, otherwise known as eulachon, are the first fish in the basin after winter, heralding spring's return and spring salmon's imminent arrival. The eulachon holds cultural and ecological significance in the region. Once abundant in the Columbia River and its tributaries, eulachon served as a vital food source for Indigenous peoples who fished the rivers, coming at a time of year when food stocks were low at the end of the winter season.
Small, silver, ocean-dwelling fish, smelt spawn in the freshwater. Once returning to Columbia tributaries like the Sandy and Cowlitz Rivers in the hundreds of millions, their populations began to decline in the 1980s, and their continued decline led to their designation as a “threatened” species under the federal Endangered Species Act, or ESA, in 2010. The Cowlitz Indian Tribe had proposed to have the fish listed as threatened in 2007.
Taylor Aalvik, then-director of the tribe's Natural Resources Department, applauded the decision.
“The tribe just had its annual eulachon ceremony a few weeks ago and there were none for us to dip,” Aalvik said. “Our nets were empty."
Compared to heavily studied fish like sturgeon and salmon smelt, their survival and habitat needs remain relatively understudied by scientists. Smelt spawn in the freshwaters of rivers like the Columbia, then travel to sea for three to five years before returning to the river to spawn and die a few days later.
Scientists aren’t sure where smelt go or what smelt do after they return to the ocean. It’s also unclear how they find their way back to their original spawning grounds like the Columbia.
Still, there are telltale signs when eulachon return to the river — predatory birds, like cormorants and bald eagles, seals and sea lions, which love to feast on smelt, will be seen in large numbers throughout the basin snacking on the tiny fish. Soon, the silvery bodies of smelt, dead after spawning, turn up on the riverbanks.
Sea lions swimming upriver from the Pacific Ocean continue to pose problems for beleaguered native fish populations in the Columbia like smelt and salmon. Below the Bonneville dam, sea lions can be seen congregating by the dozens or hundreds, lounging on small islands or docks, like near Hayden Island, and hunting fish.
Under recent approval from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, state and tribal officials will imminently begin culling sea lions spotted in the Columbia River in an effort to protect fish. The sea lions are known to consume substantial amounts of the threatened fish, and tribal and state officials sought approval from the federal government to authorize removals.
Several tribes sharing geography with Oregon, including the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, retain treaty rights for subsistence fishing of smelt. When strong runs of smelt return, tribal fisheries open fishing to citizens.
Eulachon smelt are an important First Food for regional tribes like the Cowlitz Tribe. Smelt, or Qwáləstiʔ in the Cowlitz language, are at the center of an annual ceremony heralding their return. In 2018, the smelt return was so small that the tribe canceled the Qwáləstiʔ Celebration. Instead, the tribe replaced it with a prayer and calling ceremony.
“In place of the celebration, Cowlitz spiritual leaders will gather at Gerhart Gardens Park to offer prayers, drumming and calling to the Qwáləstiʔ, so the smelt people will know they are respected by the Cowlitz people,” the Cowlitz Indian Tribe said of the cancellation.
The eulachon is extremely high in fat and protein content. The Cowlitz people sometimes call it a “salvation fish” for its high nutritional content and arrival at a critical point in the season.
Smelt season typically runs from late winter to early spring, peaking in March.
Eulachon’s threatened status results in heavily restricted commercial and recreational fisheries in the Columbia and its tributaries. For eulachon, the recreational fishing market outsizes the commercial one. Gone are the days when the Cowlitz and other rivers would be open for months on end, seven days a week, with hordes of anglers descending on the rivers to harvest smelt. The fish were plentiful and easy to catch.
Today, to comply with the ESA, recreational fishing along the Columbia and its tributaries may be limited to a single day or not open at all. Oregon’s Sandy River opened up for recreational fishing for the first time since 2015 in 2023, but the season was limited to just seven hours on a single day, March 30, 2023, to comply with the ESA. Still, when the Oregon or Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announces an upcoming eulachon fishing day, thousands will travel to participate.
Indigenous peoples in the Northwest harvested smelt sustainably since time immemorial, but since settlers arrived in the region, overfishing became a problem. Historically, tribal people harvested eulachon in large quantities during their spawning season, using the traditional methods of dip nets and weir traps. Fishers stand on the banks of the river, dipping large nets into the water to catch the smelt as they migrate close to shore.
Tanna Engdahl, an elder and spiritual leader of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, says the Cowlitz people revere the smelt and how they came at the right time to refill the plank houses and longhouses when food stores were low.
“We counted on the Creator to bring us these blessings when our supplies were getting low through the winter; we had this marvelous little salvation fish that came to us,” Engdahl told Confluence, a nonprofit organization elevating Indigenous voices in the Columbia Basin.
However, the arrival of European settlers and commercial fishing subjected smelt to severe commercial exploitation, contributing to eventual population decline. Smelt are a popular bait fish, often used to catch more commercially valuable and larger fish like sturgeon.
Degradation and elimination of smelt habitat poses another ongoing threat to eulachon populations. Pollution, dams and habitat alteration due to industrial and urban development harmed the fish, degrading water quality, blocking access to historical spawning grounds and disrupting the fish’s reproductive cycle.
Efforts to conserve and revitalize smelt populations are ongoing and showing some promising results — according to the ODFW, the 2023 Columbia River smelt run was an estimated 17 million pounds, slightly smaller than the 2022 run, but still the second-largest smelt run recorded in the river since 2011.
According to ODFW predictions, the 2024 run will be similar in size to 2023. Still, smelt are prone to unpredictable population swings not fully understood. Scientists from the ODFW, WDFW, and tribal fishery departments continue collaborating on eulachon research.
Although some promising signs are pointing towards the recovery of the eulachon population, the fishery is a shadow of what it once was.
Still, when the fishery opens, dipping for smelt provides the opportunity for tribal members to access an essential First Food, to continue the cultural practice of dip-netting for smelt and pass on the tradition to the next generations.
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