Endangered chinook

Oh boy!

The Northern California and Southern Oregon stock of Chinook have been hurting for quite a while. There has been a lot of work done on the Klamath River to return it to a better condition for the chinook. The Sacramento River and the Bay area is another area that needs attention, and it seems to be getting it. It's all part of the solution, but to solve the problem they need a broad multi-faceted approach that looks at ocean conditions along with the river conditions.

https://norcalwater.org/2020/11/12/...ill-aid-salmon-in-the-upper-sacramento-river/

Back in 2009 they banned the retention of chinook up past Newport. It was reopened in 2010.

If the Northern Oregon/Columbia River chinook along with steelhead are to remain viable, ODF&W needs to take a serious look at banning commercial gillnetting on the Columbia. ODF&W has been incredibly stubborn about this.

Hundreds of thousands of salmon dead from ‘gas bubble disease’ in US river


https://www.theguardian.com/environ...hundreds of,extreme changes in water pressure.

SparkyofSoCal said:

Hundreds of thousands of salmon dead from ‘gas bubble disease’ in US river


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/05/salmon-klamath-river-dam-removal-project#:~:text=As many as hundreds of,extreme changes in water pressure.

Click to expand...

those are extra chinook fry, not smolts, planted as part of the dam removal process, an attempt to 'jump start' the new runs that will return to the upper Klamath. This sort of loss was caused by them needing to pass through a temporary tunnel and it was not unexpected.

another way to look at it- ANY of these fry making it to adulthood and returning to above the former location of Iron Gate dam will be a bonus.

SparkyofSoCal said:

Hundreds of thousands of salmon dead from ‘gas bubble disease’ in US river


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/05/salmon-klamath-river-dam-removal-project#:~:text=As many as hundreds of,extreme changes in water pressure.

Click to expand...

Which was anticipated as a possibility. Theres still nearly 3.5 million fish in their hatchery to be released at certain stages, both below Iron Gate and after its removal.

"CDFW’s Fall Creek Fish Hatchery continues to hold approximately 3.27 million healthy, fall-run Chinook salmon. Additional releases are planned later in the month.

The annual fall-run Chinook salmon production goal for the hatchery is to raise and release 3.25 million fish – 1.25 million released as fry, 1.75 million as smolts, and 250,000 as yearlings. The additional stock of fall-run Chinook salmon remaining in the hatchery exceeds the annual production goal and will help offset losses experienced with the initial release of fry."

https://wildlife.ca.gov/News/Archiv...gas-bubble-disease-in-klamath-river#gsc.tab=0