Hundreds turn out to Willamette River for Yakama Nation lamprey celebration
OREGON CITY — Several hundred people turned out along the Willamette River on Thursday to celebrate a fish often misunderstood for its style but long revered for its substance.
Pacific lamprey, a jawless fish that looks like an eel, spend years in the Willamette and Columbia River basins before journeying to sea and back to spawn before dying. It is a First Food for many Northwest tribes, including the Yakama Nation who hosted its fifth annual Willamette Falls Lamprey Celebration at Clackamette Park.
The day before, more than two dozen tribal members went to the falls to harvest several dozen lamprey, most of which they brought to the Yakama Valley to share with members. A couple dozen others were sent to Bonneville Dam to ease their journey and be released closer to their spawning grounds without the challenge of the Columbia River dams.
More than 60 years ago, roughly 400,000 adult lamprey were regularly recorded at Bonneville Dam, according to the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. Nowadays it’s less than 20,000, and scientists estimate that lamprey today have lost up to 70% of their historic distribution range throughout the Columbia Basin. The number of lamprey passing Lower Granite Dam—the last dam on the mainstem of the Columbia River before reaching Idaho—has been in the double digits, according to the commission.
https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2026/06/26/repub/hundreds-turn-out-to-willamette-river-for-yakama-nation-lamprey-celebration/