We smelled the chum salmon before we saw any of them. Those alive were spawning in the channels of Sheep Creek. Those dead lay scattered like hot dog wrappers on the beach.

            The Atlantic salmon climb the fresh water streams of Great Britian, spawn, and then return to the salt water sea. Their Alaskan cousins, King, Red, Silver and Pink, came to our waters to die. But first they fight over spawning space.

The chum salmon have been working the water so thousands of their lifeless bodies, most with eyes removed by gulls, rot and stink on the banks of Sheep Creek. Soon large tidal floods will carry the chums away, making room for the just arriving pink salmon. After that, the tasty silver salmon will take over the creek.