OLYMPIA -- The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) will close fishing on Big Soos Creek (King County) beginning at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26.

The emergency closure is being imposed to protect coho, which are now arriving at the Soos Creek hatchery. South Sound coho estimates have been downgraded from 400,000 to 258,000 fish, leaving no sizeable surplus for fishing. Also, this year's returning coho are smaller than average and more fish than ususal will be required to obtain the needed number of eggs at the hatchery.

A run of hatchery chinook salmon, the target of an earlier experimental fishery, is now over.