Last-Ditch Plan Aims to Prevent First Drought Extinction of Native Fish

Noah’s Ark supposedly provided shelter to animals from the rising floodwaters. But at a federal breeding site near Shasta Lake, Calif., the opposite is occurring: The tanks of Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery are providing refuge this summer for salmon nearly out of water. There, staffers are rearing the only insurance policy that the Sacramento River’s winter-run Chinook have against extinction: a living genetic bank of 1,035 baby fish, selected to reseed the population should it extinguish in the wild.

LINK (via:Scientific American)

Best year ever for the Bonneville Dam cam

Check it out

This year's return is very impressive and shows what spilling some extra water can do to help bring back what was lost.

Here are the most recent numbers.

There's also a few steelhead in the mix.

The ratio of hatchery-reared salmon compared with wild-hatched salmon were not available

One year after chinook were sighted— the first in 100 years — in the Elwha River above the site of the former Elwha Dam, adult chinook again have been spotted above the dam site, about 8 miles west of Port Angeles.

LINK (via:Peninsula Daily)

Half of this year's endangered winter Chinooks may have died

As many as half of this year's endangered Sacramento River winter Chinook salmon run may have perished in irrigation ditches, according to information disclosed in a federal agency report, a state agency report and an independent scientific assessment.

To compound the problem, the weakened survivors face being hammered by the mismanagement of cold water releases from Shasta Dam by the state and federal governments.

Dan Bacher lays out the grim details.

LINK (via:Indybay.org.)

The Sacramento is not the only river seeing its salmon under threat from rich and powerful agricutural interests.

LINK (via: Klamblog)

Feds threaten to wipe out future Sacramento salmon runs

Big reductions in water releases from the federal government's Shasta and Keswick dams on the Sacramento River are poised to wipe out a major part of the Chinook salmon run, according to a statement from the Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA).

"The federal Bureau of Reclamation, which controls Shasta dam, is the responsible party," the group stated. "A state water data website says water releases are forecast to decline by 14.5 percent between November 21 and November 29. The loss of this water could kill up to a third of the wild fall run salmon eggs, according to one knowledgeable source."

The Sacramento River is now full of spawning salmon and the eggs of salmon that spawned in the last few months. In order to hatch, these eggs must continue to remain submerged in water under 57 degrees. Reducing water releases to the Sacramento River from Lake Shasta "will expose many salmon eggs to air which will kill them," according to the GGSA.

"The salmon being killed are naturally-reproducing wild salmon, not hatchery salmon," the GGSA said. "Restoration of wild fish are of special concern to the Golden Gate Salmon Association and other salmon advocates including state and federal fish agencies."

LINK (via: Indybay)

Chinook Salmon: Waiting For The Rain