Smelt are early

Cowlitz tribal ecologist Nathan Reynolds reported that a test net set in the Cowlitz River on Nov. 23 turned up eight male and one female eulachon (smelt). Another procedure, called a “plankton tow,” found eulachon eggs, some fairly well developed.

“Last year we collected our first adults on Dec. 2 and our first eggs on Dec. 15,” Reynolds said. “It appears things are underway a few weeks earlier this year.”