Chum salmon make their way up Pipers Creek to spawn. The creek runs through Carkeek park, a 223 acre park in a north Seattle neighborhood. The creek itself is less than a 1 1/2 mile long and its watershed is just under 3 square miles. The last pair of original salmon were reported to have spawned here in 1927. Efforts to resurrect a salmon run here began in 1979. Currently 100-600 salmon return here each winter. They are actually hatchery fish raised elsewhere that spend a few days in an imprinting pond of the creek as fingerlings before being released to make their way to Puget Sound where they spend 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years before returning as 7 to 15 pound adults.
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