Yes, the salmon are dying. No, it’s not tragic. And sorry, for once, no one is to “blame.”

It’s their destiny.

Longtime locals might stop reading about one of America’s rare urban fish-spawning spectacles right here; that’s OK. Folks who’ve grown up around the fishing industry, particularly spawning fish, know the drill about hatcheries and “terminal fisheries.”

But newbies can be given a one-time pass for getting anxious and even angry over seeing schools of chinook salmon dying in shallow pools below the lower falls of Whatcom Creek, in downtown Bellingham’s Maritime Heritage Park.

Video by Finn Wendt

Interview by Ron Judd